Impact Strategies - How Investors Drive Social Impact

“Impact Strategies – How Investors Drive Social Impact” explores how various types of capital providers combine their social impact objectives, financial returns expectations and risk appetite to sustain real social impact. As the impact ecosystem is rapidly evolving and changing, attracting more resources to social purpose organisations, more actors enter the space, and it is becoming more challenging to define and distinguish the various investment approaches. This report is an important step forward in the process of clearing the air around social impact and financial return expectations and risk appetite. It identifies two main approaches: “Investing for Impact” and “Investing with Impact” – both aiming to generate social impact with different mind-sets. Differentiating them allows to make both approach more transparent on intentions, better align shareholders, manage expectations towards investees, and create the right setting to collaborate with other types of capital providers. Both strategies are therefore very valuable, exist next to each other and support social innovations at different stages of their development. This research is supported by a series of practical cases from experienced practitioners, and describes in detail the characteristics of investors for impact and their journey through social impact sought, financial returns aimed, and social and financial risks taken.