Among Foundations, Who's the Biggest Impact Investor?

Figuring out which foundations engage in the most impact investing is not so easy. While some reports, like a 2015 study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy, have gauged how widespread this practice has become in foundations, actual dollar amounts are still hard to come by—unlike annual grantmaking tallies, which are readily available. That's too bad, since it makes it hard to compare institutions on impact investing or otherwise track a growing stream of foundation dollars.

The paucity of data is also problematic for another reason. As we and others have said before, the rise of impact investing is yet one more trend that is making philanthropy less transparent.