Impact Policy Tracker Policy

Social Impact Fund



The Social Impact Fund (FIS) is a public financial instrument created by the Spanish Government and managed by COFIDES to promote impact investment and strengthen Spain’s social and impact economy. With an initial allocation of USD 430 million from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, the FIS mobilises private capital through tailored financial instruments to support businesses and projects that address social and environmental challenges, such as reducing inequalities, bridging the digital divide, and promoting territorial cohesion. The Fund offers flexible financing options -such as fund investments, direct co-investments, and concessional loans- and provides technical assistance, particularly in impact measurement and evaluation.

As of March 2025, the FIS has already allocated €50m (USD 70m) across three investments focused on  supporting vulnerable groups -such as people with disabilities, women, youth, migrants, and the long-term unemployed- as well as projects in the circular economy, mental health, and the green transition.

Highlights

  • Fully aligned with impact investing principles and definitions: The FIS explicitly adopts a definition of impact investment that mirrors global best practice and targets projects that intentionally seek measurable social and/or environmental outcomes, alongside financial returns. This definition emphasises measurement and results, requiring both quantitative and qualitative indicators to assess impact performance.

  • Embedded in a larger recovery and transformation strategy: The FIS is not a standalone initiative, but part of Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, aligned with the European Union’s nextGeneration framework. This places the fund within a larger national effort to modernise Spain’s economy post-COVID-19, with a particular focus on mobilising private capital to drive the green transition, energy efficiency, decarbonisation and greater economic resilience by using catalytic capital.

  • Clear market-building mandate: Beyond providing capital, the FIS, like all wholesale funds, has a strong component addressing the need for market building and strengthening the local impact investing ecosystem. The FIS offers technical assistance to investees, targeting practices such as impact measurement, evaluation and social procurement, helping build operational capacity to deliver and scale impact effectively.

Government’s Role:
Market Facilitator


Country:
Spain

Policy Type:
Government-enabled Wholesale Funds

Year: 2024

Responsible Institution:
COFIDES (Spain’s Development and Cooperation Agency) and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

Additional information:
Spain's Official State Gazette (BOE): Creation of the Social Impact Fund

Government-enabled Wholesale Funds

What Can Governments Do to Enable Wholesale Funds?

Wholesale funds are financial platforms that aggregate large pools of capital to provide flexible and catalytic financing to businesses and intermediaries. They help grow the volume of private capital flowing to purpose-driven enterprises and contribute to broader market development, mainly by supporting pipeline development, deploying de-risking mechanisms, and facilitating collaboration across the ecosystem.

Governments have played a critical enabling role in the establishment of wholesale funds. This has included enacting legislation to unlock dormant or unclaimed assets -as seen in the cases of Big Society Capital in the UK and JANPIA in Japan- or directly deploying catalytic capital to support the creation of these funds, as in the case of Spain. 

For more information on Wholesalers, visit GSG Impact’s reports: Impact Investment Wholesalers and Fund of Funds and Building Impact Investment Wholesalers.