FAQs
Answering your questions about impact investing
Getting Started with Impact Investing
No matter if you are just starting as an impact investor or are looking to improve existing efforts, we can help. We work with you to develop a comprehensive impact strategy that is right for your organization and complements your existing investment processes.
Measuring the Impact of Impact Investing
As many as 97 percent of investors agree that the difficulty of measuring impact has been a key barrier to the growth of the impact investing industry. We provide guidance on how you can measure impact and properly assess the risk associated with your investment.
What Is Impact Investing and Why Should You Care?
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) defines impact investing as investment into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention of generating social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.
Bridgespan Social Impact Publications about Impact Investing
Our publications are prominently featured on news platforms that reach both the social sector and the for-profit sector. The breadth and depth of topics covered by our publications position us as thought leaders in the impact investing industry. For a more complete list, please visit our impact investing publications page.
For Outsized Impact, Investors Should Look to Africa
For institutional impact investors, Africa is the new frontier. Rich in economic potential, the continent also offers fertile soil for investors interested in seeing their capital put to use addressing social and environmental challenges such as climate change, economic disparities, and gender inequality. And, thanks to new approaches to impact, measurement, and management pioneered in Africa, such investors can now measure the difference they’re making in the world with a precision once reserved for financial returns.
Opportunities for Impact Investors Interested in Africa
A companion guide “For Outsized Impact, Investors Should Look to Africa,” these lists can help investors find investment funds and opportunities in Africa and learn effective practices in the region. The lists include african fund managers where institutional investors can invest through African funds that are catalyzing outsized impact and focused on delivering commercial returns as well as global funders and regional industry groups where institutional investors can learn effective practices from organizations with experience in the region. The lists are non-exhaustive, and much of the information is from the organizations’ website. We encourage you to do additional research to identify other proximate players doing remarkable work in this space.
Capricorn Investment Group
Capricorn’s Sustainable Investors Fund makes early-stage investments in innovative asset-management firms to help propel their work on environmental and social issues.