Case Studies: Impact Strategy for Asset Owners
American Jewish World Service
Godeke Consulting facilitated a process with the board, investment committee and staff to explore how American Jewish World Service (AJWS) could more closely align the investment of its operating reserve with its social justice mission. We completed structured interviews based on a customized protocol and then drafted the Investment Philosophy Statement as a supplement to the Investment Policy Statement. We then presented it to the investment committee. AJWS is now using the Investment Philosophy Statement to inform its mission-aligned investment strategy.
The Rockefeller Foundation
As part of the Rockefeller Foundation's Innovation Team's development and launch of the social impact bond structure in the U.S., we were engaged to develop “Building A Healthy and Sustainable Social Impact Bond Market: The Investor Landscape.” We led interviews and convenings with over 90 investors and stakeholders over an eight-month period to understand the requirements needed to scale the market and address social problems facing poor and vulnerable communities in the U.S. We tested investor interest in this new impact investing structure that crosses traditional asset classes prior to the first launch of SIBs in the United States.
Multi-Generational Family Foundation
Godeke Consulting worked with a multi-generational East Coast family foundation to explore impact investing opportunities and strategies across a range of sectors. We developed data on potential investment projects in the Washington DC area that broadly addressed poverty and opportunity, identified impact investing opportunities related to the foundation's focus areas (women's economic empowerment, supporting the incarcerated population, and progressive media and messaging) as well as opportunities in Colombia and the artisan sector globally. The results of this search served as the basis for an board conversation about the foundation's expanded impact investment portfolio.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Gates Foundation’s Education and Investment teams wanted to develop a guarantee structure to support the facility needs of high-performing charter schools. These schools had not been able to access the tax-exempt bond market due to the financial crisis and the lack of credit insurance in the market. We were engaged to undertake an extensive due diligence of national CDFIs active in the charter school finance sector to determine the appropriate partners and structures for the program. The resulting $40 million guarantee was one of the first times that Gates used its endowment to support its program activities.
The Robin Hood Foundation and F.B. Heron Foundation
The Robin Hood Foundation and F.B. Heron Foundation co-invested with other foundations and the City of New York to capitalize a $32 million guarantee facility to support the lending activities of the New York City Acquisition Fund. This fund’s purpose is to provide pre-development capital to affordable and low-income housing developers on more favorable and flexible terms than is currently available in the market, and to expand the developers’ capacity to assemble parcels for new development and to preserve existing affordable housing. The Fund is expected to create or preserve approximately 30,000 units of low-income and affordable housing over 10 years. The Fund’s credit enhancement will also encourage private sector lenders to fund loans at higher debt levels and lower pricing. Godeke Consulting was engaged by Robin Hood and the F.B. Heron Foundation to complete initial due diligence of their investments into the Fund and to help establish metrics for ongoing monitoring of their investments.
Ralph E. Ogden Foundation
Godeke Consulting facilitated a board process at the Ralph E. Ogden Foundation to create an impact investing strategy for this family foundation with interests in arts and culture, community development, education and youth leadership, environmental sustainability, land conservation, agriculture and food, and social justice, human rights and international understanding. During this engagement, Godeke Consulting also led a search for a new investment advisor and worked with the three generations of family board members to develop the qualifications and framework for their investment advisor. This collaboration resulted in a customized RFP to use for interviews and the selection of the new investment advisor from a diverse range of wealth management firms. Godeke Consulting subsequently worked with the Ogden board to develop an investment beliefs statement in conjunction with their new investment advisor.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJ) mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans. One of RWJ’s grantees is Playworks, a nonprofit headquartered in California that improves children’s health and well-being by increasing opportunities for physical activity during recess in low-income public schools. Godeke Consulting worked with RWJ to create a PRI loan guarantee that allowed Playworks to access working capital financing from OneCalifornia Bank, a CDFI, to expand nationally. Playworks required the working capital to pay for its expenses such as hiring prior to the school year when it receives payment from the school systems it serves.
New Hampshire Endowment for Health
The New Hampshire Endowment for Health is a $60 million healthcare conversion foundation that wanted to develop a working capital fund for community-based health centers in its state. These centers provide care to a population that is either underinsured or not insured. Medicaid and/or Medicare reimbursement from government can take as long as 120 days. Due to poor economic conditions, normal lines of credit (such as local community banks) had become constrained. As a result, the foundation put in place a working capital fund that could provide short-term lines of credit while waiting for slow but earned revenue to arrive. We worked with the Endowment for Health to develop a request for proposal and then led the due diligence and selection of CDFIs to manage the fund. We also worked with the Endowment to structure its program-related investment into the intermediary.