Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.

What You Need to Know About Impact Investing

  1. What is impact investing?

    Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
  2. Core characteristics of impact investing

    The practice of impact investing is further defined by four core characteristics.
  3. Why impact investing?

    The impact investing market offers diverse and viable opportunities for investors to advance social and environmental solutions through investments that also produce financial returns.
  4. Who is making impact investments?

    Impact investment has attracted a wide variety of investors, both individual and institutional.

  5. How do impact investments perform financially?

    Impact investors have diverse financial return expectations.
  6. Global examples of impact investing

    Impact investments represent a diverse range of opportunities to generate positive social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.
  7. Impact investing funds

    Many impact investors choose to invest through funds whose social, environmental, and financial goals match their own.
  8. How big is the impact investing market?

    Impact investing is a relatively new term, used to describe investments made across many asset classes, sectors, and regions.

  9. What is the market potential of impact investing?

    Impact investing has attracted increasing interest among investors who are allocating more capital to impact investments year-over-year.
  10. What is the current state of the impact investing market?

    While this market is still relatively new, investors are overall optimistic about its development and expect increased scale and efficiency in the future.
  11. Where can I go for more information?

    The GIIN builds critical market infrastructure and supports activities, education, and research that help accelerate the development of the impact investing field. Learn more.