GIF Impact Report 2020 - Social impact, evidence and COVID-19 response

Sep 13, 2026

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GIF Impact Report 2020 summarizes the Global Innovation Fund’s investment approach and results in a year marked by severe economic and societal hardship. The report explains how GIF uses evidence-based venture capital through grants, loans, and equity to support early-stage innovations for people living in low-income settings. It highlights commitments to measuring and generating evidence, responding to COVID-19 through portfolio support and redirected funding, and integrating gender equality and education as central priorities. It also presents a structured review of outcomes, including investments, people reached, and examples of scalable innovation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages40

Reading Time14 min

AccessFree to download

Greetings from the Chair

Message from the CEO

Year in review

Measuring impact

Creating impact through education

Comparing the effectiveness of catalytic investing

Achieved impact

GIF’s investments and people reached to date

GIF’s young portfolio shows emerging impact

Making investments and quantifying impact for gender equality

Innovation in pandemic response

Water innovation

Creating impact by exiting investments

Open innovation

GIF’s 2020 board members

Breakthrough

Our partners

I M P A C TR E P O R T 2020 GIF invests in entrepreneurs and innovators with the potential to improve the lives of millions of the world’s poorest people. Front cover: Breakthrough This page: LivelyMinds Contents Greetings from the Chair 4 Message from the CEO 5 Year in review 6 Measuring impact 7 Creating impact through education 12 Comparing the effectiveness of catalytic investing 14 Achieved impact 15 GIF’s investments and people reached to date 17 GIF’s young portfolio shows emerging impact 22 Making investments and quantifying impact for gender equality 25 Innovation in pandemic response 28 Water innovation 33 Creating impact by exiting investments 35 Open innovation 37 GIF’s 2020 board members 38 Breakthrough Our partners 39 Impact Report 2020 GIF 3 Greetings from the Chair It gives me great pride to present this summary report of the Global Innovation Fund’s impact in 2020, a year of unprecedented economic and societal hardship across the world. In addition to impact, thereport details GIF’s commitment to generating and measuring evidence, responding to COVID-19, and placing gender atthe heart of its investing. GIF is a non-profit investment vehicle that backs innovations that improve the lives of low-income people around the world. GIF takes an evidence-based venture capital approach – not to maximise its own profits, but to maximise the social benefits it creates. GIF does this by investing in early-stage innovations that are risky but which, if successful, offer prospects of large benefits to millions of people. Through grants, loans and equity investments ranging from $50,000 to $15 million, GIF investments have the potential for social impact at a large scale, whether they are new technologies, business models, policy practices, or behavioural insights. As our portfolio grows and matures, we are beginning to see some exciting results, and these are featured in this year’s report. The support of our funding partners, including their advocacy for the innovators and entrepreneurs we back within the development community, is critical to our success. Among many examples of this, under USAID’s leadership of the Million Lives Club, which celebrates innovations that have benefitted 1,000,000 people or more, GIF’s partners BRAC, Simprints, Educate! and One Acre Fund have been recognised as examples of taking innovation in international development to scale. We are especially pleased that this scale comes with rigorous evidence of impact alongside randomised controlled trials backed by GIF in several cases. I am delighted to have joined the GIF Board and to welcome two exceptional colleagues – James Habyarimana, the Provost Distinguished Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, and Kathryn Kaufman, former Chief Strategy Officer for the US International Development Finance Corporation. I also want to take this opportunity on behalf of everyone at GIF to thank our departing board members including Jack Hawkins, former senior advisor from USAID, for his wise guidance and Elizabeth Peak, from the Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade, or DFAT. Elizabeth’s insight and expertise enabled us to deepen and develop our focus on the Indo-Pacific region as we move towards the launch of our Singapore office, and we look forward to working with her successor, Robert Christie, to continue to advance GIF and DFAT’s joint commitment to investing for social impact. I must also acknowledge the tremendous contribution of my predecessor as Board Chair, and one of the original founders of GIF, Sal Giambanco, who completed his term as Chair and retired from the Board at the end of 2020. It is due in large part to his passion and guidance that GIF has delivered on its mandate to accelerate innovation for development impact. James R. Clark Chair, Board of Directors 4 GIF Impact Report 2020 Message from the CEO As I look back on the past 12 months, I feel a gr

FAQs

What is the Global Innovation Fund’s core investment approach in 2020?

GIF applies an evidence-based venture capital approach, supporting early-stage innovations with grants, loans, and equity. The focus is maximizing social benefits rather than profits, with an emphasis on measuring evidence and outcomes.

How did GIF respond to COVID-19 during 2020?

GIF worked closely with portfolio organizations to support them through pandemic impacts, tailored to individual needs. It also redirected resources toward innovations explicitly addressing the worst effects of COVID-19 and adjusted grant timelines to enable direct pandemic-related pivots.

What topics does the 2020 report cover to demonstrate impact?

The report covers measuring impact, education-driven impact, catalytic investing effectiveness, achieved impact, and reach to date. It also includes themes such as gender equality, pandemic response innovation, water innovation, exiting investments, and open innovation, alongside board and partner information.

Sep 13, 2026

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