Capital with purpose

Impact Investing

With years of pioneering experience in impact investing, we empower organizations, investors, and students to drive sustainable, positive change, create greater equity, and deliver financial returns for investors.

We believe every investment has impact – positive or negative, intended or unintended. We believe capital can be one of the largest levers for change when purposefully deployed. We believe social and environmental impact need not come at the expense of financial returns. We believe purposefully deployed private capital can create social and environmental impact, and generate positive, risk-adjusted, financial returns.

Our solution

We help clients deploy capital to solve social and environmental challenges while producing attractive risk-adjusted financial returns. We do this through our internally managed impact funds, through our outsourced impact investing and fund management services (Impact Investing As-A-Service), and through our advisory and training practices. We magnify our impact through training the next generation of impact leaders by integrating students deeply into all aspects of our impact investing practice. We have trained over 450 students to date.

People working, framed by the Sorenson Impact logo.

WHO WE WORK WITH

Fund managers
Family offices
Private foundations
Financial institutions and banks
Individual investors

How we help with Impact Investing

Impact Fund Management

We raise and manage impact funds with capital from outside LPs.

Impact Fund Management

We raise and manage impact funds with capital from outside LPs.

Impact Investing As-A-Service

Families, foundations, funds, and others engage us to structure and manage dedicated pools of impact capital on their behalf, or to manage parts or all of the impact deal cycle.

  • Deal sourcing through our global network
  • Deal Diligence & Underwriting, including analysis of business model, sales channel effectiveness, customer identification and market sizing, competitive landscape and industry trends, historical and projected financial performance, investment risks and merits, and capitalization table and deal pricing, among others 
  • Deal Structuring, negotiating, and documenting to accommodate investor’s objectives and the entrepreneur’s needs 
  • Portfolio support from experienced investment professionals
  • Impact measurement and reporting for individual deals and entire portfolios with world-class data-science
Measurement and Reporting

We help our partners create rigorous impact measurement and reporting systems to know, show, and grow their social impact.

Stakeholders want transparency from organizations in how their decisions and actions impact people and the planet. Sustainability and viability are increasingly tied to how organizations respond to these growing stakeholder demands where trust in the validity of measurement and reporting is key. The depth, clarity, and rigor required to earn that trust are a cornerstone of our work.

Learn more

Impact Assessment

We help investors measure, visualize, improve and report their social and environmental impact.

ESG and Impact Integration

We help traditional investors integrate social and environmental considerations into their decision analysis and processes.

IMPACT FUND MANAGEMENT

University Venture Fund

With 100% of our focus on early-stage impact investing, we close dozens of deals a year. With our extensive experience in the space, our professional staff is able to fully integrate students in all aspects of our work with professional supervision and guidance. Our goal is to train future leaders of impact as we go about our impact investing responsibilities. At UVF, students are the heart of the fund where they scrutinize new ventures, debate investment decisions, and make a real global impact.

  • $26.6 million under management
  • 11 exits, 5 IPOs, 6 acquisitions
  • 42 investments
  • Trained more than 450 students

UVF has invested alongside many nationally recognized venture funds including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, Battery Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Opus Capital, and Best-Buy Capital.

If this were around when I was in school, I’d probably still be in school.

WARREN BUFFET

IMPACT INVESTING AS-A-SERVICE

Sorenson Impact Foundation

The Sorenson Impact Foundation was created to advance the flow of capital into the most worthy causes on the planet. The Foundation engaged Sorenson Impact to:

  • perform due diligence on impact investment opportunities;
  • identify and present program-related investments (PRI) eligible opportunities;
  • working closely with the Foundation to meet their impact investment criteria and volume;
  • empower collegiate students who will soon become the next generation of impact investors.

Assets Under Management: Undisclosed

IMPACT INVESTING AS-A-SERVICE

Fenton Founder’s Fund

The Fenton Family established a goal of being impactful with their investments. Accordingly, they’ve engaged Sorenson Impact’s impact investing-as-a-service offering to:

  • educate the next generation of impact investors within the Fenton Family (“generation 2.0”) who participate in investment committee discussions and decision making;
  • fund the next generation of Mountain West technology entrepreneurs who are navigating the risks of early company formation;
  • empower collegiate students who will soon become the next generation of impact investors.

Assets Under Management: Undisclosed

People gathered around a conference table.
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View Impact Investing team
Naik, Tej

Naik, Tej

Tej Naik

Student Intern, Impact Investing

Neely, Ben

Neely, Ben

Ben Neely

Student Fellow, Impact Investing

Yang, Yu

Yang, Yu

Yu Yang

Student Intern, Impact Investing

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