Chicago is a hub for many early-stage companies aimed at creating for-profit business solutions to social causes. At the IDP Foundation, we are proud investors in the Impact Engine Fund, which features some great innovative entrepreneurs. Here are a few spotlight companies that are doing some amazing work.

Benefit Chicago recently announced that it has raised $77 million of the $100 million it seeks to mobilize for impact investments for nonprofits and social enterprises working throughout the Chicago region.

A trip to Ghana in 2008 to help secure microfinance loans for struggling rural schools convinced IDP Foundation President Irene Pritzker that a new financing model was desperately needed to ensure the survival of these small local institutions.

As the IDP Foundation made its rounds in New York City during the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly in September, a constant theme surrounding the efforts of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) resonated throughout many of the sessions.

Recently, Irene Pritzker sat down to speak with Eric Weinheimer, President and CEO of Forefront, about impact investing.

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise has had a breakout year. As the first documentary to center on Dr. Angelou’s life and work, excitement around its release was only to be expected.

The IDP Foundation is excited to announce that it has entered into another partnership with Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine with the newly-created IDP Foundation Cardiac Research Grant. Over the next five years, the $1 million grant will help to advance the efforts of the Heart Valve Disease Research Program in the Center for Cardiovascular Innovation.

IDP Foundation’s co-founder, and 2015 Nazarian Social Innovator in Residence Liesel Pritzker-Simmons, recently sat down with Stephanie Kim, associate director of community strategy at the Wharton School Impact Initiative (WSII), to discuss how to invest in projects and products with the goal of affecting social, environmental and financial change.

The second African Philanthropy Forum (APF) convened in Kigali, Rwanda this past October. This year’s forum brought together over 150 of Africa’s current and emerging philanthropists and social investors to discuss the role of philanthropy in keeping a “Promise to the Next Generation” – a promise to leverage and further develop human capital and talent to achieve Africa’s potential.

The eighth annual SoCap (Social Capital Markets) conference recently took place in beautiful San Francisco, California, drawing a huge crowd of impact investors, foundations, social entrepreneurs and visionaries who gathered to discuss ways to increasing the flow of capital towards social good.