MAY 27, 2021
Although impact investing is not new, there are still relatively few equity funds that are involved in this. And that’s a missed opportunity because there’s a lot of untapped potential within these funds. The vast majority of total assets – approximately 96% – have traditionally been invested and only the return on these assets is used to achieve the fund’s social objectives.
At the same time, social and sustainable entrepreneurship has taken off in recent years. More and more entrepreneurs want to achieve a positive social impact with their company. But often they struggle to find financing to grow and scale. Can capital funds therefore not achieve much more if they also actively use their assets for their social mission and invest in these social and sustainable enterprises that contribute to this?
Through this report, we, therefore, want to encourage and inspire funds to look at their assets differently, so that not only the benefits are reaped, but the assets themselves also contribute to the intended impact of the fund. We asked seven forerunners in the field of impact investing to share their insights with us. They tell how they started the journey, what obstacles they encountered and what lessons they learned from this.
Based on these conversations and on the basis of existing literature, we give ten tips that can help funds in their own search for more impact through various financing instruments. In this way, we hope to help funds take the first steps towards impact investing so that together we can tackle social issues even more effectively.
View the report ‘A capacity for impact’
Curious about what you should pay attention to when you get started with impact investing? Then do the Impact Investing scan by Social Finance NL