WASHINGTON DC – Jean Case, the co-founder and CEO of The Case Foundation, announced the creation of the Case Impact Network (CIN) to accelerate and expand efforts to usher in a new era of more inclusive capitalism. To achieve this, CIN will conduct research and advocacy, make and manage impact investments and build strategic partnerships to further unleash business and capital as powerful forces for change. 

“As we look across markets, we see a number of emerging trends: Impact investing has exploded since we began studying it and advocating for it; there are growing concerns that capitalism serves too few in our society; more companies are looking to more fully integrate impact into their business approaches; and, new demographic segments have growing economic power and have different expectations for the way capital is used. These, taken together, have led to more CEOs embracing the need to bring a longer-term, more inclusive approach to value creation that recognizes the need to do a better job of serving employees, customers and communities,” said Case. “It is clear that there is an opportunity to accelerate and expand these efforts.” 

CIN will build on work that Jean Case has championed, particularly with regard to corporate impact initiatives, impact investing and inclusive capitalism. Recognizing that business is an increasingly important catalyst for social change, CIN will expand efforts to help reshape and redefine how our free market system can enable business and capital to deliver more to benefit our world – and how investors can use their capital to promote social change through impact investing.

CIN’s work will also include policy advocacy, thought leadership, the development of investor tools and resources, including data and research. Unbound by the limitations of a philanthropic entity, the Network will make investments and build strategic partnerships to drive long-term benefits for society, and will extend efforts to build a more robust impact investing ecosystem. 

“For more than two decades I’ve had the unique opportunity to invest in a wide range of people and ideas that can change the world,” said Jean Case. “I’m grateful for the opportunity this has afforded us to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to drive impact. The shift to create the Case Impact Network represents a doubling down on the belief that business and capital can be powerful forces for change. CIN’s structure creates a new platform that maximizes flexibility and potential impact.”

The Case Impact Network will launch January 1, 2020 as an LLC. The Case Foundation will remain a legal entity to be used as a granting vehicle, but most operational elements and some personnel will move to the Case Impact Network.

“When we created the Case Foundation in 1997, we decided to create a private family foundation, not an endowed institution that would last forever, thus enabling us to determine each year how best to deploy our resources for maximum impact,” said Steve Case. “This decision to create the Case Impact Network allows us to continue to use all of the arrows in our quiver to drive change, and enables Jean to double down on the areas of inclusive capitalism and impact investing, which has been her principal passion in recent years.”