Posted on January 27, 2010

Rockefeller Foundation Awards Grant for Social Stock Exchange in Asia

The Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange Asia has announced a $495,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to support proof-of-concept analysis of Asia's first social stock exchange, which IIX hopes to create.

The organization is working to launch a regulated trading platform for securities issued by for-profit or nonprofit entities in Asia with a sustainable social or environmental mission. As part of the foundation's impact investing work, the grant will help IIX develop the necessary infrastructure for a functioning social capital market and promote the availability of capital for social enterprise, enabling such enterprises to expand their operations and provide both measurable social and financial returns for investors.

"The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support Impact Investment Exchange Asia in [its] effort to create Asia's first securities exchange for impact investors as part of our multimillion-dollar initiative that is helping to establish and standardize the impact investing industry," said Rockefeller Foundation managing director Antony Bugg-Levine. "Impact investing is necessary to complement traditional resources such as international aid, government funding, and philanthropic grants in helping to achieve profound social change, and IIX is well on its way to have significant impact in the Asian Social Enterprise sector."