The elea Way - Preview

elea’s FOUNDATION AND OPER ATING MODEL

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instrumental in sourcing and evaluating new investments. Important addi- tional layers supporting this model are elea’s knowledge base, such as the elea Impact Measurement Methodology (eIMM) and the insights gained from collaborating with the elea Center for Social Innovation at IMD, and the community of elea entrepreneurs, investors, and team members (including alumni) (see Figure 3.2). 3 .2.1 Philanthropic impact investment management Identifying and evaluating new investments and managing the exist- ing portfolio of investments for maximum impact value creation is at the heart of what it takes to realize elea’s purpose. Therefore, processes, methods, and tools that relate to this key component of elea’s operating model enjoy the highest priority. During elea’s initial founding period, we took substantial time to explore, experiment, and learn from both our good and bad experiences in making philanthropic impact investments and supporting their devel- opment. At times, we worked with large development organizations that were more accustomed to implementing projects on behalf of public-aid agencies than working with a small, young, and entrepreneurial foun- dation like ourselves. We also supported individuals who, sometimes, found our standards of professionalism and ethics to be quite challeng- ing. While, in hindsight, we could possibly have taken shortcuts, overall it was a necessary and valuable journey to gradually refine our areas of investment, sourcing methods, investment criteria, and ways of contrib- uting to impact creation through partnering with the entrepreneurs of the companies in our growing portfolio. By and large, we followed advice based on other people’s experiences, such as Julia Balandina Jaquier’s Guide to Impact Investing: For Family Offices and High Net Worth Individuals, where she makes the following recom- mendations based on case examples: •• Analyze and manage investments with rigor as a key to success in impact investing. •• Use a step-by-step approach, starting by segregating a portion of wealth for venture investing or investing in safer areas and taking time to increase [the] percentages of impact investments across vari- ous asset classes.