Foundations & Nonprofits
We work with private and corporate foundations, nonprofits, and networks active in the impact investment market.
How Foundations & Nonprofits Approach Impact
In many instances, foundations and nonprofits have been the early movers and pioneers in impact investing. Private and corporate foundations are increasingly engaged in the space to align their investment activity with their core mission or strategic goals. These investors often have highly specialized expertise in their domains and need targeted analysis and advice to determine if and how their core activities can be enhanced through impact investing.
The Impact Challenges That Foundations & Nonprofits Face
Foundations and nonprofits interested in impact investing must first understand the opportunities and constraints determined by their organizational structures and relevant regulations. They will also have to decide whether the use of impact investments can help them deliver on their core mission, and if so, how to integrate those capital structures into their organization. Foundations often have a unique challenge of blending the expertise of investment and program staff in decision-making and navigating the nuances and regulations of Program Related Investments (PRI) and Mission Related Investments (MRI). Successful integration can result in powerful catalytic capital.
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Tideline was tasked with recommending a handful of market sectors most aligned with our strategic objectives for Program Related Investment making, starting with a universe of over 30 sectors. Their work was superb — insightful, creative, well attuned to our varied needs and capabilities. They helped position us incredibly well to move on to implementation.
Xavier Briggs
Previously Vice President
Ford Foundation
How Tideline Helps Foundations & Nonprofits Address These Challenges
Tideline helps foundations and nonprofits identify the ways in which impact investing can contribute to their philanthropic mission—through grants, catalytic capital, or commercial investments. Depending on the circumstance, Tideline can help these clients build or supplement impact management capacity on their teams to support any new pathways for impact and/or provide the capital markets expertise necessary to design, structure, and prepare a new funding vehicle for launch.
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To expand affordable housing production, Tideline helped us research and model a proposed Build Opportunity Fund. Their research demonstrated the catalytic impact that flexible equity capital would have on the nation’s strongest and most innovative nonprofits in addressing the growing housing crisis. As a result, we are now in serious explorations with several impact investors to implement this model.
Thomas Bledsoe
President and CEO
Housing Partnership Network (HPN)