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What does it really cost to invest in impact-first ways—and what does that mean for the future of the field? Impact-first funds are often assumed to be small, slow, and inefficient. Our new collaborative cost study suggests the opposite: when you look at cost per deal, cost per dollar deployed, and who actually gets reached, impact-first investing can be one of the most efficient and effective ways to achieve lasting impact.

Join the Miller Center for Global Impact for a virtual conversation on The True Cost of Impact-First Investing, grounded in data from eight catalytic fund managers representing nearly $200M and 362 deals. We’ll unpack what the numbers really say about efficiency, the “Valley of Death,” subsidy, and return concessions, and what that means for the next era of impact-first investing. This session will be an active, working convening for the people deploying and allocating capital who want to move this practice forward.

ELEVATE, a conference designed to help charities rise to today’s funding challenges with fresh ideas, bold strategies, and cutting-edge innovation. Our sector is facing unprecedented pressures; a funding crisis, recruitment and retention struggles, declining fundraising revenue, and increasing demand for services. At the same time, fundraising teams must keep pace with rapidly evolving technology, social media, and digital tools – all while addressing critical issues of donor trust, acquisition, and retention.

At ELEVATE, we’ll explore how charities of all shapes and sizes are navigating this landscape and driving success.

Fundraising at times may feel like both an art and a science, but it takes on a whole other dimension when both donors and beneficiaries are a partnership with God at the centre, using money, ministry and skill where it’s needed; not begrudging, not manipulating. Partnership in giving and receiving becomes a spiritual practice, as vital for our personal discipleship as it is for the work we do.
As Henri Nouwen puts it, “our confidence in our mission and vision, and our freedom to love the person to whom we are talking about donating money, does not depend on how that person responds… We can remain secure in God’s love.” When we start with God’s generosity to us it enables us to be generous to others, an antidote to materialism, good for our souls as well as for society. If fundraising is inextricably connected with faith then it becomes even more of an adventure.
Faith and Fundraising Conference 2026 offers you leading speakers, on-hand expertise and invaluable in-person networking.