MacArthur Foundation lifts its impact investing pool to $750 million, up 50%

MacArthur Foundation has increased its allocation for impact investments by 50 per cent, raising the dedicated pool to $750 million. Announced on 8 October, the expansion is meant to extend the reach of the Foundation’s programmes, advance its mission and increase the flow of impact investments globally. Implementation begins in 2027, and repaid investments will be redeployed into new ones. 

Since 1983, MacArthur Foundation has committed nearly $1 billion in impact investments to roughly 300 organisations worldwide, supporting access to capital, jobs, entrepreneurs and small businesses, affordable housing, clean energy, health and education. The Foundation made the announcement alongside an extension of its “Set it at Six” commitment, which keeps grantmaking and charitable payout at no less than 6 per cent through 2028, and the endowment continues to build a portfolio of sustainable investments. President John Palfrey described impact investing as a complement to charitable giving and the endowment’s values-aligned portfolios, while Debra Schwartz, Managing Director for Impact Investments, said the Foundation wants to mobilise more capital in collaboration with other foundations, families and investors. 

Some of MacArthur Foundation’s work in impact investing in Africa includes field-building work through the C3 consortium, established in 2019 with the Rockefeller Foundation and Omidyar Network to promote the use of catalytic capital. In its first five years, it supported 26 research and tooling projects and eight impact investing networks, while MacArthur built a $123 million investment portfolio that it says mobilised 21 times its original capital. That portfolio includes a $10 million loan to One Acre Fund, which supports smallholder farmers in Africa, and a $25 million guarantee behind the $1.1 billion SDG Loan Fund, which lends across emerging and frontier markets. C3 grants also funded African research by Aceli Africa and Dalberg, Investisseurs & Partenaires, Open Capital Advisors, and Ashesi University with Impact Investing Ghana, and backed the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) to train African grantmakers and investors in catalytic investing. MacArthur was among the design-stage funders of Aceli Africa, which has since mobilised more than $440 million in agricultural SME lending, working with more than 50 lenders in East Africa.