Our History
Our Timeline
2012
- Sorenson Impact Foundation founded by Jim and Krista Sorenson
2013
- 7 PRIs into early-stage startups in the first year
- Sorenson Impact Center endowed at the University of Utah
- Invested in the first US Pay-for-Success Bond
2014
- 10 PRIs made in year 2
- Started investing in the GP and LP of new, start-up impact funds in addition to the direct equity investments
2015
- 11 PRIs made
- Sorenson Impact Fellows program starts with 28 original fellows
2016
- 9 PRIs made
- Appointed to the US Impact Investing Alliance’s Presidential Council
- Sorenson Impact Center expands fellows program into policy advisory
2017
- 17 PRIs made
- 25% of the Foundation’s corpus moved into impact investments
- Sorenson Fellows program more than doubles in size
2018
- 5 PRIs made
- 50% of the corpus aligned with impact
- Grant program redesigned to focus on the innovative field building
- Strategy fellows program launched to support portfolio companies
2020
- 100% mission alignment across portfolio completed
“I believe there is a way to make mission-aligned investments that will sustain the funding into the future”
– Jim Sorenson
Founder
From Entrepreneur to Impact Investor
Raised in a family of entrepreneurs, Jim grew up with a belief in the power of business to help solve problems in sustainable, scalable ways to improve the lives of the poor and the emerging middle class around the world.
Jim took the lessons he learned in his childhood and and applied them to his career where he learned early on to proactively pursue investments in new markets where he was able to see business opportunities in previously non-commercial fields—a skill that he would later put to work in his impact investing career.
In 2002, after a decade of development and tens of millions of dollars in investment, the company he had built — Sorenson Media — was primed for commercial success just as the dot com bubble burst and halted the markets. Jim found himself leading a company that had a monthly burn rate of $1 million and whose market demand had all but evaporated.
Jim went back to the drawing board and in collaboration with a hearing-impaired family member realized that they could transition the company’s products to enhance communication for the deaf and hard of hearing. Sorenson Media was well positioned to offer a better service than major telecommunications companies resulting in the successful turnaround of the company (later spun off as Sorenson Communications) while also improving the quality of life for millions of deaf people.
Today, Jim spends most of his time and energy in the impact investing field through three key elements: 1) investing in early-stage enterprises that lack access to commercial capital and are developing products or services that improve livelihoods for people in poor or marginalized markets; 2) investing in creative financial structures that unlock greater flows of capital to scalable innovations and; 3) building a vibrant impact investing ecosystem. Impact investments are only part of my impact investing work; recognizing that building a robust impact investment market requires a healthy supporting ecosystem. Impact investors, just like conventional investors, depend on the work of researchers, advisors, wealth managers, entrepreneurs, industry experts, and others in order to make well-informed, successful investments.