The Rockefeller Foundation has announced that it helped mobilize more than $795 million in private finance toward a diverse portfolio of high-impact investment strategies since 2019 through its Zero Gap Fund (ZGF), including two investments in 2022, boosting total commitments to the $30 million fund to $25 million.
The foundation’s annual Zero Gap Fund: 2022 State of the Portfolio report (PDF, 22 pages) offers a summary of the fund, which was launched in 2019 in partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) to promote investment in scalable and innovative impact-driven investment solutions. To that end, ZGF deploys patient, risk-tolerant, and flexible capital into promising financial strategies and mechanisms that boost large-scale private investment to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the report, investments making an impact toward SDGs include the Forest Resilience Bond, which has helped to avert 1,791 metric tons of CO2 emissions, funded restoration for 176 acres of fire-prone areas in California, and protected 527 acres of terrestrial ecosystems; LeapFrog’s Emerging Consumer Fund III, which has delivered essential healthcare services to 166 million emerging consumers and enabled more than 94,000 jobs as of 2022; and the Lightsmith Group, whose CRAFT Fund has successfully reduced 395,000 tons of net greenhouse gas emissions, while serving more than 16,000 beneficiaries as of 2022. Read more