The 2021 GIIN Investor Forum

In this article, Environmental Finance’s Michael Hurley interviews Dean Hand, Director of Research at the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), about the findings of the GIIN’s new Impact Performance research on the Agriculture and Financial Inclusion sectors. Hand underscores that “most impact investors have a lot of data on their own investments. What they often don't understand is how their peers are performing, in relative terms.” According to Hand, “if impact performance is to be taken as seriously as financial performance when informing decision-making […], investors need reliable information about impact results and analytics to enable comparison.”

In this article, Harvey Koh, managing director at FSG, discusses the surge in impact investing and the urgent need, “…to help interested investors mobilize more catalytic capital for greater impact.” According to the GIIN’s 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey, the impact investing sector has grown steadily to USD 715 billion in 2020. “We need to explain the why, what, and how of catalytic capital at a more granular level for different investor types”, writes Koh. This will help expand catalytic capital and move us closer to, “realizing the large-scale solutions that the world needs today.”

In this article, Billy Nauman covers the growth and evolution of the impact investing market and interviews Co-Founder and CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network, Amit Bouri. According to Bouri, since the term “impact investing” was coined in 2007, we have seen a significant increase in sophistication and standardization of impact measurement and management. Whereas in 2010 the majority of investors used their own measurement systems to track impact, Bouri underscores, “Now, almost all are aligning around a core group of impact measurement and management systems.”

In this Op-ed published by Pioneers Post, Co-Founder and CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network, Amit Bouri, reflects on the great need for impact investors to take action and respond to the global  socio-economic inequalities that have been further exacerbated by the current COVID-19 crisis. He urges, “Investors can no longer ignore the reality that every investment has impacts…the financial community must re-focus its work for meaningful action.”

In this broadcast, Co-Founder and CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network, Amit Bouri, joins Jill Malandrino on Nasdaq TradeTalks to discuss the future of capitalism and the lessons learned about impact investing in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

This Pioneers Post article covers the 16th annual EVPA conference and features the keynote session of Amit Bouri, Co-Founder and CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network in New York. According to Bouri, the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted “our deepest inequities” and calls for “the need for a transition that leads to a very different future.” He underscores, “We need more investors intentionally targeting positive impact. We need more investors measuring and managing for impact performance. And we need more investors collaborating and contributing to the growth of the industry.”

In this article, Gillian Tett covers the new coordinated initiative around the core set of ESG metrics that the Big Four accounting firms unveiled this week. This initiative is led by the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council. Participants such as Punit Renjen, Deloitte Global Chief Executive, comment that this is a great step, considering that “the plethora of competing systems for measuring sustainability” has been a challenge for some time. “It is important for us to have a common set of standards and if there is widespread adoption it will lead to change in behaviour.” 

This article features GIIN CEO Amit Bouri’s reflections on many global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, as well as ways in which impact investors are coming together to help in the response and recovery. In regard to the recent California wild fires, he remarks, “It highlights the need to really move the needle on climate change.” According to Bouri, we must create a socioeconomic system that is more inclusive and better at responding to the needs of a broader set of stakeholders in order to serve the people at the bottom “because those are the folks that will suffer most.” Amit also references the Response, Recovery and Resilience Investment Coalition (R3 Coalition) as well as Imperative21, as examples of the many great initiatives the GIIN is involved in to create broader awareness around these issues.

In this Pro Bono Australia article, Maggie Cogan covers The Response, Recovery, and Resilience Coalition’s (R3 Coalition) latest issue brief, The Impact Investing Market in the COVID-19 Context: Investor Support of Enterprises. This edition focuses on investor support of enterprises during the current COVID-19 crisis.  It highlights the major challenges social entrepreneurs are facing and how impact investing can help address these challenges. The R3 Coalition is an industry initiative, which is managed by the GIIN as the organizing body, that aims to streamline impact investing efforts that will address the large-scale social and economic consequences of COVID-19.

“This tipping point is a moment of tremendous opportunity: we can demonstrate to the world that money can do so much more than just make more money” - GIIN co-founder and CEO Amit Bouri shares his reflections on how this moment of crisis can play a critical role in pushing the impact investing industry toward greater accountability and “...a ‘race to the top’ with potential to make real progress on our most pressing global goals.”