Program areas at GBF
Grassroots Business Fund (gbf) is heavily involved in building the field around impact investing by working closely with partner organizations, piloting new initiatives, and contributing lessons learned to a broad audience. As part of the partnership building, gbf is a member of numerous working groups including those around impact assessment, the development of impact funds, and careers in impact investing. As the organization grows, a continued effort towards external dissemination of information on the successes and lessons learned relating to impact investing will be critical for our advancing of the field.
Gbf's capacity building programs are a combination of Business advisory services (bas) funded through grants and hands-on management support from gbf staff and its Partners. These capacity building programs include improvements to governance, general management, reporting, management information systems (mis), and business/financial planning. These programs are delivered by experienced external consultants, gbf staff, and through our partnerships with other local businesses. Gbf's bas falls into six main categories: financial management, operations, corporate governance and human capacity, strategy, legal and regulatory, and environmental and social. Since 2008, gbf has engaged in 488 Business advisory assignments in 83 companies that have impacted cumulatively 17.4 million low communities worldwide. Under the jinue growth program, gbf has partnered with the mastercard foundation for a 5-year program that commenced in november 2022. The Business advisory services under the program aims to reach 275,800 micros and 4,500 smes.
Grassroots Business Fund (gbf) works with high-impact businesses (hibs) that are typically small or mid-sized by international standards, but economically engage large numbers of the poor. Gbp manages an investment Fund, Grassroots Business investors Fund i, lp (gbi-i).as of september 30th, 2023, gbi-i deployed its investment funds into 33 high impact businesses. As of december 2023, there are 3 active companies in the portfolio and 30 successful exits. To date, gbi-i has collected $35.8m of payments net of taxes. The average size of investment was $655k. Since inception, gbi-i's investees are estimated to have generated $600 million of economic value to 20 million low-income communities worldwide.