Dear Friends, Family and Impact Peers,
Thirteen years ago, Charly and I embarked on a journey to challenge the financial industry status quo – the belief that postive impact and market return could not co-exist in an investment portfolio. Today we are proud to announce the publication of Evolution of an Impact Portfolio: From Implementation to Results. For a copy of this report click here. This publication demonstrates that impact investments can compete with, and at times outperform, traditional asset class strategies while pursuing meaningful and measureable social and environmental results.
Without the willingness of our advisor, Raul Pomares, to take a leap of faith and support us in our desire to build a portfolio with measureable impact and financial returns, we would not have reached this important milestone. We are also very grateful to Rockefeller and GIIN for building the tools and momentum around standardizing metrics for all impact investors.
Key highlights from this report include:
- A seven year examination of performance between 2006-2012, breaking down the portfolio by the assets allocated to impact investments. By the end of 2012, 85% of the Foundation’s portfolio was deployed in impact investments across multiple asset classes and demonstrated the ability to achieve index-competitive, risk-adjusted returns.
- Research on 38 of the underlying investments in our portfolio, which accounted for $37.2 billion of assets under management, suggests the impact sector likely holds significantly larger absorptive capacity.
- Impact measurement continue to improve, as current methodology allows investors to quantify and compare their impact to varying degrees across asset class.
As noted in the recent World Economic Forum publication, From the Margins to the Mainstream, more performance data, both financial and impact, is needed in order to mainstream impact investing. We look forward to discussing our findings with our peers and encourage those who are able, to also share their financial and impact results. Enjoy!
Warm regards,
Lisa and Charly Kleissner
