Dear EcoEnterprises Fund friends and famiy,
As many of you know, we are embarking on a new journey
this summer. EcoEnterprises Fund started as a pioneering initiative
of The Nature Conservancy, and with the wind-down of our first fund this
past December, we close out ten years at the Conservancy and move forward to
launch our next-generation instrument, EcoE II. We are incredibly
grateful to our Conservancy colleagues for their assistance and support over
the years, and we are delighted that the Conservancy will remain a pivotal
force in our new fund.
The Nature Conservancy created EcoEnterprises Fund in 2000 to
address a critical need in the field – to support the development of small-
and medium-sized businesses in sectors that could protect fragile ecosystems
and generate sustainable livelihoods. Ten years later, having built a
portfolio of 23 small and growing sustainable businesses, we are proud to
have met the Conservancy’s challenge and to have demonstrated the potential
of this cutting-edge conservation tool. Collectively, our portfolio
businesses generated impressive results (see right).
We are especially thankful for the entrepreneurs upon whose vision
and drive this endeavor was built. It is your success that is our
proof of concept. You have introduced new products and new ways of
doing business that raised the bar and helped shape your industries. You are
contributing to the long-term viability of important ecosystems and bringing
economic alternatives to rural communities, and we wish you continued
success.
We are grateful, too, to our shareholders and other donors who made
our work possible. Thank you for joining us on this adventure.
And to our board members whose wisdom guided us over the years – we are
indebted to you for your steadfast commitment to EcoEnterprises Fund’s
mission and for helping to make the last ten years such a success. We
are honored to have many of you involved in the launch of EcoE II, and we
look forward to working with you again in the future.
To our friends in the impact investing field, many of whom we have
worked with closely and are an integral part of what we have achieved, we
continue to be inspired by your dedication. It is the legacy of our
combined efforts over the years that enables EcoEnterprises Fund to realize
this next step and take our work to scale. We wish you all the best in
your endeavors, and we are excited about joining forces again in the next
decade.
We will keep everyone posted over the coming months as
EcoE II unfolds, and will provide updated contact information shortly.
As of June 1st, we can be reached by email at the addresses listed on the
Contact Us page of
our website. You can reach me by telephone at (802) 453-2455 and by email
at
tnewmark@ecoenterprisesfund.com. A heartfelt thanks to you all. --Tammy
Numbers You Can Count On
- Amount invested: $6.3 million in 23 companies
- Additional capital leveraged: $138 million
- Annual sales generated: $281 million
- Hectares impacted: 860,773
- Jobs created: 3,513
- Local persons impacted: 98,780
- Partner groups: 293
- Projects in conservation priority areas and/or working with The Nature Conservancy's local partners: 16
- Projects operating in/near World Heritage Sites: 7
For more facts and figures, check out Impact Metrics.
Visit our website: www.ecoenterprisesfund.com.
To receive this update via email, please contact EcoE at ecoe@ecoenterprisesfund.com.
