Impetus Trust and Private Equity Foundation announce merger plans

Impetus Trust and Private Equity Foundation announce merger plans

News (UK)

Impetus Trust and the Private Equity Foundation (PEF) announced their intention to merge, and form Impetus – The Private Equity Foundation on January 28th. They hope to complete the merger this Spring.

The proposed new entity will bring together 16 years’ experience of supporting charity sustainability and scale up through venture philanthropy, with the aim of maximising impact. It will have a special focus on enabling best-in-class charities to help more of the most deprived children and young people in our society. Although the full scope of the organisation has yet to be decided all previous commitments to existing charities will be honoured.

The organisations propose that the chairman of the merged entity will be Johannes Huth, current PEF chair, whilst Louis Elson, current Impetus chair, will serve as deputy chairman.

The CEO of Impetus – The Private Equity Foundation will be Daniela Barone Soares, currently CEO of Impetus. After assisting with the merger process Shaks Ghosh, CEO of PEF, will leave following six years as the charity’s chief executive.

Barone Soares said:Impetus and Private Equity Foundation are natural partners, sharing similar methodologies founded on venture philanthropy, and both driven to move the needle on disadvantage. We will continue to work with our portfolio charities as we have been doing, but we will definitely be moving much more quickly towards a new strategy, which is to concentrate more resources on those charities that can achieve massive impact. Donors are sure to get a better bang for their buck and we will have a single voice when speaking to the government. Together we are confident we will be able to achieve much more.”

Johannes Huth, chairman of PEF, said: “[I] look forward to working with Daniela to scale up our ability to engage, enhance and expand the activities of many more of the best charities to turnaround many more young lives.”

A merger taskforce has been appointed and will develop an integration plan with the help of specialist advisers in the field.

  • Trusts & foundations
  • Venture philanthropy
  • UK