Impact and mission investments, which include both below-market programme-related investments (PRIs) and market-rate mission-related investments (MRIs), play a vital and increasing role in financing the ideas, organizations, people and activities that create impact globally.  In June, the Council on Foundations announced partnerships with two organizations working in this area, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and the Mission Investors Exchange (the Exchange).

In partnering with the Exchange and GIIN, the Council will contribute all its strengths, including expertise in public policy and its unique Public-Philanthropic Partnership Initiative, to amplify this conversation across the philanthropic field.

Reaching a wide array of impact investors from pension funds to foundations, GIIN is dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing; it serves as a forum for identifying and addressing the systemic barriers that hinder the impact investing industry’s efficiency and effectiveness. The Exchange is a membership organization for foundations and mission investing organizations that use or are learning to use PRI and MRI as strategies to accomplish their philanthropic goals. The Council’s membership represents approximately $300 billion in assets as well as a network of knowledge and philanthropic leadership.

By establishing partnerships with GIIN and the Exchange, the Council will be able to provide information and resources to its membership in the impact investing arena, expanding on existing programming around grants, partnerships, policy, thought-leadership and impact. Though the Council traditionally has been absent from conversations about ‘investing’, it is entirely committed to ‘impact’ on a global scale, and intends to participate fully, in concert with established voices, in the conversation about impact investing.

For more information
Public-Philanthropic Partnerships at the Council http://ppp.cof.org
Global Impact Investing Network http://www.thegiin.org
Mission Investors Exchange http://www.missioninvestors.org