Global Water First - Program-Related Investments (PRI) Opportunity
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest family foundation, is also one of the world’s largest impact investors. Since 2009, the foundation has complemented its grants budget with a substantial allocation for program-related investments (PRIs). In the words of Julie Sunderland, the founding director of Program Related Investments for Gates: “While the majority of the foundation’s activities will still be traditional grantmaking, we believe PRIs can be a critical tool to stimulate private-sector innovation, encourage market-driven efficiencies, and attract external capital to support our charitable priorities.”The very first PRI was done back in 1969 by Ford Foundation, which continues to craft them for their multi-billion dollar mission investments, recycling them every few years to do that much more good without reaching back into their corpus funds.
Until now, only the largest foundations and family offices could afford the substantial back-office required to handle the due-dilligence, tax reporting and oversight required for this part of the IRS tax code that allows the donor/investor to receive all their capital back plus interest to recycle their contribution over and over again. Today, there are administrating groups that handle every bit of the paperwork for a minimal fee, making the PRI tool available for DAF and wealth advisors and tens of thousands more family offices and foundations to gain the advantage of “returnable contributions”. GWF and Venn Foundation explain below.