Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Every month, PCV will give you a roundup of what’s new in the field, what conversations are taking place, and how you can get involved. Here are some highlights from December: The goal of impact investing, broadly speaking, is to turn markets and capital toward their best selves – facilitating businesses that create value for everyday people and creating social and environmental benefits in addition to returns. We talk a lot about the players and the deals, … Read More
What’s New In Impact Investing? November Roundup
Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Every month, PCV will give you a roundup of what’s new in the field, what conversations are taking place, and how you can get involved. Here are some highlights from November: Many impact investors – be they individual or institutional, public or private, don’t do impact measurement. They don’t like to admit it, but in conversation will tell you they think it’s a waste of time and resources because it burdens investees and distracts from supporting the … Read More
Reflections On SOCAP 2017
In early October, Pacific Community Ventures had the opportunity to engage with panels at SOCAP in all capacities – as moderators, speakers, and attendees. SOCAP, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a record gathering of 3,000 attendees, is the “largest impact investing capital markets gathering in the world.” As an organization with both a small business lending program and an impact investing consulting practice, we were eager to share our insights as well as learn from innovators in the Bay Area and across the world. Needless to say, we packed a lot of learning into four days. Here are our 6 top takeaways: The current political climate is creating a sense of urgency that’s driving a booming interest in the impact investing industry. Panelists and attendees alike emphasized that the general public no longer believes we can necessarily rely on the government to solve our problems and address … Read More
What’s New In Impact Investing? October Roundup
Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Every month, PCV will give you a roundup of what’s new in the field, what conversations are taking place, and how you can get involved. Here are some highlights from October: This month was exciting, as we saw the first ever ‘impact rating’ issued for a publicly traded mutual fund, as our friend Oscar Perry Abello details in ImpactAlpha. Just as third-party ratings have become essential for judging financial risk of an investment, third-party verification of impact … Read More
What’s New In Impact Investing? September Roundup
Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Every month, PCV will give you a roundup of what’s new in the field, what conversations are taking place, and how you can get involved. Here are some highlights from September: Responsible Investing, characterized by the incorporation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions, is on the rise. According to research carried out by the US SIF Foundation, responsible investing assets under management are approaching $10trn, and this is in the US alone. For investors … Read More
Announcing The Impact Due Diligence Initiative
PCV is excited to announce the launch of the Impact Due Diligence Initiative. This project will identify best practices in impact due diligence, which we’ll build into a free, practical toolkit for investors across sectors – including foundations, faith-based organizations, CDFIs, equity fund managers, institutional investors, and others – seeking to assess the expected social impact of their investments but who may not know where to start. The impact investing industry has been focused primarily on assessing the social and environmental impacts of investments after capital has been deployed. Through PCV’s research and consulting engagements with numerous investors across geographies, asset classes, and impact themes over the past 10+ years, we’ve learned that the social and environmental performance reported by financed companies to investors has, in many cases, little to no influence on investment decisions. Why? First, it’s difficult for investors to determine whether reported social and environmental performance is good or … Read More
What’s New In Impact Investing? August Roundup
Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Every month, PCV will give you a roundup of what’s new in the field, what conversations are taking place, and how you can get involved. Here are some highlights from August: Earlier this month, Nuveen TIAA Investments released Responsible Investing: Delivering Competitive Performance. After assessing the leading socially-responsible investing (SRI) equity indexes over the long term, the firm “found no statistical difference in returns compared to broad market benchmarks, suggesting the absence of any systematic performance penalty. … Read More
What’s New In Impact Investing? July Roundup
Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Every month, PCV will give you a roundup of what’s new in the field, what conversations are taking place, and how you can get involved. Here are some highlights from July: The United Nations estimates that achieving its 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 will require trillions of dollars. The global goals aren’t the only way to measure our challenges, but they do paint a clear picture: given the scale of the problems the world faces, it’s … Read More
What’s New In Impact Investing? June Roundup
Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Every month, PCV will give you a roundup of what’s new in the field, what conversations are taking place, and how you can get involved. Here are some highlights from June: This past month the global efforts to combat climate change suffered a blow in Washington. But follow the money — signals for climate action are in the capital markets, not the Rose Garden. BlackRock Investment Group —with $5 trillion in assets, is bullish on electric cars … Read More