About the Report:
As more and more organisations deploy financial and non-financial resources into the social investment ecosystem, foundations are well-positioned to take the lead as market catalysts and ecosystem builders. This report documents the extraordinary journeys taken by 8 leading foundations in Asia Pacific and the US to scale their impact by leveraging the full spectrum of their philanthropic capital. These foundations are selected to reflect a variety of geographical locations, legal registrations as well as activities.
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**View the Mandarin version of the report here.
Key Highlights:
- Foundations are uniquely positioned to provide patient, catalytic capital in the form of grants, debt, equity and loan guarantees as well as non-financial support.
- The 8 foundations covered in this study have moved beyond traditional grant-making to support and scale social innovations with a full spectrum of direct investments and non-financial support.
- Their philosophies towards unlocking the full spectrum of philanthropic capital are rooted in their local contexts.
- Their activities can be broadly classified into: market catalyst and ecosystem building.
Recommendations:
- Innovative solutions to social challenges are emerging in every sector and philanthropy must be open to new ideas, approaches and tools to effectively catalyse impact.
- Raise public awareness, carve out a clear positioning and enhance transparency to change public perception around foundations making investments.
- Continuous learning is important as foundations embark on a journey towards aligning 100% of their portfolio to their mission.
- Get buy-in from internal stakeholders by asking “Why are we doing this?” and “What do we want to achieve?”
- Acting as a bridge between the global and local market might be useful in educating stakeholders about mission-aligned investing.
- Find the right talent and engage the right advisors, especially those with an investment background, while aligning them towards the foundation’s social mission.
- Aligning foundations’ investments with grant-making might be necessary to avoid mission drift.
