UBS Brought the Bond Market to Philanthropy and It Paid Off
- Debut development-impact bond helps education project succeed
- Burgeoning niche seen as potentially ‘powerful financing tool’
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
The world’s first development-impact bond to fund girls’ education in India performed better than expected, suggesting the tools of the fixed-income market can be harnessed to supercharge philanthropy in emerging markets.
UBS Group AG’s Optimus Foundation launched the first-of-its-kind $270,000 Educate Girls Development Impact Bond in 2015 to fund a program in a remote district of Rajasthan to improve schooling opportunities for girls. The program outperformed its goals and the foundation earned a 15 percent internal rate of return, said Phyllis Costanza, chief executive officer of the UBS Optimus Foundation.