Calvert Social Investment Foundation

For nearly fifteen years, Calvert has been a leader in the field of social investment, pioneering the development of community investments that make a positive impact. Operating as a nonprofit, it focuses on using investment capital rather than conventional philanthropy to create sustainable and scalable models for nonprofit and social enterprises to address critical social problems. More than 40 percent of its portfolio is already invested overseas, funding institutions that increase incomes for poor people and improve their well-being. Over the next few years, Calvert is looking to strengthen its support for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and mobilize social investment from a broad spectrum of social and commercial investors for efforts including TransFarm Africa. Calvert is also developing metrics on the social impact of such investments in order to perform monitoring and evaluation, particularly regarding increased smallholder farmer income and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. This grant will allow the Foundation to exit responsibly from this area of work.