Bundesinitiative Impact Investing

About the initiative

The Bun­des­in­itia­ti­ve Impact Inves­t­ing is a non-pro­fit orga­niza­ti­on based in Ber­lin. Its spe­ci­fic cha­ri­ta­ble pur­po­se is to pro­mo­te edu­ca­ti­on, sci­ence and rese­arch in the field of impact inves­t­ing. In doing so, we advan­ce the signi­fi­cant real­lo­ca­ti­on and mobi­liza­ti­on of capi­tal towards impact investing. 

Code of Conduct 

Tog­e­ther with our part­ners and mem­bers, we focus on four cen­tral are­as of acti­vi­ty to dri­ve a trans­for­ma­ti­on towards rege­ne­ra­ti­ve inves­t­ing and busi­ness through impact inves­t­ing. With our com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on efforts and regu­lar vir­tu­al and phy­si­cal events, we build awa­re­ness of impact inves­t­ing and pro­mo­te new atti­tu­des in the worlds of busi­ness and finan­ce. We streng­then the know­ledge and skills of prac­ti­tio­ners through mar­ket stu­dies, posi­ti­on papers, opi­ni­on pie­ces and tar­ge­ted fur­ther training. 

Our con­tent-rela­ted work takes place pri­ma­ri­ly in working groups cen­te­red around spe­ci­fic topics. In our regio­nal chap­ters, we con­nect all rele­vant actors and stake­hol­ders and imple­ment joint pro­jects. 

Part­ners and supporters 

EBS

Natio­nal focus & inter­na­tio­nal involvement 

The Bun­des­in­itia­ti­ve Impact Inves­t­ing focu­ses on invest­ments within, and emana­ting from, Ger­ma­ny and is, at the same time, clo­se­ly inte­gra­ted into the inter­na­tio­nal impact inves­t­ing com­mu­ni­ty. The initia­ti­ve con­sti­tu­tes the Natio­nal Advi­so­ry Board (NAB) to the Glo­bal Stee­ring Group for Impact Invest­ment (GSG) and coope­ra­tes clo­se­ly with the GSG and other NABs worldwide. 

We also work clo­se­ly with natio­nal orga­niza­ti­ons such as the Forum for Sus­tainable Invest­ments (FNG), the Social Entre­pre­neur­ship Net­work Ger­ma­ny (SEND) or the Green and Sus­tainable Finan­ce Cluster. 

Our part­ners also include other inter­na­tio­nal orga­niza­ti­ons and net­works such as the Euro­pean Ven­ture Phil­an­thro­py Asso­cia­ti­on (EVPA), the Glo­bal Impact Inves­t­ing Net­work (GIIN), Toni­ic and the Orga­niza­ti­on for Eco­no­mic Coope­ra­ti­on and Deve­lo­p­ment (OECD). As part of the­se col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons and part­ner­ships, we work tog­e­ther to spread the impact inves­t­ing approach, impro­ve the frame­work con­di­ti­ons at Euro­pean and inter­na­tio­nal levels and trans­fer con­cepts, approa­ches and ide­as from other count­ries and regions. 

Foun­ding history 

The Bun­des­in­itia­ti­ve Impact Inves­t­ing has its ori­g­ins in the Ger­man Natio­nal Advi­so­ry Board (NAB) for the Social Impact Invest­ment Taskforce (SIITF). This expert group was laun­ched during the UK’s Pre­si­den­cy of the G7 in 2013. The group was coor­di­na­ted by the Ber­tels­mann Stif­tung and the Fede­ral Minis­try for Eco­no­mic Coope­ra­ti­on and Deve­lo­p­ment (BMZ). The pur­po­se was to ana­ly­ze and streng­then the mar­ket for social impact invest­ment in Ger­ma­ny. A first report was published in 2014, which repor­ted on the sta­tus quo and pro­po­sed stra­te­gic recom­men­da­ti­ons to grow the Ger­man mar­ket. A fur­ther mar­ket report from the Ber­tels­mann Stif­tung in 2016 high­ligh­ted the posi­ti­ve momen­tum and the need to acce­le­ra­te mar­ket growth. 

In 2017, a core group of NAB mem­bers began deve­lo­ping an impact inves­t­ing plat­form for Ger­ma­ny. This resul­ted in the Bun­des­in­itia­ti­ve Impact Inves­t­ing in 2020. Its estab­lish­ment was sup­port­ed by four spon­so­ring orga­niza­ti­ons, the Ber­tels­mann Stif­tung, the BMW Foun­da­ti­on Her­bert Quandt, the Bun­des­ver­band Deut­scher Stif­tun­gen and PHINEO.