Intermediary Initiative
Engaging the power of intermediaries to align financial resources with impact goals
Initiative Background
In 2024, Impact Finance Center launched an initiative to identify, interview, and map the landscape of intermediaries within the impact ecosystem. This effort aims to help anchor institutions—such as community foundations, hospitals, universities, and chambers of commerce—better navigate this evolving space and unlock new impact investing opportunities for their communities.
National Intermediary Landscape Scan Report
The result is our latest report: Impact Finance Center’s National Intermediary Landscape Scan. This report features 11 intermediaries and delves into their mission and diverse services; how they deploy innovative financial instruments, and their critical role as connectors between capital stewards and enterprises or projects seeking funding.
Our Approach
Impact Finance Center (IFC) identifies, educates, and activates impact investors and develops community infrastructure (i.e. Impact Investing Institute, Impact Days and National Landscape Scans). Our initiatives focus on communities of place (eg. Cities, Counties, States), interest (eg. Climate, Housing, Democracy), and identity (eg. Women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC) and more. Our approach includes courses (e.g. online, in-person, and hybrid), podcasts, case studies, development of tools and infrastructure, and thought leadership.
The First Step:
Identify Intermediaries in the Ecosystem
National Intermediary Landscape Scan: Identify the leading financial intermediaries whose work exemplifies the transformative power of aligning financial resources with impact goals. As part of this work, we interviewed and developed case studies for each of the following organizations:
- CapShift
- CNote
- Honeycomb Capital
- ImpactAssets
- Impact Charitable
- Inclusiv
- LegacyWorks Group
- Occam Advisors
- Prairie Rose Development Corporation
- Realize Impact
- Social Finance
The Second Step:
Educate – Webinar Series
A key challenge for many capital stewards is understanding who can originate and service transactions—and how to connect with the right financial intermediaries. IFC’s goal is to bridge this gap by offering a platform for capital steward education.
Webinar Series: IFC offered online public webinars to learn about each featured intermediary. In the fall of 2024, intermediary leaders gave formal thirty minute presentations on the scope of their work and partnership capacity. In the spring of 2024, Dr. Stephanie Gripne interviewed these leaders to learn more about their personal and organizational journeys, and what sets them apart in the intermediary landscape.
Impact Investing Institute: IFC offers access to recorded educational content on the Impact Investing Institute to allow for engagement at your own pace.
You can view the recordings of the 2024 in-depth intermediary presentations on the Impact Finance Center Impact Investing Institute. Sign up and create a free account using these simple instructions.
- August 20, 2024 with Impact Charitable and Realize Impact
- September 11, 2024 with CNote and Inclusiv
- September 19, 2024 with LegacyWorks and Mission Driven Finance
- September 26, 2024 with Prairie Rose Development and Honeycomb Credit
- December 5, 2025 with ImpactAssets and Occam Advisors
- December 12, 2024 with CapShift and Social Finance
Watch the recordings of the 2025 report release panel interviews on the Impact Finance Center Impact Investing Institute. Sign up and create a free account using these simple instructions.
- February 4, 2025 – Series introduction with Dr. Stephanie Gripne
- February 20, 2025 with CapShift, Impact Charitable, and Honeycomb Capital.
- March 5, 2025 with Occam Advisors, Realize Impact, and LegacyWorks Group
- March 18, 2025 with CNote, ImpactAssets, and Prairie Rose Development
- April 2, 2025 with Inclusiv, Mission Driven Finance, and Social Finance
The Third Step:
Activate – Connecting Intermediaries to Investors
Distribution of the report and connecting investors to intermediaries ready to provide their services to move catalytic capital. IFC offers advisory services to support individuals and organizations to facilitate impact investments within their portfolio and help build the ecosystem of supporting providers.
Impact Finance Center is also currently seeking funding to develop a second report to highlight more leading intermediaries in the ecosystem.
If you are an intermediary that would like to be considered for the next report, or if you are interested in financially supporting development of the next report, please reach out to us directly [email protected]
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