Letter from the Team at B Lab
April 27, 2010   

Last week, at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, the Obama Administration announced the U.S. Government's support for B Lab's Global Impact Investing Rating System ("GIIRS"). 

GIIRS will facilitate the flow of impact investment capital to entrepreneurs who use business to address the world's most challenging problems.   

The announcement of support at the Summit was meant to signal the Obama Administration's desire to drive investment capital to entrepreneurs in the developing world.  As part of this announcement, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) made a significant financial commitment to GIIRS on behalf of the U.S. Government.  

Along with funding from the pioneer of the impact investing industry, the Rockefeller Foundation, these grants catalyzed support from two strategic private sector partners, Deloitte and Prudential - it is fantastic to have this kind of support from Deloitte and Prudential.

GIIRS is being built on the credibility of the existing B Impact Rating System that has been used to assess over 1,000 companies on their social and environmental impact and to certify nearly 300 B Corporations.  

Importantly, twelve Pioneer GIIRS Fund Managers have committed to pilot testing GIIRS with their portfolio companies throughout the developing world during 2010.  These Pioneer Fund Managers include Acumen Fund, African Agricultural Capital, Agora Partners, Business Partners Limited, E+Co, Fanisi, Grassroots Business Fund, Grassroots Capital, IGNIA Partners, Root Capital, Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, and New Ventures at the World Resources Institute.  In the next two months, an equal number of Pioneers working in developed economies in North America and Europe will be announced.  GIIRS will be launched as a publicly available investment product in early 2011.

The press release about GIIRS is below and available for download here.  Also, USAID's release of top global entrepreneurship priorities can be found here.

We want to thank all of you for your incredible support.  Coming on the heels of Maryland's passage of Benefit Corporation legislation and on the verge of 300 Certified B Corporations, the support for GIIRS is a sign of a movement building for the use of business to solve social and environmental problems.

PRESS RELEASE
Impact Investing Partnership with USAID, Rockefeller Foundation, Deloitte, and Prudential to support Entrepreneurs in the Developing World
CONTACT:  Andrew Kassoy, B Lab - (917) 497-3903 or andrew@bcorporation.net 
April 26, 2010: Washington, D.C.

In conjunction with the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship yesterday, a consortium of government, private sector, and non-profit players have partnered to support the Global Impact Investing Rating System ("GIIRS"), a new organization that will drive impact investment capital to entrepreneurs who use business to address the world's most challenging problems.  The Rockefeller Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, Prudential Financial, and Deloitte have partnered with the non-profit B Lab to provide $6.5 million to support the development and use of GIIRS.  Their objective is to use GIIRS to catalyze the flow of private sector investment into these high impact enterprises in developing countries.

GIIRS is a ratings agency that provides comparable and transparent ratings about the social and environmental performance of enterprises seeking investment capital, as well as investment funds that invest in these businesses.  GIIRS ratings will allow entrepreneurs, companies, and fund managers to better serve their customers, workers, and communities by raising capital from mission-aligned investors based on the social and environmental impact of their underlying businesses or portfolio companies.  The GIIRS website is http://www.giirs.org.

A key obstacle for entrepreneurs seeking capital to grow businesses that address social or environmental problems is to clearly demonstrate their impact in a way that moves beyond anecdotes and inspires investor confidence.  GIIRS allows them to overcome this obstacle.  

"GIIRS is inspired by a chorus of voices, ranging from Warren Buffett to Muhammad Yunus, calling for capitalism to create long term value for both society and shareholders," said Andrew Kassoy, co-founder with Jay Coen Gilbert and Bart Houlahan of B Lab, the non-profit organization developing GIIRS.  "GIIRS is a systemic solution to a systemic problem, allowing hundreds of billions of dollars of sidelined investment capital to flow to the world's most inspiring and talented entrepreneurs."

GIIRS builds on B Lab's success with its existing B Impact Rating System that has been used to assess over 1,000 companies on their social and environmental impact and to certify nearly 300 B Corporations.

Already, twelve Pioneer GIIRS Fund Managers have raised approximately $1 billion that will be invested in high impact GIIRS-rated social entrepreneurs, with a particular emphasis on enterprises in Muslim majority countries and women-owned enterprises.  These GIIRS Pioneer Funds will be pilot testing GIIRS with their portfolio companies throughout the developing world during 2010.  The Pioneer Fund Managers include Acumen Fund, African Agricultural Capital, Agora Partners, Business Partners Limited, E+Co, Fanisi, Grassroots Business Fund, Grassroots Capital, IGNIA Partners, Root Capital, Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, and New Ventures at the World Resources Institute.  GIIRS will be launched as a publicly available investment product in early 2011.

"Government funding, international aid and philanthropy grants alone are insufficient to achieve the world's development aspirations," said Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, the driving force behind the creation of the Global Impact Investing Network and GIIRS.  "This is why in 2007 the Rockefeller Foundation launched our Impact Investing initiative to help support the development and standardization of the impact investing industry.  The launch of GIIRS is a critical step in creating the infrastructure within the industry that will encourage investments that generate financial as well as social and/or environmental returns."

In addition to support from USAID and the Rockefeller Foundation, private sector support for the development of GIIRS comes from two institutional partners, Prudential Financial and Deloitte.  "We are honored to have such a diverse and credible partnership for GIIRS.  The Rockefeller Foundation has pioneered the impact investing space; Deloitte and Prudential bring private sector capital and expertise that will accelerate the development of impact investing; and USAID allows us to push our work into developing nations where it can have greater impact," said Bart Houlahan, another co-founder of B Lab.

"Deloitte has already experienced tremendous growth in its sustainability consulting practice, and we anticipate continued growth in this area. Our support for GIIRS is a logical extension of our market leading sustainability practice," remarked Joe Echevarria, U.S. Managing Partner - Operations, Deloitte. "We have always been committed, as a firm, to the ideals behind GIIRS - especially to transparency and to sustainable paths of growth," added Barry Salzberg, Deloitte's U.S. CEO, "and GIIRS represents an opportunity for Deloitte and its people to join with investors and entrepreneurs to make a positive contribution to the communities in which we all do business."
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B Lab is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.  B Lab drives systemic change through three interrelated initiatives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between "good companies" and just good marketing; 2) accelerating the growth of the impact investing asset class through use of B Lab's GIIRS impact rating system by institutional investors; and 3) promoting supportive public policies, including creation of a new corporate form and tax, procurement, and investment incentives for sustainable business.

©2010 B Lab, Inc. a non-profit organization www.bcorporation.net 

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