Funding includes a $2.25 million equity investment from Ford Foundation and Radicle Impact, $1.35 million in recoverable grants from The Rockefeller Foundation and an additional grant from the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing
BlueMark, a provider of impact verification services for investors and companies, today announced that it had raised $3.75 million in total funding from the Ford Foundation, Radicle Impact, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing, all organizations with a shared commitment and long-standing leadership in building the impact investing field. The funding will be used to help expand BlueMark’s verification services across different industries and geographies in continuation of the firm’s mission to strengthen trust in impact investing.
As part of the capital raise, BlueMark has now closed its seed round with $2.25 million in equity funding with the Ford Foundation as the lead investor and Radicle Impact as a co-investor. BlueMark has also received a combined $1.35 million in recoverable grants from The Rockefeller Foundation to advance the market’s understanding of best practices for impact management and impact performance reporting, such as through the publication of research reports based on completed verifications of client alignment with industry standards or frameworks.
In July 2021, BlueMark also received a grant from the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing, a donor collaborative with a mission of scaling the impact investing market with integrity, to support research and development around best practices for impact performance reporting.
BlueMark today also announced the appointment of Lauren Booker Allen and Shaun Mays as Independent Directors. Allen is Partner and Head of Impact Advisory at Jordan Park, which provides investment management and financial advice to a distinct community of individuals, families, and institutions. She was previously Senior Manager of Impact Investing at Omidyar Network and began her career at Goldman Sachs. Mays has over 30 years of experience as a Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer in the investment industry for organizations around the world, including as Head of Aventicum Infrastructure Partners (a joint venture between Credit Suisse and Qatar Investment Authority) in Zurich, CEO of Deutsche Asset Management in Australia, Global Head of Infrastructure Investments for Deutsche Asset Management in New York, and CEO and CIO of Climate Change Capital in London.
The latest funding for BlueMark comes at a pivotal time in the maturation of the impact investing industry. In November 2021 at COP26, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation) announced the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to develop a comprehensive global baseline of high-quality sustainability disclosure standards in an effort to harmonize different ESG and impact reporting practices. However, the market still lacks an accountability mechanism to ensure that reported sustainability and impact information is relevant, accurate, and useful for investment decision-making. The need for stronger accountability mechanisms was specifically highlighted in the December 2021 reports from the Impact Taskforce on “mobilising private capital at scale for people and planet,” which included the expansion of external verification and assurance of impact among the list of recommendations.
“BlueMark fills an important gap in the impact investment market as an expert, third-party that can look under the hood of investor practices and performance,” said Roy Swan, director of Mission Investments for the Ford Foundation. “At the Ford Foundation, we share their desire to improve accountability, discipline and comparability among impact investors so that the field delivers equitable and sustainable outcomes for all.”
“Even with the continued progress towards harmonization of standards, the impact investing industry still lacks consensus on what constitutes quality and complete impact performance reporting and needs an expert, third-party that can interpret what and how investors are reporting on both their positive and negative impacts,” said Maria Kozloski, Senior Vice President of Innovative Finance at The Rockefeller Foundation. “BlueMark fills a big gap in the market and the firm’s holistic approach to verification encourages impact investors to reach for a higher bar with their impact performance.”
“We are grateful for the support from both funders and clients as we continue to build out our verification services and share with the market our data and insights on market gaps and challenges,” said Christina Leijonhufvud, CEO of BlueMark. “This funding will allow us to reach a larger share of the impact investing market, which depends on third-party verification to accelerate the maturation of the industry and improve transparency, integrity and comparability among impact investors.”
BlueMark’s verification services are structured around two key pillars of accountability for impact:
Impact Management Practice, in which BlueMark verifies the systems and processes used by an investor or company to manage their impact
Impact Performance, in which BlueMark verifies the reporting approach used by an investor or company to communicate their impact strategy, goals and results
To date, BlueMark has completed more than 60 impact verifications for a wide range of investors, including asset managers (e.g., private equity, private credit, infrastructure, fixed income, public equity, and multi-asset managers) and asset owners (e.g., institutional investors, development finance institutions, foundations, and wealth management firms).
BlueMark’s verification services also extend to other key aspects of sustainable and impact investing, including impact labeling and classification—for example in alignment with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) requirements in Europe and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—as well as ESG practices and performance reporting by portfolio companies and fund managers.
About BlueMark
BlueMark is a leading provider of impact verification with a mission to strengthen trust in impact investing and to increase accountability for impact. BlueMark is an independent subsidiary of Tideline, a certified women-owned advisory firm in impact investing. Learn more at www.BlueMarkTideline.com.
About the Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than 85 years it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation to enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We work to promote the well-being of humanity and make opportunity universal. Our focus is on scaling renewable energy for all, stimulating economic mobility, and ensuring equitable access to healthy and nutritious food. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter @RockefellerFdn.
About Radicle Impact Partners
Radicle Impact is an impact venture fund focused on social justice, environmental resilience and economic sustainability. Radicle invests in early-stage businesses in Good Food, Good Money and Good Climate. The firm has a foundational emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion. Radicle’s objective is strong social and environmental impact with attractive financial returns. Founded in 2013, the firm’s mission is to change the venture industry for good. http://www.radicleimpact.com
About the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing
The Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing (TPF) is a donor collaborative vehicle developed with the mission of creating and supporting public goods that are critical to the continued growth and fidelity of the impact investing market. The TPF was launched in December 2019 with an initial $14 million in philanthropic capital, which will be used to develop the infrastructure that is needed to mobilize more private capital for impact. The funding will build on existing field building efforts by prioritizing the areas that are chronically underfunded, are best suited for collective action and require additional support beyond that provided by individual grantmakers. Learn more at www.tpfii.org.
As a founding Director of the Global Impact Investing Network, Gelfand is a leading expert on impact measurement and management standards
BlueMark, a leading provider of impact verification services for investors and companies, today announced the hiring of Sarah Gelfand as Managing Director. Gelfand will report to BlueMark CEO Christina Leijonhufvud and will co-lead BlueMark’s business strategy and team, business and product development efforts, and various market-building and standard-setting initiatives.
“Sarah is one of the impact investing market’s early pioneers, highly respected for her integrity and expertise in impact management and measurement, not to mention, equally well-liked and admired by her colleagues,” said Leijonhufvud. “Her experience building innovative platforms and managing multi-disciplinary teams makes her a perfect fit for BlueMark as we take this next step to bring impact verification to the global impact investing market.”
Gelfand was a founding Director at the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), where she led development of the industry’s leading system for measuring and managing impact “IRIS” (now IRIS+), growing the user base from five pilot investors to several thousand organizations across the industry.
More recently, as the Vice President of Social Impact Programs at Fidelity Charitable, Gelfand launched several new impact investing programs and led a grant-making initiative for the Board of Trustees. She also developed and ran a specialty business unit focused on providing philanthropic consulting services to clients.
“Over the past 12 years working in different parts of the impact investing market, I have consistently seen first-hand the need for independent verification to ensure the industry grows with integrity and credibility,” said Gelfand. “I share BlueMark’s vision of bringing increased transparency and accountability to the impact investing market and am eager to get to work in building the business and exploring new service areas.”
Before joining Fidelity Charitable, Gelfand was a Deputy Director at Duke University where she oversaw strategy and operations for an accelerator program that produced research and provided consulting services to a network of 50 nonprofit and for-profit healthcare-focused social enterprises.
Tideline, a specialist consultant for the impact investing industry, launched a separate independent impact verification business, BlueMark, in January 2020. BlueMark offers a range of impact verification services, helping evaluate the alignment of clients’ impact mandates, impact management practices, and impact reporting with industry standards like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Impact Management Project (IMP), IRIS+, Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM), UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and others.
About BlueMark
BlueMark provides independent impact verification services for investors and companies. With a mission to strengthen trust in impact investing, BlueMark’s services are designed to meet the need for reliable, third-party assurance of impact claims and practices. Learn more at www.BlueMarkTideline.com.
About Tideline
Tideline is a specialist consultant for the impact investing industry providing expert, tailored and actionable advice to clients developing impact investment strategies, products and solutions. Learn more at www.Tideline.com.
Media Contact 17 Communications
Dmitriy Ioselevich [email protected]
The Rockefeller Foundation and Radicle Impact have agreed to be founding investors in BlueMark
October 1, 2020 — Tideline, a specialist consultant for the impact investing industry, today announced the launch of BlueMark, an independent business providing impact verification services for investors and companies. BlueMark’s mission is “to strengthen trust in impact investing” through rigorous and independent assessments of an investor’s or company’s impact practices and performance, thereby building confidence and credibility in the impact label. The new business draws on Tideline’s deep expertise helping clients develop sophisticated impact investment strategies and practices, with third-party verification now emerging as the next critical piece of a best-in-class approach.
“Independent verification is essential for scaling the impact investing industry with integrity,” said Christina Leijonhufvud, a Managing Partner at Tideline who has transitioned to become CEO of BlueMark. “By introducing a reliable mechanism for establishing trust and accountability in the impact investment market, stakeholders can have greater confidence in impact claims and performance. Asset owners and institutional allocators especially benefit from the introduction of impact verification, which has the potential to dramatically simplify the impact screening and monitoring process and thereby mobilize greater capital flows toward positive societal impact.”
Impact verification came to the forefront in April 2019 with the introduction of the Operating Principles for Impact Management (“OPIM” or the “Impact Principles”), led by the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) and now featuring a growing group of more than 100 signatories dedicated to “establishing a common discipline around the management of investments for impact.” One of these Principles—Principle 9—specifically requires signatories to publicly disclose and independently verify their alignment with the Principles on a regular basis.
Shortly after the launch of the Impact Principles, Tideline completed the first-ever published OPIM verification on behalf of LeapFrog Investments. To date, Tideline has completed 20 impact management system verifications, including nearly 40% of the verifications published to date by OPIM signatories. The aggregated results of the first 13 of these verifications were featured in Tideline’s April 2020 report, “Making the Mark,” that explored how impact investors are coalescing around best practices and addressing shared challenges. These results spotlighted what is now BlueMark’s signature impact management practice verification, and influenced the introduction of additional verification services that span impact mandate and impact reporting assessments as well.
The launch of BlueMark represents the formal separation of the verification business from Tideline’s consulting business, thereby establishing a dedicated team to provide independent impact verification services. BlueMark will also serve non-US clients out of a newly established London office.
The BlueMark team has designed proprietary methodologies for evaluating how each of the three key components of an investor’s impact management process—impact mandates, impact management practices, and impact reporting—are aligned with industry standards like OPIM, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Impact Management Project (IMP), the Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) IRIS+, UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and others.
The Rockefeller Foundation and Radicle Impact intend to make catalytic investments into BlueMark to help seed the business and ensure the impact investing field has access to high-quality and independent verification services.
“Tideline has long been a pioneer in the impact investing space, and this new verification business represents the next frontier and a much-needed step in the evolution of this industry,” said Maria Kozloski, Senior Vice President of Innovative Finance at The Rockefeller Foundation. “We are proud to support the BlueMark team as they continue to advance best practices in impact investing.”
“Our goal at Radicle Impact is to provide investors with benchmark or better returns, deliver measurable social justice and environmental resilience impacts, and catalyze the migration of large amounts of mainstream capital to impact investing,” said Dan Skaff, Managing Partner at Radicle Impact. “In order to do so, we believe in the need for well-articulated impact goals, transparency and independent validation of results. The BlueMark team are proven leaders in data-based impact evaluation and measurement, and we’re excited to join their efforts to accelerate meaningful impact in the venture and private equity communities.”
As of this announcement, BlueMark’s verification clients include, among others: BlueOrchard Finance, Calvert Impact Capital, CDC Group, Closed Loop Partners, Community Investment Management (CIM), European Bank for Reconstruction Development (EBRD), KKR, LeapFrog Investments, LGT Venture Philanthropy, Nuveen, PG Impact Investments, PG LIFE, the Osiris Group, and UBS.
To learn more about impact verification, BlueMark will be hosting a launch event on Thursday, October 1 at 9 AM ET featuring Christina Leijonhufvud (CEO of BlueMark), Nick O’Donohoe (CEO of the CDC Group), Maria Kozloski (Senior Vice President of Innovative Finance at The Rockefeller Foundation), Dr. Andrew Kuper (Founder and CEO of LeapFrog Investments), and Roy Swan (Director of Mission Investments at the Ford Foundation). Please RSVP for the event at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/strengthening-trust-in-impact-investing-tickets-122240242857.
About BlueMark
BlueMark provides independent impact verification services for investors and companies. The services are designed to strengthen confidence in the achievement of stated impact goals through the verification of impact mandates, impact management practices, and impact reporting against established industry standards. Learn more at www.BlueMarkTideline.com.
About Tideline
Tideline is a specialist consultant for the impact investing industry providing expert, tailored and actionable advice to clients developing impact investment strategies, products and solutions. Learn more at www.Tideline.com.
Media Contact 17 Communications
Dmitriy Ioselevich [email protected]
