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Interview: Impact Investing with Andreas Rickert of Phineo

The topic of impact investing is growing in prevalence, cultural relevance, and significance in the global society. As such, AFB is spotlighting the topic with expert conversations. In February, we hosted a panel titled The Global Growth of Impact Investing, bringing together specialists in the field to discuss their take on the matter. One of the panelists was Dr. Andreas Rickert, the CEO of Phineo. We followed up with Dr. Rickert in an interview about Phineo, hoping to get better insight into the work of this Germany-based impact investing organization.

Phineo is “a think-tank and nonprofit consultancy for strategic philanthropy.” Phineo serves the social sector in Germany by addressing a major gap in it- there are a huge number of non-profit organizations, but no infrastructure in place to help donors navigate it. Phineo is solving that problem in a number of different ways. Firstly, they are conducting research on what the social challenges are in Germany and where there are funding gaps. They have also established themselves as a rating agency, offering free analysis of nonprofit agencies and publically recommending the best ones, without releasing the ones that fail. This serves to usher philanthropic attention to the organizations that deserve it most. And on the other end of that, Phineo is providing market intelligence for donors with a consultancy branch that directly supports them by advising on the wisest investing strategies.

We spoke with Dr. Rickert about Phineo’s processes and its expansion from philanthropic research to impact investing. Listen now for the full story!