Good intentions among fund managers and investees don’t make up for the sometimes confusing and wide variety of standards and frameworks for impact measurement. Such uncertainty opens the door to both selling the concept of impact investing without delivering on actual impact—so-called impact washing—but also that dollars invested towards impact might not be going towards effective solutions.
When Impact-First Investments Are the Right Tools for Social Change
Impact-first investment can deliver attractive financial returns as it prioritizes measurable social change in the messy middle between grants and conventional investing. This report identifies market conditions favorable to impact-first investments and describes multiple examples in which they outperform grants or investments seeking market-rate returns.