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Impact Assets
ImpactAssets was founded in 2010 as a nonprofit financial services firm spun out of the Calvert Foundation, designed to unlock donor-advised fund (DAF)...
Impact Assets
ImpactAssets was founded in 2010 as a nonprofit financial services firm spun out of the Calvert Foundation, designed to unlock donor-advised fund (DAF) capital for private impact investments. CEO Margret Trilli, who previously built the investment platform at SVB and led the creation of the UBS donor-advised fund, took the helm in 2021. The firm remains a subsidiary of Calvert Impact, a registered nonprofit, giving it a distinct regulatory and capital structure compared to commercially owned DAF sponsors like Fidelity Charitable or Schwab Charitable. The firm's strategy centers on its ImpactAssets Donor Advised Fund, which allows clients to recommend allocations to private debt, private equity, and real assets with environmental or social theses. Deployment spans fund commitments, direct co-investments, and recoverable grants. The public IA 50 database tracks global impact fund managers and serves as both a market good and an origination channel. Thematic exposure leans heavily toward financial inclusion, clean energy infrastructure, and sustainable agriculture, with confirmed interests in microfinance CDFIs and emerging-market climate funds. Geographically, the platform backs managers across North America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia (per the firm, 2024). The organization has grown to over 40 professionals across six offices — San Francisco, Denver, Durham, Birmingham, Corona del Mar, Gloucestershire, and Singapore — supporting donor clients and field-building initiatives. In January 2024, ImpactAssets reported surpassing $3 billion in cumulative deployments since inception, reflecting a doubling of the platform in under four years (per ImpactAlpha, 2024). The firm also runs the ImpactAssets Giving Fund and issues thematic white papers that benchmark the evolving impact management landscape. What structurally separates ImpactAssets from the largest commercial DAF sponsors is its exclusive focus on private impact alternatives. While Fidelity Charitable and National Philanthropic Trust sit on hundreds of billions in publicly traded securities and index funds, ImpactAssets solely facilitates allocations to illiquid managers and direct deals — a narrower but deeper mandate that makes it a go-to platform for philanthropists seeking catalytic, concessionary, or market-rate impact exposure outside traditional grantmaking.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2010
AUM
>$3B in assets across the platform (per the firm, 2024)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Francisco
Corporate office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Additional offices
Denver, CO · Durham, NC · Birmingham, AL · Corona del Mar, CA · Gloucestershire, United Kingdom · Singapore
Principals
Margret Trilli
CEO & Chief Investment Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Is ImpactAssets a single family office or a donor-advised fund sponsor?
ImpactAssets is a nonprofit donor-advised fund sponsor and direct investor, not a family office. It is a subsidiary of Calvert Impact, a registered 501(c)(3), and operates the ImpactAssets Donor Advised Fund through which accredited donors recommend allocations to private impact funds, direct deals, and recoverable grants. The firm does not manage a single family's wealth.
What types of investments does the ImpactAssets DAF offer that a commercial DAF like Fidelity Charitable does not?
Most commercial DAF sponsors limit grant recommendations to publicly traded securities or cash equivalents. ImpactAssets specifically enables donor-recommended allocations into private impact funds, direct private company investments, and recoverable grants — asset classes that require sophisticated structuring typically unavailable in standard DAF programs. This includes private debt for community development financial institutions, equity in Series-stage climate tech funds, and infrastructure projects in emerging markets.
How is ImpactAssets related to the IA 50 database?
ImpactAssets publishes the IA 50, a free, publicly available database listing 50 experienced private impact fund managers globally each year. The list is not a solicitation vehicle for the DAF but serves as a market-building effort and research resource. Many managers on the IA 50 have received capital from ImpactAssets' donor-advised fund, but the firm maintains that the selection process is independent of fundraising relationships (per the firm's official communications).
Does ImpactAssets invest client capital directly, or only through third-party fund managers?
The ImpactAssets Donor Advised Fund makes both direct impact investments and fund commitments, decided by the firm's in-house investment team led by CEO and CIO Margret Trilli, subject to donor recommendations. The platform commonly participates in direct community-level lending, affordable housing developments, and climate infrastructure co-investments alongside fund-of-fund allocations.
What geographic footprint does ImpactAssets cover with its investment teams?
ImpactAssets operates from six offices across the United States and one each in the United Kingdom and Singapore. The investment team sources deals globally, with known concentrations in North American community development finance, East African sustainable agriculture, and South Asian microfinance and clean energy funds (per ImpactAlpha, 2024).
Does ImpactAssets maintain philanthropic structures separate from its DAF?
Yes. ImpactAssets is a subsidiary of Calvert Impact, and it also operates the ImpactAssets Giving Fund. These share the same overarching nonprofit mission but the firm manages distinct legal entities to separate its charitable giving vehicles from the operations of the donor-advised fund and its investment process.
What is ImpactAssets' source of capital — does it come from a single family's wealth?
No. Capital comes from a broad base of individual and institutional donors who establish donor-advised fund accounts at ImpactAssets. There is no single underlying family wealth source. The firm aggregates thousands of donor accounts to build the deployment pool for private impact investments.
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