News Digest

The Social Finance Fund is launched and Realize Capital Partners is announced as one of three fund-of-funds managers.

We hold a webinar and speak at several sector events to introduce Realize Capital Partners, what we’re aiming to achieve through Realize Fund I and how social finance intermediaries (SFIs) and social purpose organizations (SPOs) can get involved. Outreach, network building and speaking engagements continue to this day! We’ve excited about the strong ongoing interest in Realize Fund I.

We hire a portfolio manager, the first of many new team hires over the coming months.

We announce we’ll be working with Common Approach to Impact Measurement to support the development and uptake of a common impact data standard that all SFF participants can use to measure and report impact. Greater standardization can create clearer understanding and confidence for investors, necessary to build the social finance market.

Behind the scenes, team building, governance setup, portfolio strategy and investment due diligence continues.

We begin recruiting for members of three advisory committees: governance advisory, investment advisory and sector advisory.

We set up weekly Tuesday Chats, one-on-one opportunities for interested SFIs and SPOs to explore how we might work together.

We begin the search for community partners to extend our reach in support of our community investment strategy within Realize Fund I.

The investment portfolio begins to take shape, as the investment committee meets for the first time to review possible portfolio investments, which our research team had undertaken extensive due diligence on.

We publish our Investment Policy Statement so others can learn about Realize Fund I goals.

We publish our Theory of Change, outlining how our work aims to strengthen, broaden and diversify the social finance market.

The investment committee meets to review possible portfolio investments.

We announce our first set of investments. Nine investments, totalling a commitment of capital of $35.2M.

We announce the committee members for our three advisory committees. Advisory committee members, with broad experiences, provide critical ongoing input to our fund strategy and implementation; committees meet quarterly.

We hire an impact management associate to join the Head of Impact Management. 

The investment committee meets to review possible portfolio investments.

Applications close for a senior associate and manager to join the Impact Management team. With the enlarged team we go on to develop a program of support open to all participants in the SFF that will help them build and strengthen their impact measurement and management (IMM) practices.  

The investment committee meets to review possible portfolio investments.

We submit an annual report to the Government of Canada. This is one of the regular ongoing reporting mechanisms to help the Government see how the project is on track to grow the social finance market and enhance the ability of social purpose organizations to advance social equity and sustainable development.

We give out our first capacity development grant. This is the first of several grants we intend to make over the next couple of years to deepen the capacity of new and emerging SFI.

We publish a Year 1 update, highlighting the fund’s 10 investments, $40 million in investment commitments, contributions to 13 SDGs, alignment with 3 investment pillars, progress on 4 target impacts, support from 13 advisory committee members and engagement with hundreds of potential investors and investees.

The TOWARDS Accelerator launches. TOWARDS is a capacity-building program for community finance intermediaries seeking to drive positive social and environmental impact in their communities through lending and investing. We’re a partner of the program.

The investment committee reviews possible portfolio investments

Behind the scenes, team development, investment strategy (IPS) reviews and portfolio construction continues.

We launch “Impact Measurement & Management for the Social Finance Fund”, a key market-building initiative of ours. The cohort program, led by Impact Frontiers, enhances SFI ability to incorporate impact decisions into financial decision-making, to measure impact and to manage portfolios for greatest impact. The program is for all SFIs that have received investment through SFF, from any of the three SFF fund-of-funds managers

The investment committee reviews possible portfolio investments.

We join 2X Global, a leading network to support gender lens investing practices, as part of our efforts to create social equity within our portfolio.

We submit our annual summary corporate plan to the Government of Canada, a key SFF project document which outline our plans for 2025.

The Capacity Development portfolio now contains seven initiatives, in support of building the social finance market.

The first Canadian-focused ImpactVC and Better Society Capital training program wraps up. Seventeen fund managers of varying fund vintages participated in the five-week program, learning a world-class approach to integrating impact into venture capital and applying that to the Canadian context. We were pleased to sponsor this training as part of our market-building mandate.

We begin recruiting for additional members for our investment advisory and sector advisory committees, to increase the diversity of perspectives and experiences on the committees.

We mark the launch of the Social Equity Lens Investment (SELI) Coding System, a tool to define, assess and track progress towards the SFF’s investment targets of advancing social equity and gender equality. We’ve been pleased to support the development of this coding system, alongside other SFF wholesalers and expect this new tool to be a useful addition to our assessment process.