Initiatives ... ImpactBase
Data about the Impact Investment Sector

Global platform for investors to explore impact investing opportunities and explore the market landscape

COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

About ImpactBase

Overview

Impact investment funds and products provide multiple investors exposure to a portfolio of impact investments. According to the Global Impact Investing Network (the 'GIIN'), impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Impact investments can be made in both emerging and developed markets, and target a range of returns from below market to market rate, depending upon the circumstances.

ImpactBase is a powerful online search tool, created to bring order to a fragmented and inefficient marketplace of impact investing funds and products.

ImpactBase provides players in the industry (such as individual investors, foundations, endowments, financial advisors and consultants, family offices, private bankers and development finance institutions) an efficient and organized mechanism for finding the information needed for the impact investing industry to succeed. On ImpactBase, impact investors – both experienced and new – can search for funds that may fit with their impact investment interests and objectives.

Key Features

• Global platform for investors to explore impact investing opportunities and explore the market landscape
• Powerful search capability across asset classes, impact themes, geographic targets, fundraising status, assets under management, and other parameters
• Fund managers gain visibility to the active impact investment community

Who is Impact Base For?

For Funds & Products:

By creating a fund or product profile on ImpactBase, fund managers gain exposure to the global audience of impact investors and advisors. Learn more

ImpactBase provides the most comprehensive coverage of the impact investment fund marketplace. If you are a fund manager or financial intermediary, upload your data today to gain global visibility. Get started.

For Investors & Advisors:

ImpactBase enables investors to better navigate the growing industry. Investors can search for funds and products across impact themes, asset classes, geographies, and other criteria via an online platform.

ImpactBase empowers advisors – wealth managers, private bankers, etc. – to meet the growing client demand for impact investments by helping them to navigate the growing impact investing field. Learn more

ImpactBase enables investors and investment advisors to search for impact investing funds and products, and access information profiles that include financial (e.g., fundraising status, target IRR) and non-financial summaries (e.g., social and environmental impact goals).

Key Benefits for Investors and Advisors include:

• Comprehensive dataset of impact investment funds and products across asset classes, geographies, and social and environmental impact goals
• Database management and profile curation provided by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) - a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing
• Comprehensive fund and product profiles that include key attributes, such as investment asset classes, geographic focus, fund impact objectives, investment style/stage, fundraising status, committed capital, minimum investment size, and more
• Powerful search functionality
• Reduced search costs, freeing up time for investment teams to focus on due diligence, critical investment judgments, and portfolio management
• Enables advisors – wealth managers, private bankers, etc. – to meet the growing client demand for impact investments
• Ability to bookmark/save funds to track fund updates

Getting Started

Accredited investors can now subscribe to the database. Get started by creating an account: http://www.impactbase.org/user/register

FAQs for Investors & Advisors

1. What does it cost to access to ImpactBase? Impactbase is currently offered for free by the GIIN for all eligible subscribers. 2. Why is ImpactBase open only to accredited investors? The Global Impact Investing Network, which manages ImpactBase, requires all prospective users to complete an accredited investor questionnaire and create a password protected account. The GIIN believes these restrictions are consistent with existing publicly-available SEC guidance. The GIIN will periodically release reports based on the data in ImpactBase to show industry trends in aggregate. These reports will be accessible to a broader audience. 3. How often are ImpactBase fund profiles updated? ImpactBase was first opened to fund managers in Q4 of 2010. In February 2011, when ImpactBase opened to subscribers, more than 60 fund managers had created profiles on the platform. New funds are added daily and profiled funds routinely update their profiles with new information about their investment activity.