Groups Ease the Difficulties of Investing for Social Benefit and Financial Profit

NEW BOOKS

Aggregating Impact: A Funder’s Guide to Mission Investment Intermediaries, by Sarah Cooch and Mark Kramer, examines “organizations that collect capital from multiple sources and reinvest it in people and enterprises, whether nonprofit or for-profit, that deliver both social impact and financial returns.” The report is supplemented by an online database of 1,030 such groups. Those intermediaries tend to invest in a portfolio of groups that focus on a single cause, like low-cost housing, the report says, so that “by placing capital in an investment intermediary, a funder can impact multiple organizations with a single investment.” The report discusses how to decide between making investments directly and working with a group that collects money from several sources, and includes case studies of foundations and mission-investment groups. The authors say that working with organizations that specialize in making investments in particular causes can lessen the demands on foundation staff members and provide crucial financial skills and services, though “there remain gaps in issue areas and geographical regions where no such intermediaries exist.”

Publisher: FSG Social Impact Advisors, 20 Park Plaza, Suite 320, Boston, Mass. 02116; (617) 357-4000; fax (617) 357-4007; http://www.fsg-impact.org; 47 pages; available free for download on the organization’s Web site.