Executive Summary

The challenges facing us as a Commonwealth, as a nation and as a species are profound. To address them, we need to dramatically increase the resources to solve them. Government and non-profit interventions are critical in improving economic equity, advancing racial justice, and responding to climate pressures. However, it is the private capital markets where we find the scale of capital needed to address the magnitude of the problems.

Impact investing aims to generate environmental and social impact while also achieving financial returns. Virginia is well-positioned to be a global example of what can be achieved when we align our money with our values.

A New Partnership

As of June 1, 2020, the Virginia Impact Investing Forum (VIIF) will be housed within Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia, a program led by the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. This new home provides the stability of a 200-year-old institution, the steady staff and student energy to support thought leadership and convenings and the neutrality to support Virginia foundations, philanthropists, impact investors and community leaders as they learn together and develop opportunities to strengthen community development. “Ultimately, this means that there will be more capital moving across Virginia to where it can have the greatest impact.” Matthew Illian, VIIF Board member.

VIIF began in 2016 as a consortium of leaders from the academic, business, government, non-profit and foundation sectors dedicated to building the knowledge, profile and practice of impact investing in Virginia. SE@UVA and VIIF collaborated with the Governor of Virginia and the Secretary of Commerce’s office to produce the Virginia Impact Summit, and have organized a number of follow-on convenings as well. Moving forward, the partners seek to support a range of public and private stakeholders as they advance impact investments in Virginia.

A Big Agenda

In the first two years, VIIF and SE@UVA have plans to work together to perform an Impact Investing ecosystem survey across the Commonwealth, launch a new impact fund, offer Executive Education on Impact Investing and continue to host meetups that bring cross sector leaders together to support this work. “Now, more than ever, we need to be developing creative capital collaborations to advance racial justice, health equity and economic resilience. The goal of our partnership with VIIF is to unlock millions of dollars in impact capital and help transform Virginia’s disinvested regions into thriving communities.” Christine Mahoney, Director of Social Entrepreneurship at UVA.

Virginia Impact Investing Ecosystem Mapping Project

In the Summer of 2020 we launched the Virginia Impact Investing Ecosystem Mapping Project to establish a baseline of private capital committed to place-based investing in historically disinvested communities in Virginia, to provide an illustration of capital providers in the market, their priorities and investment focus areas, and to identify the needs of investors. We will be conducting phone surveys with foundations, grantmakers, CDFIs, impact investors and philanthropists throughout the region to learn about their impact priorities, strategies and needs.

If you are interested in being recognized in the Virginia Impact Investing Ecosystem Survey, or would like to share an impact investing story from your community, please email us at .