Open-Source Impact Investing: Building a Shared Legal Infrastructure for Change

Impact investing follows a fundamentally different logic from traditional finance: it prioritizes long-term, measurable social and environmental outcomes alongside financial returns, often within community-based models that value resilience over rapid exits. Yet, most legal documentation and investment structures available today remain modeled on short-term venture capital tools—designed for fast growth and liquidity events, not for patient, purpose-driven capital.

In Latin America, where impact entrepreneurship is growing rapidly, this mismatch is particularly visible. The regional market for impact investing was valued at USD 10.06 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 31.15 billion by 2030, growing at an annual rate of over 21% (Grand View Research, 2024). However, a lack of standardized, accessible, and impact-aligned legal instruments limits this expansion and creates friction for both investors and entrepreneurs.

Globally, the impact investing sector now represents USD 1.57 trillion in assets under management, demonstrating both its scale and the urgency of developing tools that can channel this capital effectively toward equitable and sustainable outcomes (Global Impact Investing Network, GIIN, 2023).

Our project seeks to address these structural gaps by hacking the legal architecture of wealth—designing an open, collaborative, and AI-powered legal tool that democratizes access to transparent and trusted impact investment documentation across jurisdictions.

This project reimagines how access to capital and legal infrastructure can be shared more equitably. By designing an open, collaboratively built legal tool for impact investing, it seeks to redistribute not only wealth but also the power to participate in shaping financial systems. The initiative is rooted in the belief that democratizing legal and financial knowledge is a powerful way to challenge structural imbalances—giving smaller actors, mission-driven entrepreneurs, and emerging-market investors the same quality of instruments traditionally available to large institutions. Developed through GAIL’s network and Empatthy’s community, the project values inclusion, regional diversity, and resource efficiency, turning collaboration itself into a mechanism of redistribution. It will be divided into 2 Phases:

Phase I – “The Collective Draft”
This stage will focus on building the content and language of the tool through an inclusive process that brings together three key groups:

(1) GAIL lawyers from multiple latin american  jurisdictions, who will collaboratively draft and refine the clauses to ensure broad legal applicability;
(2) Impact investors and entrepreneurs, who will contribute their experience as stakeholders through a regional survey and validation workshops; and
(3) Strategic allies such as Y Combinator (creator of the SAFE) and The Chancery Lane Project (developer of Climate Clauses), whose pioneering work demonstrates how standardized, open legal instruments can accelerate systemic change.

This legal co-creation will also draw on Empatthy’s Spanish translation of Adventure Finance by Aunnie Patton Power, which compiles real global cases of impact finance, offering rich examples to guide the structure and typologies of the tool.

Phase II – “The Living Tool”
In this second stage, we will build an open-source digital platform—accessible through both GAIL and Empatthy’s online ecosystems, as well as publicly available to anyone seeking to use or contribute to it.—that allows any user to interact with the validated investment document in an intuitive way. By entering key information about their impact-finance project (such as purpose, structure, and investor profile), the platform will automatically generate a tailored version of the tool, selecting the appropriate clauses and configurations.

Rather than relying solely on artificial intelligence, the platform will incorporate machine-learning logic that improves over time, learning from user inputs and expert feedback to refine its recommendations and enhance accuracy. The system’s automation will simplify legal drafting while ensuring that each output remains consistent with the validated, peer-reviewed clauses developed in Phase I.

This platform will remain open-source, inviting continued collaboration and improvement from lawyers, entrepreneurs, and investors worldwide. It will serve as a living legal ecosystem—continuously evolving through real-world use and expert participation—and will position Latin America as a global reference for transparent, collaborative, and impact-aligned legal innovation.

Skills

• - Document automation and machine-learning design

• - Legal drafting and comparative law (multi-jurisdictional)

• - UX/UI design for legal tech platforms

• - Impact investing and sustainable finance

• - Community engagement and participatory governance

• - Translation & adaptation of legal language across Spanish, Portuguese, and English

Team Members

(1) Rosa Madera Núñez is a social entrepreneur, lawyer, and international speaker specialized in the impact economy, social investment, and purpose-driven leadership. She is the Founder and CEO of Empatthy, a global advisory organization focused on connecting capital with purpose though philanthropy, impact investing and sustainability strategies.

With over 20 years of experience, she has supported family offices, companies, foundations, and startups in transforming intention into measurable action. Rosa is advisor in Kennedy Foundation Emprender Foundation, Por todas Foundation, Ethical association in Chile and member in global and regional networks, including WINGS, Latimpacto, BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders, and GSG NAB Chile, among others. Her work promotes ethical, regenerative, and collaborative approaches to leadership and impact.

• (2) Juan Ignacio Pitta is a Chile-based impact lawyer. He advises on venture capital, impact investing, and sustainable finance transactions across Latin America. He is an active member of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers (GAIL) and part of the Regulatory Task Force of GSG NAB Chile, contributing to initiatives that bridge law, sustainability, and social innovation. His work focuses on developing collaborative legal frameworks and tools that enable purpose-driven capital to scale responsibly. Juan Ignacio has led cross-border projects on impact investment documentation, corporate governance, and ESG integration, combining legal precision with a strong commitment to democratizing access to impact finance.

(3) Sara Prats Vial is a Chilean corporate lawyer focused on venture capital, impact investment, and strategic legal structuring for high-growth companies in Latin America. She advises startups, investors, and funds on building clear and adaptable legal frameworks that support purpose-driven and sustainable growth.

With a background in compliance and corporate governance, Sara brings a strong understanding of how ethical and regulatory standards can enhance long-term business value. Her work bridges legal rigor with practical insight, helping mission-oriented ventures and investment vehicles scale responsibly across borders.

(4) Magdalena Enei Silva is a Chilean corporate and impact lawyer with over 24 years of experience in sustainability, business, and law. She is the founder of La Siembra SpA, a consultancy that helps organizations integrate sustainability into their strategies through legal and strategic advisory services. As a board member of GAIL Latam (Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers)—a global network promoting the use of law to drive social and environmental change—Magdalena leads initiatives to strengthen legal capabilities and foster the transition toward a more sustainable and inclusive economy. She is also a member of the Regulatory Task Force of GSG NAB Chile, which aims to promote initiatives that connect law with social and environmental impact. She has participated as a speaker at international forums, sharing her experience in impact law and sustainability-driven legal innovation.

(i) Validated Legal Tool (The Living Tool): A collaboratively designed and peer-reviewed open-source legal instrument for impact investing, developed and validated by GAIL lawyers across Latin American jurisdictions, with direct input from entrepreneurs, funds, and ecosystem stakeholders. This collective process ensures the tool’s legal soundness, regional adaptability, and practical relevance—something no standalone AI system could replicate, since the system learns from human-validated clauses, not the other way around.

(ii) Automated Platform: An open source online platform that helps users automatically generate the validated investment document—our co-created legal tool—tailored to their project and jurisdiction. By entering a brief description of their impact financing model, users will receive a pre-filled, jurisdictionally aligned version of the tool. The platform will use machine-learning features to improve clause selection and adaptability over time, based on expert feedback and user inputs.

(iii) Community Engagement: Surveys, workshops, and pilot sessions with at least 100 participants—including GAIL lawyers, investors, and entrepreneurs—to gather insights and refine both the document and platform.

(iv) Multi-Jurisdictional Validation: Systematic review and adaptation of the tool across key Latin American jurisdictions to ensure local compliance and cross-border coherence.
(v) Scalability Plan: A roadmap for extending the tool and platform beyond Latin America through GAIL’s international network, positioning it as a global benchmark for transparent, inclusive impact investing.