GIIN Investor Forum 2019

In this Al Jazeera article, Dawn Kissi claims that “impact investing is experiencing a boom” due to “concerns about climate change, human rights and social justice dominating pop culture today.” Kissi uses data from the GIIN’s 2019 Annual Impact Investor Survey to discuss the current state, future, and successes and challenges of the impact investing market.

In this Al Jazeera article, Ben Piven breaks down the differences between socially responsible investing and impact investing. He notes that clarifying definitions will benefit the increasing number of investors looking for “double bottom line returns that meet financial goals and advance their personal values where people and the planet are concerned.” He provides a definition of impact investing and addresses common questions about the practice, including whether impact investors can also make money and how impact is measured. Piven highlights the work of the GIIN, and the creation of IRIS+ in particular, in this breakdown.

This GIIN press release announces that new metrics have been developed for gender-smart-investing and are now available to the industry on the GIIN’s comprehensive system for impact measurement and management, IRIS+. Members of the 2X Challenge and the European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI) joined forces with the GIIN to create the gender metrics, which are aligned to the 2X Criteria—a global benchmark for what it means to invest in women. The metrics combine the GIIN’s expertise in developing standardized, evidence-backed impact metrics with the 2X Challenge’s Criteria, which pinpoints data areas such as “women funded-businesses” and “the representation of women in investment committees.” GIIN CEO and co-founder Amit Bouri calls this partnership “exactly the type of collaboration that is required to advance gender equity and economic empowerment of women around the world.”

Fast Company outlines how the Green New Deal provides nonprofit and philanthropic organizations with “a new mandate for designing and funding initiatives that back both environmental sustainability and economic equity.” Author Ben Paynter discusses the “uptick in public inspiration” with GIIN CEO and co-founder Amit Bouri, who says that over time there has become “a lot more convergence and a much more integrated way of thinking” surrounding the cash pools for social and environmental causes—56% of the GIIN’s 2019 Annual Impact Investor Survey’s respondents reported that they now focus on both social and environmental impact simultaneously. Bouri comments that this type of integrated approach “is absolutely what we need, because if you’re thinking about improving the lives of lots of low-income populations, the effects of climate change will have a disproportionate impact on poor.”

ThinkAdvisor uses findings from the GIIN’s 2019 Annual Impact Investor Survey to highlight the growth of the impact investment market, both in terms of increasing numbers of investors and increasing assets under management. Author Michael Fischer also includes data referencing client demand’s large role in fueling impact investing’s growth, and respondents’ wide belief that impact investing has a “key role to play in driving broader shifts in investment practice.” GIIN CEO Amit Bouri is quoted in the piece about factors contributing to growth, including how many impact investors are now “accounting for considerations that have long been ignored in the financial sector--the impact of investments and businesses on people and the planet.”

Campden FB discusses one of the new “Current Market Topics” in the 2019 edition of the GIIN’s Annual Impact Investor Survey: Human Resources. The report includes respondents’ insights about their challenges and successes in implementing impact investing practices, such as the challenge of finding appropriate staff for impact management. Author James Beech places these findings within the larger context of the industry’s rapid growth, referencing the average respondent’s plan to invest 33% more in impact investments in 2019 than the 2018 average and the overall satisfaction of current investors, with 90% of survey respondents reporting that their impact investments were in line with or exceeded expectations.

This Barron’s PENTA article shares key findings and insights from the GIIN’s ninth Annual Impact Investor Survey. Specifically, the piece notes that the report “reveals an industry that’s growing steadily and is increasingly diversifying….And that growth will be essential if impact investing is to address the huge challenges the world faces.” Abby Schultz discusses this growth with the GIIN’s Amit Bouri, who states that these survey results mean “two things that may feel contradictory—that the impact investing market is larger and more robust than it’s ever been, and it’s nowhere near where it needs to be.”

In this Al Jazeera coverage of the GIIN’s 2019 Annual Impact Investor Survey, Ben Piven shares key findings about the state of the impact investing market and remarks that “this investment strategy is winning more converts—and crucially, it’s gaining capital too.” Piven also includes insights from the GIIN’s Amit Bouri and Sapna Shah to contextualize the survey’s findings, including Bouri’s statement that “Global challenges like entrenched inequality and climate change require large-scale, urgent action. And impact investors are stepping up to help fuel positive progress.”

Financial Advisor News features new data about performance relative to impact investors’ expectations. Specifically, the article highlights key findings from the GIIN’s recently published 2019 Annual Impact Investor Survey, which found that “investors who want to make a positive difference with their money said they are meeting both their impact investing goals and their financial goals.” The article also includes survey data reflecting respondents’ goals, purpose, and growth within the impact investing sector.

This Private Equity News article features the GIIN’s 2019 Annual Impact Investor Survey to highlight recent developments in the market, noting that “investors [have] become increasingly aware of issues such as climate change and social inequality” and that over 90% of impact investors report “their deals have met or exceeded their expected financial and impact performance so far.” The piece also quotes the GIIN’s CEO, Amit Bouri, about the importance of such data collection, saying that as the industry matures, “investors will become more familiar with the strategy, and businesses looking to generate impact will find it easier to identify suitable investors to back them.”