Investing today for tomorrow’s world: Impact investing score 2022

Since 2015, the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation has chosen to put its financial portfolio in line with its social mission at the service of a just and sustainable transition. In 2022, despite a relative decline in financial performance, in a very complicated market context, we did not give in to a wait-and-see attitude and were able to carry out new investment projects that contribute to the just and ecological transition. Discover it in our 2022 Impact Investment Note!

Acting in line with our mission and vision

A distributive foundation like ours has two professions: that of managing its assets and that of its sponsorship policy. For us, it is essential to link these two professions in the service of the impact we want to have in our two areas of intervention, Sustainable Food and Citizen Art. Following the sale of its historical assets in shares in 2015, the Foundation has implemented a financial and asset allocation strategy consistent with its social mission. SRI investments (which systematically and traceably integrate environmental, social and governance criteria), low-carbon transition, financing of positive impact solutions, seed of innovative projects, creation of a collaborative space dedicated to the social and solidarity economy… The Foundation’s financial assets are thus committed to complementing and amplifying its actions and vision.

Investment for the just and ecological transition

To structure this policy, in 2016 we set up an investment charter to define guidelines that apply to all investments and are based on the signing of commitments by DivestInvest, a global movement of investors pushing for an exit of issuers from the fossil fuel sector. A true compass for the Foundation’s financial management, the charter provides a framework for the investment policy, both in terms of mission, values and profitability. It excludes certain sectors and specifies the preferred investment themes

In 2022, we accelerated our investments in traditional asset classes by directing these investments towards the low-carbon transition. This has manifested itself in investments in listed shares in thematic funds dedicated to the fight against climate change, for example.

Encouraging positive impact solutions

Impact investing is a form of engagement finance that goes beyond carbon footprint and exclusion. It is about selecting companies that provide positive impact solutions and working with them on the ground to create fairer value chains.

In France and Spain, since 2018, we have been financing companies in the agri-food sector through loans and equity investments, which provide concrete solutions to the necessary food transition. With the support of Quadia, the FDNC-SFS fund continued to deploy its capital in 2022, with 4 new companies entering the portfolio: Baluchon, Poiscaille, Nous anti-gaspi and Ideel Garden. Proof that, despite inflation, innovative models for more sustainable food chains continue to develop. In a strong signal, the Foundation also opened the FDNC-SFS fund at the end of 2022 to the Anyama endowment fund. This is a first, which reinforces the fund’s initial ambition to mobilise other investors in the service of its impact thesis, and thus deploy more capital in companies with sustainable food solutions.

Also, the year 2022 was marked by the development of our new Tiina seed fund : its objective is to support and finance innovative projects of companies and start-ups with a social and/or environmental impact and a potential for profitability that can create a real transformation of their ecosystem. Carried out in Spain with the Ship2be Foundation, the 8 projects dedicated to art and food selected in 2022 benefited from training and supervision in order to refine and improve their proposals during a business bootcamp. In France, this program conducted with Miimosa and makesense aims to impact the climate, health and nutrition, biodiversity and regeneration, accessibility to healthy products and fair value chains.

Infinito Delicias: an ambitious project in Madrid

Our eco-rehabilitation project for an industrial building in Madrid is underway under the name of Infinito Delicias, in reference to the name of the “Delicias” district in which it is located. A future place of training, work, support for social entrepreneurs and associations, life and meetings, it will host the sustainable food and citizen art solutions implemented by the Foundation and its partners. In 2022, the architectural project and the economic model were clarified. Links have been forged with the neighbourhood and local public services to pool the energy that will be produced by future photovoltaic installations.