CHICAGO IMPACT INVESTING LANDSCAPE
To celebrate our 10th annual public impact investing showcase in Chicago, we released the findings from our updated analysis of the Chicago impact investing landscape, a thriving ecosystem of impact focused investment firms.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CIIS 2022
Missed a CIIS 2022 session? We've put together summaries of what we learned, plus we're making archived videos of each session available and each session's full slide deck.
SESSION #1 - GOVERNMENTS AS IMPACT INVESTORS
Panelists discussed the role that cities and governments play in investing in our communities – as well as the importance of tracking capital to understand where it ends up, measuring impact, and communicating outcomes back to the community. Read Session #1 takeaways and watch the full archived video.
SESSION #2 - INDIVIDUALS AS IMPACT INVESTORS
For the second session, panelists explored how individuals can leverage their investments for impact, detailing their own approaches and answering questions from viewers, and sharing resources of interest. Read Session #2 takeaways and watch the full archived video.
SESSION #3 - FOUNDATIONS AS IMPACT INVESTORS
In this session panelists highlighted the role of foundations as impact investors, through both endowment and grant or donor advised fund pools of capital. Read Session #3 takeaways and watch the full archived video.
SESSION #4 - PRIVATE FUNDS AS IMPACT INVESTORS
In this session panelists highlighted the role of private funds as impact investors, and how they aggregate and deploy capital on behalf of governments, individuals, foundations, and others. Read Session #4 takeaways and watch the full archived video.
THANK YOU!
As we close out the 2022 Chicago Impact Investing Showcase, we want to thank everyone who attended, and especially also our 19 terrific panelists who shared their insights across four virtual sessions!
We also want to extend gratitude to the event's two sponsors, The Chicago Community Trust, and MacArthur Foundation who helped make this year's events a success.
PORTFOLIO NEWS
BookNook was highlighted by Columbia University's Consortium for Policy Research in Education in a new study. Researchers report that "third to fifth grade students with relatively higher levels of BookNook usage experienced stronger literacy development, compared to both non-BookNook students and low-usage BookNook participants,” resulting in 13.3 points higher scores on an evaluation test– more than twice as many points when compared with a competitor’s teaching aid.
Footprint celebrated Earth Day by announcing an eye-popping milestone: they've now replaced over half a billion plastic straws with biodegradable paper straws! Footprint works with restaurants like McDonald's, Panera Bread, and others. “We are drowning in plastic pollution, and every step we take toward eliminating single-use plastic is a step in the right direction," says marine biologist Christine Figgener who praises the environmental impact of Footprint's efforts.
PadSplit won high praise from former New York Times columnist Nick Kristof's in his latest writing on housing insecurity. Nick says: "I like the Padsplit homeshare model, which rents lockable bedrooms in a home for about $600 a month, with bathrooms and kitchens shared. People using Padsplit have incomes of about $25,000 a year, and some have eviction histories, meaning that it’s almost impossible for them to find other rentals.” PadSplit was also featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as an innovative solution for shared living arrangements.
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