For the first time, Mission Driven Finance is selected for the IA 50 Fund Manager list
BETHESDA, MD, March 15, 2022—ImpactAssets has released the ImpactAssets 50 2022 (IA 50), a free annual database for impact investors, family offices, corporate and family foundations, and institutional investors that features a diversified listing of private capital fund managers delivering social and environmental impact as well as financial returns.
Mission Driven Finance was previously selected for the IA 50 Emerging Impact Fund Manager list in 2020 and 2021. This year—the eleventh edition of the IA 50—marks the first time Mission Driven Finance has been selected for the IA 50 Fund Manager list, a category for experienced impact fund managers with a minimum three-year track record.
“We are proud to support an increasing number of small businesses and nonprofits in our hometown of San Diego, CA, and client-partners locally and across the country to advance an inclusive economy,” says Lauren Grattan, co-founder and Chief Community Officer of Mission Driven Finance.
David Lynn, co-founder and CEO of Mission Driven Finance, adds, “Our platform of opportunities is designed to increase inclusive and equitable access to education, health, and wealth.”
The IA 50 now includes the IA 50 Emerging Impact Managers list and IA 50 Emeritus Impact Managers list. Across all three categories,143 impact fund managers reported assets totaling $116.96 billion invested in a range of asset classes and impact themes. Fifteen managers selected in this year’s showcase reported assets exceeding $1 billion. An additional ten had assets under management between $500 million and $1 billion.
“We’re excited about this year’s IA 50, with its dramatic expansion and diversification of impact fund managers across a spectrum of strategies, geographies, and investment targets,” said Jed Emerson, ImpactAssets Senior Fellow, IA 50 Review Committee Chair and Global Lead, Impact Investing with Tiedemann Advisors. “This group of managers reflects the intentionality of our manager selection process to provide investors with a resource that shines a light on the breadth and diversity of impact fund managers. These managers bring unique and informed perspectives to the challenges impact investing is addressing.”
Some highlights from this year’s IA 50:
Impact Focus: About 18% of IA 50 managers across all three lists focused on clean technology, alternative energy and climate change, making it the top impact theme. Microfinance, low-income financial services, and micro-insurance (16%) comprised the second-largest impact focus. Notably, 12% of funds selected Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as their primary investment theme. The most represented Sustainable Development Goals cited by fund managers included Decent Work and Economic Growth (21%), No Poverty (15%), Reduced Inequality (13%), and Climate Action (9%).
Diversity and Inclusion: While asset management as a whole remains overwhelmingly non-diverse—with approximately 2% of asset managers who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color—IA 50 fund managers are leading with diversity. This is most prevalent among IA 50 Emerging Impact Managers, where 50% reported that 50% or more of their investment professionals were people of color. In addition, 60% reported more than half of their investment professionals were women.
Co-founded and co-owned by a woman of color, the team at Mission Driven Finance is intentionally diverse: 64% women, 55% Black, Indigenous, or people of color, and 45% first- or second-generation New Americans (as of March 15, 2022).
Asset Class: IA 50 fund managers drive their focus on deep impact chiefly in private markets. Managers reported that 55% of their funds are primarily private equity, while 36% are primarily private debt. Private Equity – Early Stage (US), with 22% of all funds, is the most represented focus of managers.
Impact and Financial Return: Although impact investing can offer a range of returns—from concessionary to above-market rates of return—IA 50 managers reported delivering both positive impact and competitive investment performance. A total of 74% of IA 50 managers target market rates or above market rates of return, and 97% reported delivering either inline or above their initial target returns. Emerging Impact Managers reported similar results, with 76% of managers targeting market rates or above market rates of return and 72% delivering either inline or above their initial target returns.
In addition, 25 of the IA 50 fund managers are signatories to the Operating Principles for Impact Management—a framework for investors to ensure that impact considerations are purposefully integrated throughout the investment life cycle—and 18 of the 25 have been verified to date, according to a separate analysis by BlueMark, a provider of independent impact verification services for investors and companies.
“The caliber of this year’s IA 50 lists is a product of the rigorous application scoring and analysis process that the IA 50 Review Committee has fine-tuned through the years,” added Sandra Kartt, CFA, Managing Director, Investments, ImpactAssets. “We’re thrilled to foster the continuing growth of these unique, innovative investing approaches addressing critical issues from climate to racial equity and gender equality.”
In addition to Emerson, the IA 50 Review Committee comprised impact investment experts and leaders, including Lauren Booker Allen, Senior Vice President, Impact Advisory, Jordan Park Group; Mark Berryman, Managing Director of Impact Investing, The CAPROCK Group; Ronald A. Homer, Chief Strategist, Impact Investing, RBC Global Asset Management (US) Inc.; Jennifer Kenning, Senior Advisor, IA 50 Review Committee and CEO & Co-Founder, Align Impact; Karl “Charly” Kleissner, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Toniic and KL Felicitas Foundation; Justina Lai, Chief Impact Officer and Shareholder, Wetherby Asset Management; Andrew Lee, Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing, UBS Global Wealth Management; Tony Lent, Co-Founder, Capital for Climate; Malaika Maphalala, CPWA® Private Wealth Advisor, Natural Investments, LLC; Cynthia Muller, Director of Mission Investment, W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Rehana Nathoo, Founder & CEO, Spectrum Impact; Stephanie Cohn Rupp, CEO and Partner, Veris Wealth Partners; Liesel Pritzker Simmons, Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative; and Margret Trilli, CEO and CIO, ImpactAssets.
The ImpactAssets Investment team led by Kartt conducted the application scoring and analysis process and collaborated with Align Impact on fund analysis.
About Mission Driven Finance
Mission Driven Finance is an impact investment firm dedicated to building a financial system that ensures good businesses have access to sufficient, affordable capital. Built from the ground up with a single purpose—to make it easy to invest in your community—all of their funds and structured products are designed to close financial gaps that will close opportunity gaps. They work with local and national investors to help them create the impact they want and work with businesses and community partners to help them get the capital they need. Mission Driven Finance was launched in 2016 in San Diego, CA, and is a Certified B Corporation.
About ImpactAssets
ImpactAssets is an impact investing trailblazer, dedicated to changing the trajectory of our planet’s future and improving the lives of all people. As a leading impact investing firm, we offer deep strategic expertise to help our clients define and execute on their impact goals. Founded in 2010, ImpactAssets increases flows of money to impact investing in partnership with our clients through our impact investment platform and field-building initiatives, including the IA 50 database of private debt and equity impact fund managers. ImpactAssets has more than $2 billion in assets in 1,700 donor-advised fund accounts, working with purpose-driven individuals and their wealth managers, family offices, foundations, and corporations. ImpactAssets is an independent 501(c)(3) organization.
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