Recoverable Grants Offer Pathway to Enduring Social Impact

Beneficial Returns, founded by Ted Levinson, integrates financial risk analysis with philanthropy to drive social and environmental impact through market-driven strategies. It focuses on funding social enterprises in Latin America and Southeast Asia, offering loans between $50,000 and $500,000 to support businesses like Ecofiltro and Sistema.bio that address critical issues like clean water access and renewable energy. In 2023, PagerDuty became its first corporate investor, providing $150,000, including a $100,000 recoverable grant to be reimbursed over seven years, demonstrating a novel approach to corporate philanthropy. This method allows philanthropic capital to be continuously reinvested, amplifying impact by supporting innovative solutions to global challenges such as poverty and climate change. Beneficial Returns has significantly contributed to reducing CO2 emissions and supporting sustainable agriculture, having made over $10 million in loans and directly employing more than 2,600 people through its portfolio of social enterprises.