GIIN Investor Forum 2019

In this article, Paul Sullivan details four ways to simplify investing for social impact. Specifically, he highlights the GIIN's IRIS+ system for impact measurement and management and quotes GIIN CEO, Amit Bouri. "The new version, IRIS+, is meant to translate impact investing goals like gender equity, climate change and affordable housing into results, said Amit Bouri, the chief executive of GIIN. He said the new system would help investors know exactly which metrics to track if they hoped, for example, to bring clean energy to rural areas."

In this article for CNBC, Kathryn McDonald shares insights from a recent study by the National Climate Assessment, which predicted that changes in climate will cause severe damage to the U.S. economy and impact investment management decisions. As such, she provides recommendations for ways companies can think through investment options with a climate lens. McDonald believes that by viewing companies through a climate lens we can “augment our traditional investment view [with the] proactive steps that companies are taking to gain a more nuanced assessment of a company’s fair value and future earnings potential.”

Barron’s PENTA promotes the launch of a new $150M initiative created by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Omidyar Network, which was announced at the GIIN’s recent annual Investor’s Council meeting. This new initiative, called the Catalytic Capital Consortium, aims “to unlock billions, or even trillions, of further investment into solutions that achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, by providing investment capital ‘that is patient, risk-tolerant, concessionary, and flexible,’ unlike conventional capital that aims for market-rate returns.” Julia Stasch, President of MacArthur, says “Catalytic Capital can help create proof points of future profitability, and they can be part of a blended approach that makes it possible for financing to be available to populations and places that would not otherwise be possible.” The initiative will also give $10 million in grants over the next three years to further develop the market.

This Reuters article discusses the widespread trend of gender lens investing and interviews several female executives in the impact investing industry, including Sapna Shah, Director of Strategy for the GIIN. Author Sarah Shearman examines the rapid growth in popularity of the practice, including a recent 73% increase in the value of private funds with a gender focus. Shearman also mentions that the anticipated shift of private wealth towards women and millennials in the West will only serve to continue this trend of investing to reduce gender inequality. 

In this article for CNBC, Brandon Gomez examines the role of millennials in the impact investing space, citing studies which find that members of this generation are increasingly considering social impact when making investment decisio­­ns, and are twice as likely to invest in companies that incorporate ESG practices. Gomez adds that the “democratization” of investing through various technological advancements, such as apps, has made impact investing easier and more accessible than ever before, and appeal to millennials in particular.

Amit Bouri, CEO and co-founder of the GIIN, calls for a greater sense of urgency to address global social and environmental challenges through impact investing in this Financial Times op-ed. He states, “inaction costs, not just in money but in people’s lives” and emphasizes the need for significant, sustained investment. Starting today” to help solve these issues.

In this interview for Forbes with Patsy Doerr, Mary Iskenderian, CEO of Women’s World Banking, provides insights on gender lens investing—the inclusion of gender considerations in the investment process. Iskenderian pinpoints the period after the financial crisis as a significant one for the expansion of gender-lens investing, stating that her organization has moved away from its original focus on microfinance institutions to “serving the greatest number of women through whatever channels available.” Iskenderian also voices the hope that “all of us begin to wear those gender glasses,” and that all impact investors begin to “recognize that their impact will be greater if they take a gender approach.”

Following the launch of CBRE Global Investors, a social and affordable housing fund, Maha Khan Phillips explores the subsector of impact real estate in this IPE Real Assets article. Referencing statistics from the GIIN Performance of Real Assets Impact Investments report, Phillips believes that there is a strong opportunity for more impact investments in real estate, in part because of the current lack of adequate accommodations for the homeless. Abhilash Mudaliar, director of research at the GIIN, speaks positively of this potential for growth, referencing the growing contingent investing both “for business performance and investment performance.”

In this Thomson Reuters Foundation article, author Mark Haefele of UBS Global Wealth Management details a discussion of impact investing at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, which was largely focused on using the practice as a tool to support the SDGs. Haefele pinpoints several factors currently preventing impact investing from reaching its full potential and proposes ways of mitigating these roadblocks. He concludes by stating that work by the WEF and other organizations to strengthen investment standards and increase awareness of “opportunities to do well while doing good” can draw more private investors to the space and eventually help to close the current SDG funding gap.

In this Barron’s article, Abby Schultz reports on the launch of Y Analytics, a private benefit corporation grown out of The Rise Fund by TPG, which is a new analytical platform that uses previous impact measurement and management (IMM) research to allow investors to account for impact in growth stage companies before making an investment. Schultz also quotes Kelly McCarthy, the GIIN’s Director of Impact Measurement and Management, about how the new platform’s approach complements other tools and developments within the IMM space.