GIIN Investor Forum 2019

This Forbes article makes a connection between the recent wave of advocacy related to the midterm elections and the practice of impact investing. Author Janet Brown, of Intelligent Investing, encourages readers to channel their commitment to making a difference into their investment decisions, emphasizing that sustainable investing encompasses a wide range of issues. She goes on to pinpoint ways to become involved in the industry, from learning more about impact investing overall to selecting sustainable mutual funds.

Amit Bouri, GIIN co-founder and CEO, discusses “today’s version” of impact investing with Beth Pinsker for Reuters, highlighting its ability to create valuable enterprises addressing “inequality, climate change, increased access to financial services and more.” Throughout the article, they discuss the shift from the market’s early, divestment-focused phase to one of more proactive change. Bouri also references the industry’s growing traction with mainstream investors as movement towards impact investing becoming the “new normal."

In this article, Lisa Cox of Sorenson Impact pinpoints the advancement of impact measurement as a necessary step for more capital to be invested in impact. Cox mentions some difficulties precluding strict measurement standards, particularly the many different types of social returns and their respective metrics. As the impact investing industry grows, Cox recommends looking towards further developing impact measurement to help systematically solve “a whole world of social problems.”

Formerly cynical about the ambitious nature of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Christopher Hirst highlights their usefulness as a framework in this article. Hirst discusses how the SDGs have helped to guide and measure the activities of investors, increasing the engagement and confidence of “private sector players.” Measuring social returns up against the SDGs can result in more capital being directed towards impact, “leveraging private capital towards social outcomes in previously impossible ways.”

California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest American public pension fund, recently saw a shift in their board, as discussed in this podcast by ImpactAlpha. Outgoing ESG-investing champion Priya Mathur’s board position was filled by Jason Perez, who has spoken against the practice, depicting it as a risk for the retirement security of the group’s investors. Such opinions underscore the need for innovation within the impact investing industry, focusing on infrastructure to scale and successfully repeat investments, to both improve the industry itself and attract more players.

A special edition feature of The Guardian called “The Future of Impact Investing Campaign” begins with a forward by GIIN CEO and co-founder Amit Bouri. In it, he highlights the “growing client demands, growing attention from world leaders, government bodies and the media” as impact investing moves further into the mainstream.  He also points out the need for a more radical shift to use impact investing’s full potential to better solve the world’s problems. The feature also includes articles from other industry leaders about various aspects of the future of impact investing, such as “Aligning Capital Markets With the SDGs”, “Using Pensions to Fund Impact Investment” and “Putting the Economy to Work for the Poor”.

Barron’s Abby Schultz interviews three “champions of impact investing” that are working harder than ever to push the market forward and use it as effectively as possible to alleviate global issues. Along with Amit Bouri, CEO and co-founder of the GIIN, Barron’s profiles two of his original mentors and early pioneers of the industry who continue to influence thought around the practice: Jed Emerson, founder of Blended Value Group and Charly Kleissner who with his wife, Lisa Kleissner, founded the Toniic group. Schultz speaks with these industry players on their entrance into impact investing and their visions for its future.

While impact investing is “booming”, we “also have to think about how we continue to grow this market and accelerate progress”, according to GIIN CEO and co-founder Amit Bouri, whom Ben Paynter interviews for this Fast Company article on the industry’s ability to make change. The article goes on to discuss the need to influence the system as a whole, and draws on the GIIN’s research, Financing the Sustainable Development Goals: Impact Investing in Action to provide examples of ways firms are incorporating impact throughout their investment cycle to address global challenges.

In a special piece on impact investing for the Financial Times, Owen Walker reports on the rising demand for organizations to more clearly define their impact. The piece highlights how more women and millennials are demonstrating interest in impact investing, and how there are increasing opportunities for impact investments. Walker also emphasizes the essential role impact measurement and management play in driving the change investors intend to create.

As the impact investing industry grows, more mechanisms for investing via fixed income and retail products are being developed. This article by Beth Braverman details how green bonds have become very successful in the last few years and inspired the launch of SDG bonds, which are linked to specific UN Sustainable Development Goals. Braverman also interviews GIIN Research Director Abhilash Mudaliar and other industry leaders—including Gil Crawford of MicroVest, Avi Deutsch of Vodia Capital, and George Gay of First Affirmative Financial Network—about the growth of the industry and new developments in the public side of the market.