Evaluation of a Moving Target: Lessons from KL Felicitas Foundation’s Impact Investment Portfolio 

by Haley Millet

The Cascadia Foodshed Financing Project periodically reviews and summarizes reports relevant to its work. Here, we discuss key takeaways from KL Felicitas Foundation’s portfolio-wide evaluation report, “Investing For Impact: Practical Tools, Lesson, and Results.”
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​After coming into wealth in Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom of the 1990s, Lisa and Charly Kleissner founded the KL Felicitas Foundation with the groundbreaking goal of developing a portfolio dedicated to social return on investment. Today they continue to refine their own portfolio and, through groups like the 100% IMPACT Network, help others achieve similar goals. But fifteen years later with investments spanning a wide variety of locales, sectors and financial mechanisms, the Kleissners wondered: how can the foundation know for sure that its investments are having the desired social impact? KL Felicitas asked charity consultant New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) to conduct a third-party impact evaluation of their investment portfolio to find out.

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