Investor Association and Capacity Building Partnerships
The following investor associations have made GIIRS their exclusive metrics provider and provide access to GIIRS rating for their members.
Agora Partnerships accelerates the growth of early-stage impact companies in Latin America. We are a global community of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and individuals dedicated to using the power of business to effect positive change in their communities. We work only with early-stage entrepreneurs where the right kind of support can significantly accelerate their ability to create impact. Our aim is to help build a more just, sustainable world primarily though our Impact Accelerator program, which provides entrepreneurs with access to social, human, and financial capital.
Over the course of the last two years, 18 businesses have participated in Agora's Accelerator, which provides entrepreneurs with personalized consulting, mentors, leadership development, and the opportunity to pitch to impact investors from around the world. All entrepreneurs are GIIRS rated, and Agora plans to become the biggest provider of GIIRS-rated businesses in the world.
The Hitachi Foundation was founded on the belief that business has an essential role to play in addressing the complex global challenges of our time. The Foundation's mission is to forge an authentic integration of business actions and societal wellbeing in North America. This mission is achieved through discovering and expanding business practices that create tangible and enduring economic opportunities for low-wealth Americans, their families and their communities while also enhancing business value within the Hitachi group of companies and in enterprises beyond Hitachi. Their flagship programs include the Business and Work Program and the Hitachi Community Action Partnership. The Foundation also partners with B Lab and GIIRS, among others, for their annual Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs Program, which identifies and supports inspiring young entrepreneurs whose work helps alleviate poverty.
The Investors' Circle Network is comprised of angel investors, professional venture capitalists, foundations, family offices and others who are using private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable economy. GIIRS is Investors' Circle exclusive metrics provider.
Village Capital creates opportunity for world-changing, early-stage, for-profit enterprises through the power of peer support. Programs revolve around a transparent peer assessment and feedback process among the entrepreneurs, and culminate in an investment of $50,000 in each of the 'top two' enterprises, as voted for by their peers. Participating entrepreneurs experience multiple opportunities to receive and respond to feedback, as well as increased exposure to the investor community and mentor networks. To date, Village Capital has run 14 programs worldwide, serving over 250 entrepreneurs in the United States, the UK, India, China, and Brazil – with more on the horizon.
Social Stock Exchange and Platform Partnerships
Mission Markets a Certified B Corp, is a financial services company that operates the Impact Investment Platform supporting the social and environmental capital markets. Mission Markets' Impact Investing Platform provides socially and environmentally responsible companies, organizations, and projects with access to mission aligned capital. The Impact Investing Platform provides investors, investment advisors and 3rd party service providers with an efficient way to communicate, evaluate, invest in and monitor sustainable investment opportunities. GIIRS is Mission Markets's preferred impact ratings partner.
The Social Stock Exchange (SSE) is partnering with a global stock exchange to create a listings venue which will allow investors to trade exclusively in companies with social and environmental goals. GIIRS is one of SSE’s preferred impact ratings partners.
Social Venture Exchange (SVX) is a local, regulated, impact-first market connecting social ventures, impact funds, and impact investors in order to catalyze new investment capital geared towards improved social and environmental outcomes. The project is an initiative of Social Innovation Generation (SiG) at MaRS, supported by Causeway Social Finance, the TMX Group Inc., and the Government of Ontario. The SVX provides an online platform with venture listings, fund listings, a resource centre, an investor collaboration tool, and financial service provider listing to facilitate effective impact investments. The SVX allows investors to share due diligence, collaborate on deals, identify high quality investment opportunities, and access screened investment opportunities and ventures with detailed information reducing the burden of due diligence. The SVX will provide ventures with increased access to capital and increased financial expertise. GIIRS is a listing requirement for all companies and funds that list on SVX.
Membership Organizations
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is a global network of 150+ organizations that invest money and expertise to propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Officially launched in 2009, ANDE is a member-driven organization housed within the Aspen Institute, an international non-profit that promotes enlightened leadership. ANDE works to dramatically increase the amount and effectiveness of capital and capacity building services for entrepreneurs in developing countries. The network includes investment funds, capacity development providers, research/academic institutions, foundations, corporations, and banks. ANDE members are the vanguard of a movement that is focused on small and growing businesses (SGBs); with the right support, these SGBs will generate economic, environmental, and social benefits in the developing world. Ultimately, we seek to build sustainable prosperity in the developing world.
Services Partners
The Five Fund Forum, is a bi-annual a sustainable and impact investment showcase featuring leading private equity and venture capital funds raising capital. The Five Fund Forum has a stated preference for featuring GIIRS rated funds and offers a discount to any GIIRS rated fund participating in the Forum. The Five Fund Forum is sponsored by the Watershed Capital Group, a founding Certified B Corp. As an investment bank Watershed Capital advises companies, funds, and institutional investors in raising debt and equity, corporate sales and divestitures, acquisitions, and strategic options.
Standards Partners
Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) is a common language for describing the social and environmental performance of an organization. IRIS provides an independent and credible set of metrics for organizations to use when reporting their impact. IRIS indicators span an array of performance objectives and include specialized metrics for a range of sectors including financial services, agriculture, and energy. Whenever possible GIIRS has integrated IRIS metrics and definitions into its rating system. By using IRIS metrics, GIIRS is helping ensure that the metrics and definitions within its rating system have been vetted and accepted by the larger impact investing industry.
Conference Partners
In existence for over 15 years, TBLI CONFERENCE™ consists of two annual conferences. These two-day events are the prime annual global networking and learning event on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Impact Investing. This year's TBLI CONFERENCE USA, to be held June 17-18 in New York, features high-level keynote speakers, two Plenary Sessions and 16 workshops covering issues, such as ESG & Impact Investment, Commodities, Integrated Reporting, Renewable Energy and Human Rights. Register for the event here.
Research Partners
CASE at Duke is a research and education center based at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. The Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) promotes the entrepreneurial pursuit of social impact through the thoughtful adaptation of business expertise. CASE is working with academic and private researchers globally to create priorities for future research on the data collected by B Lab and GIIRS.