ImpactAssets Inc. is a donor-advised fund focused on donating to nonprofits, for-profit companies, and other philanthropic funds to create positive philanthropic impacts. In 2010, ImpactAssets spun off from Calvert Impact Capital, another non-profit investment firm, under the leadership of Timothy Freundlich, Wayne Silby, and Ron Cordes. The founders worked with the Rockefeller Foundation to develop the fund. ¹

ImpactAssets donates to a wide variety of organizations, including non-profits that support left-of-center causes like liberal expansionist immigration policy, left-progressive voter outreach, abortion access, environmentalism, and critical race theory. The fund also donates to numerous other donor-advised funds that support left-of-center groups.

Structure

ImpactAssets operates a donor-advised fund. Donors contribute to the fund, select broad philanthropic goals, and ImpactAssets directs the funds to nonprofits, for-profit companies, and other investment funds that further these goals. Returns generated from investments in for-profit enterprises are later reinvested into charitable organizations. ImpactAssets takes a cut of the donated funds ranging from 1% to 0.125% depending on the size of the donation. Donors receive charitable tax credits for their donations to ImpactAssets even before the donor-advised fund disburses the money to charitable groups. ²

Donors have the option to engage in “custom investments,” wherein they select specific nonprofits and companies to invest in with funds already donated to the ImpactAssets donor-advised fund. Investors who use this investment structure are encouraged to act like “venture capitalists” in the philanthropic space. Custom investments have lower fees than the standard donor-advised fund donation structure. ³

One of the first custom investment recipients was Beyond Meat, a Los Angeles-based company developing a plant-based alternative to traditional meat, which made an initial public offering at a $1.5 billion evaluation in 2019. ImpactAssets’s investment in Beyond Meat garnered a large return, which was then invested in other charitable pursuits. ⁴

Finances

From its founding in 2010 to 2020, ImpactAssets has accumulated $1.1 billion in assets, awarded 57,294 grants to 11,292 unique recipients, totaling $608 million. ⁵

In 2020, ImpactAssets made $414 million worth of investments in 220 new positions, including 12,000 new grants awarded worth $181 million. The three largest grant areas were “racial equity,” focused on financing minority-owned businesses and low-income housing; “climate change,” supporting environmentalist energy technology; and “gender equity,” promoting women’s participation in the economy. ⁶

Grants

ImpactAssets donates to a wide variety of nonprofits, including universities, churches, think tanks, and poverty-relief groups. The fund also gives to numerous left-of-center nonprofits and other donor-advised funds which support left-of-center causes. ⁷

In 2019, some of ImpactAssets largest nonprofit recipients were other ideologically left-progressive donor-advised fund providers. The fund gave $4 million to the Tides Foundation, $1.2 million to National Philanthropic Trust,  $870,000 to New Venture Fund, $550,000 to NEO Philanthropy, $484,000 to the Social Good Fund, and $139,000 to the Women Donors Network. ⁸

In 2019, ImpactAssets donated to numerous groups that support liberal immigration policies, including giving $625,000 to the American Immigration Council, $575,000 to the National Immigration Forum, and $350,000 to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. ⁹

Other left-of-center grant recipients from 2019 include $2.7 million to the Foundation for Civic Leadership, $1.2 million to the Movement Strategy Center, $750,000 to the Voter Registration Project. $525,000 to the Vera Institute of Justice, $267,000 to the Center for Popular Democracy, $257,000 to Earthjustice, $253,000 to Planned Parenthood, $250,000 to the Right to the City Alliance, and $97,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). ¹⁰

1. “ImpactAssets Celebrates Ten-Year Anniversary As Assets Top $1 Billion.” ImpactAssets. June 27, 2019. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://www.impactassets.org/news/detail/impactassets-celebrates-ten-year-anniversary-as-assets-top-1-billion.
2. “Donor Advised Fund.” ImpactAssets. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://www.impactassets.org/our_products/donor-advised-fund.
3. “Custom Investments.” ImpactAssets. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://www.impactassets.org/files/GE581F_IA_DAF_Custom_Investments_Fact_Sheet_2020.pdf.
4. “ImpactAssets Celebrates Ten-Year Anniversary As Assets Top $1 Billion.” ImpactAssets. June 27, 2019. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://www.impactassets.org/news/detail/impactassets-celebrates-ten-year-anniversary-as-assets-top-1-billion.
5. “2021 Impact Report.” ImpactAssets. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://docsend.com/view/6w4he9nwzyfffqxd.
6. “2021 Impact Report.” ImpactAssets. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://docsend.com/view/6w4he9nwzyfffqxd.
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8. “ImpactAssets Inc.” ProPublica. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/262048480/04_2021_prefixes_25-26%2F262048480_201912_990_2021040217861179.
9. “ImpactAssets Inc.” ProPublica. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/262048480/04_2021_prefixes_25-26%2F262048480_201912_990_2021040217861179.
10. “ImpactAssets Inc.” ProPublica. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/262048480/04_2021_prefixes_25-26%2F262048480_201912_990_2021040217861179.