New Tool Enhances Decision-Making for Impact Investing

For more than 25 years, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has used impact invest­ments to pur­sue two goals at once: 1) gen­er­at­ing a finan­cial return; and 2) improv­ing out­comes for chil­dren, youth and fam­i­lies. Since 1998, in fact, the Foun­da­tion has com­mit­ted $350 mil­lion to more than 130 impact invest­ments, using endow­ment dol­lars along­side grant mak­ing to strength­en fam­i­lies, build stronger com­mu­ni­ties and expand access to eco­nom­ic opportunity.

Now, a new, inter­ac­tive report opens Casey’s deci­sion-mak­ing process to a wider audi­ence. Invest­ing for Impact: A Deci­sion-Mak­ing Tool shares the frame­work that Casey uses to assess invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties with con­sis­ten­cy and a strong sense of mission.

Down­load Invest­ing for Impact

Invest­ing for Impact intro­duces a tool to help investors eval­u­ate each oppor­tu­ni­ty. The tool assess­es 10 cri­te­ria across three areas of poten­tial align­ment: 1) mis­sion fit; 2) orga­ni­za­tion­al sound­ness; and 3) strate­gic val­ue and pri­or­i­ties. The tool also sup­plies a pre-invest­ment screen­ing score­card as well as a data log for sup­port­ing due dili­gence and ongo­ing mon­i­tor­ing. Casey and oth­er mis­sion-dri­ven investors can use both of these work­sheets to record their own rat­ings, weight­ings and notes.

The process shows how the objec­tives of finan­cial and social return can rein­force one anoth­er when investors are clear about their goals, hon­est about risk, and rig­or­ous about how they define success.

“This tool cap­tures what the Foun­da­tion has learned over a quar­ter cen­tu­ry of impact invest­ing: The strongest oppor­tu­ni­ties are the ones where con­nec­tion to our mis­sion, sound strat­e­gy and real ben­e­fits for chil­dren and fam­i­lies come togeth­er,” said Tra­cy Kar­tye, Casey’s direc­tor of impact invest­ments. ​“The process we’re shar­ing gives us a prac­ti­cal way to assess invest­ments con­sis­tent­ly while stay­ing focused on the results that mat­ter most.”

A Frame­work Root­ed in Mis­sion and Results

The tool’s frame­work offers a struc­tured way to com­pare promis­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that may appear sim­i­lar on the sur­face, and it does this by aid­ing investors in assess­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties across three weight­ed levels: 

• Lev­el 1 — Mis­sion Fit: Car­ries the great­est weight, rep­re­sent­ing 50% of the total score. As used by Casey, this cal­cu­la­tion reflects the Foundation’s view that invest­ments should first advance the well-being of chil­dren, youth and fam­i­lies and con­nect clear­ly to grant-mak­ing priorities.
• Lev­el 2 — Orga­ni­za­tion­al Sound­ness: Rep­re­sents 30% of the total score and adds the dis­ci­pline need­ed to assess lead­er­ship, finan­cial health and feasibility. 
• Lev­el 3 — Strate­gic Val­ue and Pri­or­i­ties: Rep­re­sents 20% of the total score. Incor­po­rates the fac­tors that can shape broad­er change, includ­ing geog­ra­phy, pol­i­cy influ­ence, investor con­tri­bu­tion and the poten­tial for replication. 

Impact Invest­ing Exam­ples: Jobs, Hous­ing and Child Care

Invest­ing for Impact includes sev­er­al exam­ples of invest­ments and how Casey staff assess­es the dif­fer­ent lev­els. These exam­ples include: 

• Ignite Cap­i­tal, which sup­ports entre­pre­neur­ship, local job cre­ation and com­mu­ni­ty pros­per­i­ty in his­tor­i­cal­ly dis­in­vest­ed neigh­bor­hoods. Ignite rat­ed high in mis­sion fit across all three cri­te­ria. The Bal­ti­more non­prof­it received a $500,000 Casey impact invest­ment in 2023. By 2025, Ignite had invest­ed in more than 30 enter­pris­es, includ­ing ven­tures tied to job train­ing, prop­er­ty restora­tion, cof­fee roast­ing and retail. 
• Bridge Invest­ment Group rat­ed high in orga­ni­za­tion­al sound­ness across all three cri­te­ria thanks to its sta­ble lead­er­ship team, diver­si­fied fund­ing port­fo­lio and record of suc­cess. As of June 2025, Casey-backed funds through Bridge had reha­bil­i­tat­ed or pre­served about 18,000 homes. 
• Care Access Real Estate, or CARE rat­ed high in three of the four strate­gic val­ue and pri­or­i­ties cri­te­ria. The non­prof­it real estate trust uti­lizes a unique strat­e­gy, financ­ing, build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing facil­i­ties for home- and cen­ter-based care providers. CARE had raised more than $10 mil­lion, includ­ing a $3 mil­lion Casey invest­ment, and had acquired 24 prop­er­ties sup­port­ing 292 child care seats as of Decem­ber 2025. 

Down­load the tool