Ilse Bastmeijer started the Goeie Grutten foundation in 2016, using family wealth. She soon discovered impact investing. Now, she is both an impact investor and a philanthropist with a focus on food, energy, democracy, privacy, and media.

How did your impact journey begin?

It’s been almost ten years now since we first came into contact with impact investing. At that time, my father’s company had been around for nearly fifty years and he wanted to gradually step back, while I, with my experience as a marketer and entrepreneur, was becoming more involved and increasingly ready for it. However, it was still too early for a role in his company, so we ended up starting a foundation that would focus on topics aligned with our family business sector: supermarkets. 

I started to explore, but quickly sensed that the world of foundations was a bit old-fashioned and slow in a way. Then I discovered impact investing, and impact was much more entrepreneurial! Putting capital to work suits us and our family motto well. So, my husband Bernd and I set up a fund alongside the foundation. 

After a visit to the  in 2015, I transferred my first 25K with a pounding heart. My father was very supportive, saying: just give it a try! By now, we have forty projects running through the foundation and fifteen investments in food and energy companies. The themes of the foundation and the fund complement each other well; sometimes you need supply and sometimes you need movement. Donation money and entrepreneurial money can be good friends.

How do you work together with your family?

My father is on the advisory board of the foundation, so he keeps an eye on all the big picture matters. He enjoys being involved in ‘the new world’. 

Our son is currently a great mirror for me, telling me the truth. And I like to be an example for him, but I want him to discover the world for himself first. 

My husband Bernd is co-founder of the fund and the foundation. We do a lot together, but each have our own focus area, which works well when you also have a relationship in your private life. 

And with my mother, I share my passion for animals and nature. She laid a fantastic foundation for this in my youth and we have a shared passion for horses. It’s wonderful that we can do this together and always draw new energy from it.

What is the advantage of funds?

We invest both directly and in funds such as Rockstart, Unovis, Icos Capital, and Pymwymic. I really enjoy working with consumer products, but funds have a strategic function; you can spar with them and they see everything on the market. There is also a lot of overlap and collaboration. The competition you see in traditional investing is not the same in impact – in impact, it’s more about connecting than winning.

What does the supermarket of the future look like to you?

There is a broad spectrum from light green to dark green, and of course real change needs to be industry-wide, but ideally, I would like all supermarkets to only sell products that are grown healthily and add value to the world, instead of depleting the planet.

And the future of impact investing?

I think impact investing will become increasingly mainstream, because we all want to do business more and more from a certain purpose. My generation feels a bit like an in-between generation, because the new generations clearly no longer settle for a corporate job that means nothing or adds nothing.

What mistakes have taught you the most?

One of the things I’ve learned from  is that impact can also continue under a different flag. So maybe the company you invested in goes bankrupt, but that doesn’t mean there was no impact or that there won’t be any. In any case, awareness has been created, and that is also a win. In other words, if a company is not doing well financially but the impact continues, you can still be proud of it! With that mindset, ‘mistakes’ are really just acceptable parts of the bigger process of system change. 

I also see with our fund that every journey is useful. You develop along the way. In addition, I’ve always learned from my father to stay calm in turbulent times. Don’t do impulsive things, like selling or stepping out. Because what seems like a mistake now, can look very different in the future.

As a marketing professional, how do you find the marketing of impact investing as a sector?

Well, I had never heard of impact investing before I started with the foundation. It’s a closed world, with people who usually don’t (want to) be in the spotlight. I was like that at first too, but I’ve changed in that regard, because I now believe I can create more awareness by being more open. But I understand the difficulty around marketing; it’s hard to find a balance between wanting to share more, but also wanting to remain modest.

Which films inspire you?

‘Sojalism’ and ‘Eating Our Way To Extinction’ are films that really made me think.

How does a network like PYM help you?

I’m an only child, so sometimes it can be quite lonely, and then a network like PYM is really nice. It’s also not ‘normal’ to be able to work with family capital and do your own thing. Hardly anyone in my environment has that, so sparring with people in the same situation is very valuable, both practically and emotionally. I find the Women’s Wealth Matters meetings especially helpful. We can be totally open and also admit, for example, that wealth can feel like a burden. PYM is also a fantastic source of information.

What do you hope for the next generation?

The next generation really has to do it themselves. I can’t look into the future and I like to live in the now; only then can I truly be an example. Everyone takes with them in their backpack what is good for them. Above all, choose your own path!