Impact Dispatch - February 2025

In 2024 voters around the world sent a clear signal that they were hungry for change and financial security, from Botswana to Japan, the U.K. to the U.S. and beyond. This widespread call for transformation highlights a crucial opportunity for impact investors. 

The state of global wealth inequality is staggering. The richest 10% of the global population owns 76% of all wealth while the poorest half earns just 2%, according to the World Inequality Report. Shifting this equation so that wage earners can build wealth will be a key factor in creating the stability and security everyone deserves. 

With the future role of government policy in an uncertain state, the importance of private capital in bridging gaps to support low- and middle-income workers, communities and families becomes more critical than ever. Impact investors are uniquely positioned to respond to these signals by crafting investment strategies that not only fill these gaps but also drive substantial progress where traditional policies may falter.

Here are three ways impact investors can deliver real-world outcomes and solutions that could move the needle on wealth inequality: 

Investing in the entrepreneurs building businesses that serve their communities is an important focus for many impact investors. 67% of impact investors invest in decent work and economic growth, making it the Sustainable Development Goal that’s most commonly invested in, according to the GIIN’s State of the Market 2024. 

These investors extend the reach of finance to companies overlooked by the mainstream financial system — businesses that are creating jobs, improving access to healthcare, growing healthy food and more. Investments that support decent work and financial access can span geographies, reaching overlooked and underrepresented urban and rural areas around the world. 

Around the world housing prices are outpacing inflation, meaning people are feeling an increased burden to maintain their place to live. Investing in affordable housing is and will continue to be a critical focus for impact investors to improve living conditions and help deliver a better future. This can mean building new affordable homes and apartments, and investing in residents’ quality of life once they’re there. 

GIIN member Kayne Anderson’s investment in a complex in Massachusetts provides a model of providing housing that helps residents gain more financial security. When Kayne Anderson invested in the complex they also brought in partners to support residents with services and benefits like telehealth, tutoring and positive credit reporting for on-time rent payments. They did a sustainable retrofit of the building that lowered its carbon emissions and has helped residents save on utility bills. 

Globally, impact investors’ average allocation to housing has grown since 2018, according to GIIN impact investor survey data. In the 2024 survey, housing investments accounted for 8.8% of all impact investments made. 

One of the most direct ways impact investors can help workers is to invest in businesses where workers have an ownership stake. This is a tremendous source of untapped potential within the impact investing market. Worker-owned businesses help address systemic inequalities and create powerful pathways to socioeconomic mobility. 

Worker ownership can look like employees having a share of a trust or retirement plan that owns all or part of a company, or it can look like a worker cooperative, where employees share in profits and participate in electing and serving on a board of directors. Research demonstrates that worker-owned companies provide better outcomes for both workers and the business and are “generally linked to better productivity, pay, job stability and firm survival,” a report from Project Equity states. 

Transitions to employee ownership often involve dedicated funds deploying catalytic investments from foundations, Marjorie Kelly and Karen Khan explain in a piece for SSIR. “As impact investors come to recognize employee ownership as a low-risk, high-impact asset class, they could catalyze conversions at scale, creating a movement that would be transformative for millions of low-income workers,” they write. 

In an increasingly destabilized world, pathways to financial security and improving economic equality are some of the most powerful outcomes impact investors can deliver. I hope to see the industry seek these opportunities and innovative ways to build a better future in the months to come. 

- Amit Bouri

• Africa is set to see a major increase in renewable energy development, with at least $35 billion in financing pledged from the World Bank, The African Development Bank and others. “The loans will come at below-market interest rates, a crucial stipulation as global lenders usually charge much higher rates in Africa, citing higher risks,” writes Max Bearak for the New York Times. 
• In Japan, impact investing has emerged as a vital approach to balancing economic growth with the urgent need for environmental and social progress, particularly in addressing issues such as an aging population, regional disparities and advancing environmental technologies. Amit Bouri was appointed to the Global Advisory Council of Japan’s GX Acceleration Agency, a newly established body advancing the country’s transition finance strategy. 
• 2025 is the year of climate finance, says the World Resources Institute. There’s a $1.3 trillion USD gap in climate financing, with nations currently pledging $300 billion by 2035. Mobilizing private capital is the crucial strategy to fill that gap and secure humanity’s future. 
• The City of London Corporation, which governs London’s financial district, is shifting into more intentional impact investing, recognizing “a duty to invest in people, planet, and place.”  
• China plans to continue efforts to eliminate air pollution in the country in 2025, which is responsible for about 2 million deaths per year, Reuters reports. Pollution reduction is an area that impact investors can make strides in, such as GIIN member Acumen’s investment in Greenway, a company that sells healthier and more fuel efficient stoves in India.  
• In a recent interview with Verve Ventures, GIIN's Chief Investor Network Officer, Sean Gilbert, emphasized the importance of intentionality in impact investing: "Any type of investment has an impact. Investors are responsible for becoming aware of and managing their investments’ impacts, but the real question behind impact investing is to understand the specific environmental or social outcome that the investor is trying to help achieve."
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• Last month we celebrated the GIIN’s 15th anniversary, hosted in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative and The Rockefeller Foundation. Watch Amit Bouri in conversation with Dr. Chelsea Clinton on the evolution of impact investing and the road ahead. 
• The deadline to submit your response to the impact investor survey has been extended to March 31. Join the investors who have contributed to the GIIN's critical survey efforts. Your input will help shape the future of impact investing and provide the transparency needed to move the market forward.
• The GIIN West Coast Impact Forum and Investor Training will take place April 15 - 16 in San Francisco. Check out the recently released agenda and secure your spot. 
• Share your insights on the GIIN’s new climate solutions investing framework, designed for asset owners to identify and prioritize among climate solutions investments that contribute meaningfully to global climate goals.
• The recently launched GIIN healthcare benchmark provides a rigorous, data-driven tool that enables investors to assess their impact performance, compare against peers and track progress toward practical solutions for stronger healthcare systems.
• In January, the GIIN welcomed seven new members: CMS Luxembourg, Colesco Capital, Harbour Reach Investment Consulting Pty Ltd, New York Life Investments, Norfund, Stray Dog Capital and The Colorado Health Foundation. The Waverley Street Foundation joined as a member of the GIIN’s Investors’ Council.
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