Making impact investing easy, rewarding, and possible for everyone

Impact investing is complicated. How do you balance impact and investment returns, local vs. global impact, 17 Sustainable Development Goals, debt, equity, and revenue-sharing? All while deciding whether to invest from your savings, your family office, or your foundation or donor-advised fund?

Realize Impact is here to help make impact investing easy. We know how to make impact investments, create impact, and then harvest the investment returns. What we are looking for are your recommendations for impactful investments, and the capital to make those investments.

All it takes are three simple steps:

1.

Make a grant from your donor-advised fund, foundation, or your own funds, recommending an impact investment

2.

Realize Impact does the diligence, reviews the terms, and makes the debt, equity or revenue-based investment.

3.

We donate 99% of the investment returns to your recommended DAF, foundation or other 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Or in other words, you do the easy parts and we’ll do the complicated parts. When you find a good impact investment, tell us about it. We’ll spread the word so that others can join in too, helping catalyze your capital into yet more impact. Later, if the investment turns out to be fruitful, we’ll put almost all of those returns into a donor-advised fund, foundation, or charity, so it can do even more good for the world,–or give us a new suggestion and we’ll invest that capital again and again and again.

We do this for one low flat fee:

$500

$500 for investments
of $10,000 or more.

$0

* There is no fee for investments under $10,000, but the investment returns will not be re-donated.

Philanthropic Investment Grant

See the details on the Philanthropic Investment Grant or fill out our PHIG Recommendation form to get started.

See the FAQ to answer the most frequently asked questions about this service.

And yes, the service is as simple as it sounds, by design.

Latest stories

The Liist: March 2023

T
The Liist logo

ImpactAlpha, March 7 – There’s a huge gender gap in medical and disease research funding.  On this month’s Liist of impact funds that are currently raising capital, two fund managers have their sights set on the investment opportunity in women’s healthcare and services. Mexico City-based New Ventures is rolling out a $20 million fund to offer revenue-based financing to women’s health...

WF Northaven

W
Northhaven

Realize Impact invested in WF Northaven, to help address the affordable housing issue in Seattle. WF Northaven is an 89-unit, multi-generational, workforce affordable apartment building for residents making between 60% and 80% of area median income (AMI). The ground floor of the project will hold a seven-classroom early learning center operated by Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA). It is situated...

The Builders Fund II

T
The Builders Fund

For over a decade, the Builders’ team has consistently helped scale companies to generate significant alpha for all of our stakeholders. We have raised capital from similarly operational and values-aligned partners who also serve as operating partners (“Builders”) to the fund. That bench of experience – matching that of billion dollar private equity platforms – is highly...

The Liist: February 2023

T
The Liist logo

ImpactAlpha, February 7 – Impact fund managers from India to Ecuador to the U.S. recognize that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to plugging persistent capital gaps for inclusive, sustainable economies. Creative and catalytic capital is the theme of this month’s Liist, in partnership with Realize Impact.  In Latin America, two funds are leaning into alternative-finance to support high...

Climate Robotics

C
Climate Robotics (header)

Realize Impact’s latest investment is in Climate Robotics, which builds advanced robotics and artificial intelligence to fight climate change. The first of these machines creates biochar in situ, in the fields of farmers, from the stalks of the harvested crops.

www.climaterobotics.com

Grapevine

G
Grapevine logo

Grapevine gathers like-minded people to donate to a common cause. Join us to find your community and make an impact. Together. Realize Impact invested $100,000 to help scale up Grapevine’s business and their impact. What if you made a commitment to give back regularly and intentionally? What if you brought friends, colleagues, coworkers and others along with you? Your commitment could help...

Clean Crop Technologies

C
Clean Crop Technologies logo

The Decarbon8 fund, managed by Realize Impact has invested in Clean Crop Technologies, a startup that aims to lower food waste by removing contaminants from food surfaces (without leaving any residue behind) and enhancing seed performance. In 1862 Louis Pasteur pioneered an effective method for removing pathogens in milk and wine. This process, which bears his name, revolutionized food safety and...

$22 million

$
22 million (header)

Realize Impact launched the philanthropic investment grants service in February 2020 and through the end of 2022 has received over 400 donations, totaling over $22 million, resulting in 137 investments into impact funds and mission-driven companies. See our blog for details on many of these investments… and if you are looking for ideas on where you can make an impact investment (either with...

RiseKit

R
RiseKit (header)

Realize Impact and RiseKit partner to increase access to employment opportunities through technology that connects under-resourced jobseekers, community organizations, employers, governments, and foundations RiseKit and Realize Impact have partnered to increase under-resourced job seekers’ access to employment opportunities, wraparound support, training programs, and events. As RiseKit’s...

Venture Philanthropy

V
an image of venture philanthropy

Did you know you can use your philanthropic “pocket” to make impact investments? One term used for that is “venture philanthropy“, a mix of venture capital and philanthropy. Often one where the impact is just as important as the return on investment, if not more important. What does this look like in action? It varies. From low interest (or 0% interest) loans to SMEs in...