Original post on PacificCommunityVentures.org By Jane Ren, Pacific Community Ventures Faith-Based Organizations Are Long-Time Socially Responsible Investors As some of the oldest institutions in the world, faith-based organizations (“FBOs”) have long invested their capital with consideration to social causes. Over 200 years ago, Quaker and Methodist immigrants to the U.S. avoided investing in businesses tied to war, slavery, tobacco, gambling, and other activities inconsistent with their faith-based values. Today’s FBOs commonly engage in Socially Responsible Investing (“SRI”) using tools such as portfolio screens, divestment, and shareholder activism. Their strong commitment to the SRI movement has spurred the financial services industry to createmutual funds, ETFs, and other investment vehicles tailored to their beliefs. FBOs And Impact Investing: Fits And Starts, But Renewed Engagement Despite their leadership in SRI and engagement with the financial sector, FBOs have had a more complicated relationship with impact investing. FBOs pioneered some of the first community … Read More
Impact Investing 101: Impact Measurement
By Jane Ren, Lisa Ruskin, and Brenna McCallick, Pacific Community Ventures Impact investing practitioners and advocates constantly strive to find the most effective ways of deploying capital for good. The struggles inherent to this process are many: finding attractive investible opportunities, structuring investments appropriately for their recipients (while not compromising returns), using the existing policy environment advantageously―the list goes on. But in the often hurried frenzy to find the best ways of deploying capital, many in the impact investing community have struggled to track, evaluate and report on the actual social and/or environmental impacts of their investments. For this 101 post, I asked two of my colleagues at Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) to share their thoughts on this important issue of impact measurement. Jane Ren and Lisa Ruskin are analysts on the PCV InSight team, providing impact analysis, reporting services, and impact strategy consulting to impact investors across asset classes. In addition … Read More
Impact Investing 101: Investing With A Gender Lens
By Brenna McCallick, Research Associate, Pacific Community Ventures In the first two editions of Impact Investing 101, we brought you some of the best resources for getting acquainted with the field, and for zeroing in on the all-important issue of public policy. This month, in honor of International Women’s Day, we’re thrilled to present you with information about the exciting ways impact investors are working to empower women around the world. The Problem It is well known that women throughout the world face numerous political, economic and social barriers to full equality. A statistical examination of the state of equal rights and opportunities for women is beyond the scope of this post (though we do offer several resources below for accessing the most up-to-date information and statistics on issues impacting women). It’s worth noting, however, that within the context of global financial markets, women are hugely undervalued. Women have been … Read More
Impact Investing 101: Public Policy
By Brenna McCallick, Research Associate, Pacific Community Ventures Unless you’ve completely ignored impact investing news over the past three months, you’re probably aware that public policy is a hot topic in the field these days. The landmark reports produced by the Social Impact Investment Taskforce and National Advisory Boards, and more recently, the IIPC’s global policy snapshot report – not to mention discussions at field convenings like SOCAP, Social Finance Forum, and Net Impact – have highlighted the crucial role of government action in supporting impact investing. This post is a particularly long one for two reasons: First, policy is close to our hearts at the IIPC. Indeed, the goal of advancing sound impact investing policy is the very reason for our existence. Since our inception five years ago, we have developed critical frameworks for understanding and mapping policy and government action, monitored global trends, created new case studies, and produced … Read More
Introducing “Impact Investing 101”: Resources for Newcomers
By Brenna McCallick, Research Associate, Pacific Community Ventures This week, the Social Impact Investment Taskforce convened by the G8 has released reports assessing the policy infrastructure that undergirds impact investing markets around the world. This surge of new information will be at the forefront of discussions about impact investing for some time to come – and with good reason. The Taskforce has undertaken the ambitious goals of mapping its member countries’ markets and producing recommendations that promise to unleash new streams of capital. The stage is set for a dynamic international conversation – one that will benefit from the participation of investors, entrepreneurs, financial managers and government workers who do not always self-identify as impact investing practitioners. In light of this recent flurry of activity, let’s take a moment to get back to basics. If you’re hoping to make sense of these latest developments, but aren’t fluent in the language(s) of impact … Read More