Evaluating Impact Investing

What is Impact Investing?

Impact investing involves the allocation of capital with the intent of generating a social or environmental impact and also a financial return. Commercial banks, private foundations, pension funds, venture funds, corporations, governments, and development finance institutions are active in this industry.

Impact investing can be evaluated at a variety of levels: the impact investing industry, an investment policy, an investment or grant-making program, an investment fund, an investment product, an individual investment, an investee firm, an entrepreneur, an employee, or the household or community.

Topics

Examples include standards, methods, and capacity building; and regional and multi-stakeholder perspectives.

Resources

Established and emerging resources include market surveys, guidelines, case studies and toolkits.

Training

Training is occurring via workshops, courses, networks and conferences; and includes online and offline formats.

Executive Course on Evaluating Impact Investing - Syllabus Now Available

This course is organized around three broad themes—building the field of impact investing, measuring the success of impact investments, and understanding the special issues emanating from the African context.

Partners and Funders

Featured Resources

Unlocking Capital, Activating a Movement: Strategic Assessment of Rockefeller Foundation’s Impact Investing Initiative Strategic assessment of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Impact Investing Initiative.

Accelerating Impact: Achievements, Challenges and What’s Next in Building the Impact Investing Industry This report assesses the progress and lessons from a global review of the impact investing industry.

Interrogating the Theory of Change: Evaluating Impact Investing Where it Matters Most Advancing the integration of theory of change into the practice of the evaluation of impact investing.

Setting Standards for Evaluating Impact Investing: What Does Africa Want? What kinds of terms, indicators and guidelines would African investors and evaluators recommend?