Investing that is made with the intention of creating measurable and beneficial social or environmental impacts alongside financial returns.
BayTrust’s Purpose is to accelerate bold and meaningful change, assisting BOP communities and our environment to flourish. BayTrust operates a ~$200m globally diversified investment portfolio with considerable assets that are held on behalf of the community. The aim of investing a portion of this portfolio in Impact Investments is to increase the Trust’s impact around its Purpose without materially compromising its overall investment returns and to address issues that granting is unable or ineffective in addressing.
Investing – an Impact Investment is not a grant. Any investments considered will need to demonstrate how the funds will be repaid.
Intention – the intention to create impact needs to be embedded into the investment, not a by-product.
Measurable - the impact needs to be identifiable and measurable in order for us to assess, manage and monitor the effect of the investment and compare it with other opportunities
Social or environmental impacts – BayTrust is interested in investing where the impact created is targeted towards three areas:
Addressing environmental or climate change issues.
Financial returns – the investment needs to return an appropriate risk-adjusted return.
BayTrust has allocated up to 10% of our total investment base of ~$200m to Impact Investing. Currently, this means a total of $20m allocated with ~$10m already committed to investments providing impact within the Bay of Plenty.
Traditionally BayTrust’s impact investment deals have been between $250,000 and $2m, however, we have recently introduced a new scheme to support smaller impact investments and the growing social enterprise ecosystem in the BOP. This allocation will consider investments between $50k and $250k. The process will be more fluid than for higher levels of investment, with an aim of a quick response, more acceptance of risk and other forms of assistance may be considered to support the enterprise alongside the investment.
BayTrust has allocated an additional $1m to a scheme that will specifically support smaller social enterprises providing social or environmental benefit in the BayTrust region. This allocation will consider investments between $50k and $250k. The process will be more fluid than for higher levels of investment, with an aim of a quick response, more acceptance of risk and other forms of assistance may be considered to support the enterprise alongside the investment.
For more information on this, please contact:
Terri Eggleton
Impact Investment and Partnership Manager
Phone: (07) 578 6546 / Mobile: 027 2483905
Email: Terri@baytrust.org.nz