Caleb, Ballou
Internship Description
Caleb Ballou, ’16BUS SIPA, worked on the Rockefeller Foundation's Program Related Investments (PRI) Fund team. PRIs are impact investments used by the Foundation to forward their program objectives across multiple initiatives including debt, equity and guarantees. Caleb worked towards closing several major investments (>$10 million deployed) in growing and impactful organizations domiciled in emerging markets from Africa to China.
This summer at Rockefeller, I worked within their Innovative Finance department, on their Impact Investing and Program Related Investments (PRIs) team. The PRI team is quite unusual within the Rockefeller Foundation in that it make private sector investments that yield both social and financial return, and are used in situations in which grant making is not a natural fit. For example, in order to spur economic development in Nepal, Rockefeller might invest private capital into a growing private enterprise that is for profit, to maximize scalability and economic development, but also integrates a social mission into its core philosophy (job creation and training, for example). This summer, I worked to evaluate the social impact of several new potential impact investments, ranging from microfinance in underserviced regions of rural Africa, to venture capital focused on supply chain efficiencies (and thus income generation and job creation among the rural poor) in southeast Asia.
Impact investing demands a rigorous analytical background, along with a strong grasp of the financial markets, deal structuring, and risk assessment. But impact investing also demands a strong understanding of social impact and the nuances of achieving positive development on the ground. My time at Rockefeller not only drew upon my financial and strategic planning and analysis skills, but also upon the understanding of social impact, social entrepreneurship and international development that I have gained during my time at Columbia Business School and SIPA.
One interesting challenge of being the sole private sector-focused team within a storied philanthropic institution was that the Rockefeller leadership was not unanimous either in unequivocally endorsing the concept of impact investing, or in visualizing the mechanisms through which Rockefeller could have most impact in the space. With the rest of my (three person total) team, we presented three new impact “deals” over the summer to Rockefeller’s Investment Committee, made up of the organization’s CFO, chief legal office, Head of Programs, Chief Investment Officer, among many other top leaders of the institution. This was a fun and stimulating opportunity, but also helped me realize how disparate perspectives and priorities related to impact investing can be. Each senior leader seemed to have a slightly different vision for our team, and a slightly different idea of what we should be spending most of our limited research time digging in to. It was fascinating both to recognize the varied perspectives on private sector investing as philanthropy, and to navigate the diplomacy of getting “deals” done in a politically fraught environment.
I remain very optimistic about the role that Rockefeller and other “philanthropy first” investors can have in expanding the visibility, effectiveness and impact of impact investing. By underwriting the riskiest components of some high-impact deals’ capital structure, Rockefeller was able to catalyze other more “profit first” investment in several deals; and over the short term, this seems a viable method of raising awareness of and comfort in impact investing and high-risk emerging market development investing. It will be fascinating to continue to watch this space develop, and I hope that Rockefeller can use its incredible resources and talent to be a strong positive force in the process.