Key Takeaways
- • The share of private foundations allocating part of their endowments to mission-aligned investments rose to 29% in 2025 from 14% in 2018, according to Commonfund Institute and Council on Foundations data.
- • Community foundations allocating to mission-driven investments increased to 26% from 16% over the same period.
- • MacArthur Foundation is expanding its impact investment allocation by 50% to a total of $750 million, against total assets of $9.9 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025.
- • The global impact investing market is estimated at $1.6 trillion in AUM, up 11% year over year, per the Global Impact Investing Network's October 2025 annual report.
- • Commonfund OCIO managing director Caroline Greer expects impact investing to become "table stakes" as measurement standards mature.
Summary
The percentage of private foundations that allocate a portion of their endowments to investments furthering their missions more than doubled over the past seven years, rising to 29% in 2025 from 14% in 2018, according to data from the Commonfund Institute and the Council on Foundations. Community foundations showed a similar trajectory, with allocations to mission-driven investments climbing to 26% from 16% over the same period. Commonfund Institute, the research arm of institutional asset manager Commonfund, attributed the shift to foundations asking why their missions should not also inform how they invest the capital supporting them, as stated in an Oct. 22 post on its website.
Caroline Greer, managing director at Commonfund OCIO, which manages approximately $21.8 billion in assets under a parent firm with $31.5 billion in AUM, said she expects the trend to continue. She credited more formalized global initiatives for the momentum, citing the Impact Management Project, which works to build consensus on measuring, improving and disclosing investment impacts, and the Operating Principles for Impact Management, a voluntary standard for integrating impact considerations across the investment lifecycle. Greer said the added intention in measurement and reporting represents a significant change, and predicted that benchmarking outcomes and demonstrating effectiveness and return will make impact investing a standard part of endowment portfolio construction.
The Global Impact Investing Network's latest annual report, released in October 2025, estimates the global impact investing market at $1.6 trillion in assets under management, with impact AUM rising 11% over the prior year. Against this backdrop, the MacArthur Foundation announced earlier in October that it is expanding its impact investment allocation by 50% to $750 million. MacArthur President John Palfrey said in an Oct. 8 statement that impact investments are an important way to advance the foundation's mission alongside charitable giving and values-aligned endowment investing.
Caroline Greer, managing director at Commonfund OCIO, which manages approximately $21.8 billion in assets under a parent firm with $31.5 billion in AUM, said she expects the trend to continue. She credited more formalized global initiatives for the momentum, citing the Impact Management Project, which works to build consensus on measuring, improving and disclosing investment impacts, and the Operating Principles for Impact Management, a voluntary standard for integrating impact considerations across the investment lifecycle. Greer said the added intention in measurement and reporting represents a significant change, and predicted that benchmarking outcomes and demonstrating effectiveness and return will make impact investing a standard part of endowment portfolio construction.
The Global Impact Investing Network's latest annual report, released in October 2025, estimates the global impact investing market at $1.6 trillion in assets under management, with impact AUM rising 11% over the prior year. Against this backdrop, the MacArthur Foundation announced earlier in October that it is expanding its impact investment allocation by 50% to $750 million. MacArthur President John Palfrey said in an Oct. 8 statement that impact investments are an important way to advance the foundation's mission alongside charitable giving and values-aligned endowment investing.
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