AGILE: A tool that serves as an operational response to align finance and impact-driven projects
NewsAn abundance of capital, a scarcity of "fundable" projects
In 2023, over $1.6 trillion was globally allocated to impact investing, according to the Global Impact Investing Network. Meanwhile, global philanthropic foundations hold over $1.5 trillion in mobilizable assets (source: WINGS / OECD 2022). Yet, despite this abundance of resources, a significant portion of these funds fails to find projects to finance. This paradox stems less from a lack of willingness than from the absence of shared, readable, and interoperable tools.
The Geneva Foundation for the Future was created to address this systemic barrier. Its mission is clear: to reconcile the logic of finance, philanthropy, and field action by equipping stakeholders with a common and operational evaluation tool – the AGILE tool.
Understanding to act: a common grammar between siloed worlds
The impact finance ecosystem faces a fragmentation of frameworks. Project leaders struggle to articulate their value proposition according to the standards expected by investors or public funders. Conversely, the latter state in several surveys (WEF, Rockefeller, Convergence) that fewer than 15% of the projects they review meet their requirements for rigor, transparency, or economic viability.
The AGILE tool seeks to overcome these divides by structuring evaluation around five fundamental categories: Alignment, Governance, Impact, Leadership, Efficiency. It acts as both a translator and a common filter, capable of reconciling philanthropic logic, financial logic, and grassroots grounding.
The 5 pillars of the AGILE tool: towards robust and harmonized evaluation
| Pillar | Objective | Functional Family |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment | Ethical and cultural coherence between funders, beneficiaries, and projects | Human Goals |
| Governance | Presence of the organization’s vital functions, capacity to lead and adapt | Vital Functions |
| Intention | Depth of transformation, additionality, measurement, alignment with the SDGs | Deep Impact Criteria |
| Leadership | Systemic vision, replication potential, influence | Scale Potential |
| Efficiency | Economic clarity, administrative simplicity, resource diversification | Simplified Financial Foundation |
This framework is the result of academic work, participatory workshops, and a co-construction process conducted over three consecutive years through high-level interactive sessions hosted by the Geneva Forum, involving representatives from all areas of finance (family offices, funds, corporate foundations, charitable foundations, asset management...) and has led to a platform involving over 1,000 experts from the 8,000 past participants of the Geneva Forum, as well as 3,000 individuals from universities and public and private institutions currently federated by the NGO Objectif Sciences International.
A shared tool for collectively evaluated projects
The AGILE tool is designed as an evolving digital platform. It enables:
- collaborative project evaluation,
- cross-referencing of criteria from investors, public agencies, and philanthropists,
- dynamic monitoring with shared dashboards,
- strengthened trust through full transparency of ratings and cross-audits.
In all cases, it is intentionally very simple, and... agile.
The pilot use of the AGILE tool for the evaluation and monitoring of impact projects is currently underway by the founding community, as well as by external users as observers. The goal is to share feedback during the upcoming Geneva Forums and demonstrate the time savings achievable in the pre-analysis phase, the improved mutual understanding, and the increase in effective financing rates within 12 months post-evaluation.
A realistic and systemic ambition
AGILE is neither a label nor a normative straitjacket. It positions itself as a convergence interface, a pragmatic tool to streamline investments aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ESG criteria, and regulatory taxonomies (such as the European SFDR or the EU Green Taxonomy), while pursuing an approach that goes beyond balance to foster native positive impact (read this article to understand the difference between CSR and Impact).
The AGILE tool is aimed both at small foundations seeking to structure their approach and at large financial institutions looking to aggregate credible and measurable project portfolios.
Putting finance at the service of life
The AGILE tool embodies a concrete response to a systemic challenge. It’s not simply about better project evaluation: it’s about transforming the cognitive and decision-making infrastructure that connects philanthropic intent, investment imperatives, and field realities.
By providing clarity, coherence, and interoperability, AGILE finally enables finance to fulfill its role: catalyzing the deep transformations our society needs, by putting money at the service of life, equity, and resilience.
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