Microfinance Focus June 29, 2011: Seattle-based nonprofit organization investing in microfinance and sustainable poverty solutions Global Partnerships (GP) was recently selected in the inaugural ImpactAssets 50, a list of private debt and equity fund managers that deliver social and environmental value addition to financial returns.

Since 2005, Global Partnerships has created four debt funds-ranging from $2 million to its most recent fund of $25 million-that provide affordable loans to a select portfolio of microfinance organizations and cooperatives, its partners. GP prioritizes organizations that reach people most in need of credit, such as the rural poor, and which provide borrowers with not just microloans but ‘microfinance-plus’ services such as preventive health care, business education and agricultural training.

‘Impact investing’ refers to investment vehicles built to solve the world’s social challenges, while offering investors social and financial returns. The ImpactAssets 50 is intended to help investors make sense of the expanding universe of impact investing, and provide financial and impact information on each manager.

ImpactAssets is a nonprofit financial services company launched by Calvert Foundation in 2010. It leverages support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cordes Foundation, and several other leading philanthropic and financial services sponsors.