Stockholm (NordSIP) – Given the gigantic US$2.5 trillion funding gap faced by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their prominent role as references for impact investors, it is important to realise that asset managers cannot do all the work on their own.
With more than US$2 trillion held by U.S. companies alone, corporations have enormous potential to leverage impact investments and partnerships toward addressing urgent environmental and social needs, such as closing the funding gap for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, while simultaneously responding to growing calls from corporate stakeholders to improve lives and livelihoods.
In this spirit, on September 22nd, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), in collaboration with PayPal, the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, and Visa Foundation, launched the GIIN’s corporate impact investing initiative and issued an open invitation to companies to engage and contribute.
The new initiative aims to help corporations better deliver on their environmental and social goals, while also achieving shareholder and business objectives, by connecting company leaders with a new set of tools and resources.
“Leveraging corporate treasury for impact investing is a strategic way for corporations to align shareholder and community interests,” said Gabrielle Rabinovitch, Senior Vice President, Capital Markets, Investor Relations and Treasurer at PayPal. “Over the last two years, we expanded our impact investing capabilities, and as a result, we were able to allocate $400 million in treasury investments toward closing the racial wealth gap in the United States and committed an additional $100 million towards global gender equality. We’re thrilled to partner with the GIIN on this initiative and exchange learnings at a time when society is facing complex challenges that need innovative solutions and sustainable funding,” Rabinovitch continues.
The initiative will help corporations connect their financial assets and capabilities with impact investing practices to realize environmental and social commitments, such as the UN SDGs. As part of the initiative, the GIIN and interested corporations will collaborate to produce a landscape report on the use of impact investing vehicles and partnerships as a means to pursue corporate environmental and social objectives.
Interested companies and their executive leaders, including chief financial and investment officers, sustainability officers, treasurers, and venture partners, are invited to participate and sign up on the GIIN’s website.
“This initiative is an important lever to help unlock much-needed capital and technical skills that are currently sitting on the sidelines,”said Amit Bouri, CEO & co-founder at the GIIN. “Corporations are critical to scaling the most promising solutions for the pressing challenges in our local communities and around the world. By working with impact investors, companies can discover new possibilities to help build a sustainable, just, and inclusive future. It is exciting to see a corporate movement, led by our founding partners PayPal, the TELUS Pollinator Fund, and Visa Foundation, that is dedicated to re-defining ‘business as usual’ when it comes to corporate investing and asset management,” Bouri adds.
“The vision behind our CEO’s desire to launch the TELUS Pollinator Fund was to demonstrate the responsibility corporates have to generate more than just profitable growth while also helping to build the impact investing ecosystem,” said Blair Miller, Managing Partner, TELUS Pollinator Fund. “We firmly believe the ability to deploy capital as investments and draw upon the commercial and industry experience of TELUS presents a unique opportunity that can further help deliver financial and impact returns. We look forward to contributing to this important initiative by sharing with and learning from our peers at GIIN, and other members of this initiative, to catalyze change at a scale beyond what we could do on our own,” Miller explained.
“Systemic issues such as gender and racial inequity and climate change call for systemic solutions and capital at scale. Corporations and their foundations can play a critical role in addressing these issues by aligning their capital with their purpose,” said Colleen, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, Visa Inc., and Treasurer, Visa Foundation. “Visa Foundation uses grants and investments to accelerate the impact that our grantees and investees are having on the ground. To date we’ve committed over $190 million across the globe. We are proud to partner with the GIIN and with other impact investing leaders to exchange learnings and take action,” Ostrowski concludes.
