COVID-19 impact fund launched

ImpactAssets launched an impact investing fund to address immediate needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the non-profit impact investment firm said Tuesday.

The fund, with an initial investment capacity of more than $1 billion, will focus on the immediate needs of small businesses and individuals and companies fighting on the front lines of the pandemic.

The Bethesda, Md., firm describes its ImpactAssets COVID Response Fund as a hybrid of rapid-response charitable giving and flexible impact investing, with "a pipeline of 5,000 partners and beneficiaries from ImpactAssets' ecosystem of ... portfolio companies, fund managers and community banks."

The focus will be on small businesses and individuals in communities hardest hit by the economic downturn; companies and projects working to advance specific pandemic solutions, such as treatments and vaccinations, personal protection equipment and delivery of health services; and companies that have materially advanced progress on climate change and social equity.

While the strategy will evolve as needs shift through response, recovery and reinvention, a key feature will be channeling charitable dollars to community banks and Community Development Financial Institution lenders.

ImpactAssets consulted with The Rockefeller Foundation on the fund's development. "This is exactly the kind of response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has the potential to deliver solutions to the people, communities and businesses that are struggling most," Adam Connaker, a Rockefeller Foundation principal for innovative finance, said in a statement.

Margaret Trilli, ImpactAssets president and CIO, said in the same statement that impact investors are leaning in at record levels to support crisis-related needs. "Now more than ever, the world requires the robust and scalable power of impact investing and philanthropy to support those in need and create a more resilient and equitable future."