Benefunder Marketplace Available Through ImpactAssets’ Innovative Donor Advised Fund
April 7, 2017 - Benefunder, a philanthropic marketplace that provides a targeted approach for high impact giving through partnerships with donor advised funds (DAFs), announced that its platform is now available to wealth advisors and their clients through the ImpactAssets Giving Fund, a donor advised fund focused on socially responsible and impact-driven investment options. Benefunder offers a highly efficient approach to giving for donors who want to focus their support on research and innovation that addresses causes about which they feel most passionate.
ImpactAssets is a leader in facilitating impact investments for philanthropists and individual investors. Created by the Calvert Foundation in 2010, ImpactAssets assumed responsibility for the Giving Fund, which has since grown to more than $350M in assets. Since its inception, ImpactAssets has helped to develop the field of impact investing through its donor advised fund, educational resources, and impact investment notes.
The relationship with ImpactAssets broadens access among donors and wealth advisors to the nearly 700 current initiatives in research and innovation available through the Benefunder marketplace. The innovative approach to philanthropy offered by ImpactAssets is well-aligned with the wide array of Benefunder programs, which reflect all stages of research and innovation, from proof-of-concept to commercialization.
“We believe ImpactAssets is unique among donor advised fund, empowering donors to achieve maximum social impact through flexible investment and grantmaking options” said Christian Braemer, Benefunder Chief Executive Officer. “The ability of ImpactAssets to accommodate a range of investment strategies and philanthropic approaches allows donors to support a research program through all stages of development.
Through the ImpactAssets Giving Fund, we’re very excited to provide access to the Benefunder marketplace to a new channel of advisors committed to providing their clients’ with a way to support their passions and enhance their impact,” he said.
Benefunder seeks to reduce the nation’s innovation deficit with a scalable platform for directing more philanthropic dollars to research, with the goal of fueling solutions to the world’s most pressing problems by engaging advisors with a valued service and providing donors a new, smarter way to support their passions. Researchers from more than 50 of the nation’s top medical and technological schools are represented on the Benefunder platform, focusing on research and innovation in life science, technology, the environment, and the arts and humanities.
As donor advised funds continue to grow, many high net worth individuals are exploring their options for turning their philanthropy into meaningful impact. “Many donors are familiar with the grantmaking capabilities available through donor advised funds,” said Timothy Freundlich, President of ImpactAssets. “Yet, with more than $80 billion in charitable assets under management in all donor advised funds, there’s a tremendous opportunity to expand the social impact of these funds. We hope that, by offering financial advisors access to Benefunder, we will help realize some of that untapped potential.”
About Benefunder
Benefunder is a unique funding channel for research and innovation, providing financial advisors with a better solution for targeted philanthropy and donors with a smarter and more meaningful way to give. Benefunder is the U.S.’s largest donor platform for active research, offering the opportunity to directly support more than 650 top researchers working toward breakthrough treatments and solutions that will greatly impact and benefit society.
About ImpactAssets:
ImpactAssets is a nonprofit financial services firm that increases the flow of capital into investments delivering financial, social and environmental returns. ImpactAssets’ donor-advised fund (“The Giving Fund”), impact investment notes, and field-building initiatives enable philanthropists, other asset owners and their wealth advisors to advance social or environmental change through investment.