Impact Finance Research Consortium Releases Report Exploring Catalytic Capital in Impact Investing

PHILADELPHIA (Sept. 22nd, 2023) The Impact Finance Research Consortium (IFRC) has released a detailed report shedding new light on the features and applications of catalytic capital, investments bearing a high level of risk or accepting lower returns to stimulate positive social and environmental outcomes that would likely not be possible otherwise. The IFRC is a collaboration of faculty and staff at the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Initiative at the Wharton School, Harvard Business School, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to advance research on impact investing. This report—titled “Catalytic Capital in Impact Investing: Forms, Features, and Functions”—is the latest result of the IFRC’s work to build the evidence base of impact investing.

The report is based on nearly 200 responses to a comprehensive survey developed by the IFRC to better understand impact investing strategies and practices, including when, how, and why impact investors deploy catalytic capital. Additionally, it draws on 21 interviews with a variety of impact investors who reported using catalytic capital in the survey.

“Although much has been written on the value of and need for catalytic capital, relatively little is known about how catalytic capital works and how catalytic investors view their role in relation to the broader impact investing ecosystem,” notes Katherine Klein, Edward H. Bowman Professor of Management, Faculty Co-Director of the Impact Investing Research Lab at the Wharton School, and one of the authors of the report.

To address this knowledge gap, the report provides a broad descriptive overview of catalytic capital, including the reasons that impact investors cite for utilizing catalytic capital and the challenges they face when deploying it. Additionally, insights from the report reveal fund characteristics linked to catalytic capital, including smaller size, greater use of debt, more focus on emerging economies, less support from traditionally returns-focused limited partners, and more.

Furthermore, the report highlights that catalytic capital is not an all-or-nothing strategy; rather, funds often adopt a hybrid approach by blending catalytic and non-catalytic capital to generate positive impact. Indeed, the report shows that over 40 percent of impact funds surveyed blend catalytic and non-catalytic capital in their investment portfolios. As explained in the report, “this variable aspect of catalytic capital presents an opportunity for field-building.” Impact investors can thus be encouraged to experiment with catalytic approaches, enabling them to pursue more or less catalytic deals depending on their strategic priorities.

The report is one of 14 research projects funded by the Catalytic Capital Consortium to promote knowledge and awareness of catalytic capital. “This report offers valuable insight into the practice of catalytic capital across sectors and markets,” says Urmi Sengupta, chair of C3’s Project Advisory Board and a senior program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. “By describing how and why investors provide catalytic capital, it can help others evaluate opportunities to deploy this type of innovative, high-impact financing and fuel progress on some of the world’s most pressing challenges.”

The IFRC’s report stands as a landmark study in the realm of impact investing, offering a comprehensive understanding of catalytic capital’s nuances and potential. As the industry seeks actionable insights, this document will be an important reference, shedding light on innovative strategies to achieve both financial returns and meaningful social impact.

https://esg.wharton.upenn.edu/news/impact-finance-research-consortium-re...

Impact Finance Research Consortium Recieves $200,000 Grant from the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3)

CHICAGO (Oct. 13th, 2021) The Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) today announced awards to support 14 research projects that will analyze the uses of catalytic capital around the world and help build the evidence base to fuel additional risk-tolerant, flexible and patient investments that address critical global challenges.

Established in 2019, C3 is an investment, learning, and market development initiative created and led by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Omidyar Network. Together, these partners jointly fund the C3 Grantmaking program, which is housed at and administered the New Venture Fund (NVF). C3 aims to increase the flow and impact of catalytic capital to make social and environmental progress that would not otherwise be possible.

The C3 Grantmaking program will award up to $10 million over three years for research, networking, peer learning and other field-building activities, with a specific focus on foundations, development finance institutions, family offices and ultra high net worth individuals.

“We are very excited about the momentum and potential of these projects. The C3 Grantmaking program aims to build a strong evidence base about the value of catalytic capital and equip investors with the data, knowledge and insight needed to drive deep and sustainable impact,” said Emily Duma, C3 Grantmaking Program Officer at NVF. “It is part of the C3 initiative’s larger strategy to help push the impact investment field to reach its full potential for creating inclusive growth, fighting climate change, improving health, achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and ultimately building a more just, equitable and resilient world.”

The 14 awardees include universities, nonprofits and collaborations spanning seven countries. Collectively, they will use the funding to study catalytic capital across diverse geographies and sectors—assessing capital gaps for entrepreneurs in Africa, housing finance bottlenecks in Eastern Europe, economic inequality and barriers to accessing capital in Indigenous communities and communities of color in the United States, financing challenges for innovations in science and engineering that promise positive global impact, and more.

https://newventurefund.org/for-grant-seekers/c3grantmaking/catalytic-cap...

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Harvard Business School, and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Collaborate on Impact Investing Data Collection

New joint effort will advance both research and practice in impact investing

PHILADELPHIA (October 28th, 2020) Chicago Booth’s Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, the Harvard Business School Impact Collaboratory, and the Wharton Social Impact Initiative of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School announced today the launch of the Impact Finance Research Consortium (IFRC), a joint effort to collect comprehensive data on impact investing funds. The IFRC’s key initiative is to build a database on the financial performance, due diligence practices, investor relations, legal governance, strategy, and management of impact investing funds across the world. The resulting Impact Finance Database (IFD) will catalyze groundbreaking research on this young but rapidly expanding field.

This effort comes as impact investing is becoming an increasingly important part of the investment landscape, with individual and institutional investors seeking to combine private sector financing with the promise of achieving broader social and environmental aims. The upswell in impact investing is evident from allocations of large institutions, foundations, development finance institutions, and family offices, as well as the increase in funds focusing on private and publicly held securities that seek to achieve both financial and social returns.

At the same time, many questions remain. For example, many impact investors assert that social and environmental benefits can be achieved without sacrificing financial performance, but there is little independent research to support or refute this claim. In addition, the way impact investments are structured to maximize efficacy is an important but open issue.

The Impact Finance Database builds on the Wharton Impact Research and Evaluation Database (WIRED), which was originally launched in 2014 by the Wharton Social Impact Initiative under the guidance of Professor David Musto and Vice Dean Katherine Klein.

“At Wharton Social Impact, we’re focused on building the community and the evidence base for impact investing. Our partnership with Chicago Booth and Harvard Business School will expand and accelerate our efforts to do both. The data we collect will contribute to leading research on the intersection of finance and impact, while also demonstrating the value of collaboration among practitioners and academics,” said Klein.

“The field of impact investing is developing, and the accelerating growth of impact funds makes now the perfect time to collect data on the industry,” said Jessica Jeffers, assistant professor of finance at Chicago Booth. “This partnership has the potential to provide access to fund-level goals and other quantitative metrics. And with access to more data, we hope, will come new evidence-based practices to guide the future of impact investing.” 

Harvard Business School finance professor Shawn Cole said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Wharton and Chicago Booth on this effort. Both schools bring considerable resources and talent to this project. Quality data and rigorous research—on both financial and social returns—will not only dramatically advance conceptual understanding but aid actual practice in this space.”

The IFRC is actively contacting impact investing firms, with hopes of building a large and representative sample of the sector within six months.

About Harvard Business School and the Harvard Business School Impact Collaboratory:

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 70 open enrollment Executive Education programs and 55 custom programs, and Harvard Business School Online, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, shaping the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.

Led by Harvard Business School professors Shawn Cole (Finance) and V. Kasturi Rangan (Social Enterprise), the HBS Impact Collaboratory is a research-led effort to advance the understanding and practice of impact investing by developing world-class educational offerings, supporting rigorous academic research, and engaging with industry to accelerate practice. 

About the Wharton School and Wharton Social Impact Initiative*

Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With a faculty of more than 235 renowned professors, Wharton has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 13,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs. More than 104,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. For more information, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu.

The Wharton Social Impact Initiative (WSII) is Wharton’s cross-disciplinary center for research, training, and outreach to advance business-based solutions to social and environmental challenges. Our mission is to strengthen the role of business in creating a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable global economy.

* Recognizing the emerging needs of its students and society at large, the Wharton School unified several research centers, each with an extensive history of expertise in environmental, social, and governance topics, to form the ESG Initiative on July 1, 2022. A leader in the field of impact investing, Wharton Social Impact Initiative became a part of the ESG Initiative, bringing its cutting-edge research, world-class experiential learning programs, and the Impact Investing Research Lab.

About Chicago Booth and the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is the second-oldest business school in the United States and the first to teach executives. As an intellectual destination, Chicago Booth draws scholars and students from around the world to its campuses in Chicago (Hyde Park, downtown), London and Hong Kong. Booth consistently ranks among the top business schools in the world, and its graduates include dozens of notable business leaders across the U.S. and worldwide. Nine faculty members have been named Nobel Prize winners, three of whom currently teach at Booth.

The Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation is the destination at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for people committed to tackling complex social and environmental problems. As Chicago Booth’s social impact hub, the Rustandy Center offers hands-on learning opportunities, supports innovative courses, and pursues research—all with the goal of developing people and practices with the potential to solve the world’s biggest problems.

Contacts:

The Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at Chicago Booth

Richard Melcher, rmelcher@mtconsultants.com  

Harvard Business School

Mark Cautela, mcautela@hbs.edu, (617) 495-5143

The Wharton School

Caroline Pennartz, pennartz@wharton.upenn.edu