AI3 Brief: Unleashing The Power Of Pensions

Enterprise Community Partners and Insight at Pacific Community Ventures — co-sponsors of the Accelerating Impact Investing Initiative (AI3) — have released a new issue brief on impact investments by U.S. pension funds. The brief highlights public and private pension funds that have pursued “economically targeted investments” (ETIs), a type of impact investment that seeks certain social goals alongside a market-rate financial return. It comes just weeks after the U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees the fiduciary rules for many U.S. pension funds, issued new regulatory guidance that is expected to open the door to more ETIs in the years to come.

To read the full issue brief released today, download the PDF below.

The new ETI guidance was just one of several advancements in impact investing policies in 2015. Earlier this month, Congress authorized a new Pay for Success (PFS) demonstration within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to improve the efficiency of water and energy systems in government-supported apartment buildings. And in September, the IRS issued new guidance to tax-exempt foundations on “mission-related investments” (MRIs), which seek a risk-adjusted financial return alongside social or environmental goals that are consistent with the foundation’s charitable purpose.

In the coming year, the AI3 will work with key partners to identify other high-priority policy recommendations that can meaningfully expand impact investments in the U.S., build strong coalitions around those recommendations and begin to engage key policymakers to usher in the necessary reforms. The AI3 team would like to thank the Ford Foundation and the Omidyar Network for their generous support of this initiative.