The Impact Strategy Summit 2024 in Oxford focused on “Operationalizing Impact,” featuring 85 members exploring impact investing fundamentals and frontiers across 15 sessions. Key topics included Doughnut Economics, multidimensional poverty, impact-first due diligence, and redesigning wealth management systems for impact. The summit also included optional workshops on Innovative Finance and a “Managers Day” for discussions with European-based fund managers.
Author: Gabriela
Mexico 2023: ImPact Leaders Forum Takeaways
The Leaders Forum 2023 in Mexico City focused on “Impact in a Time of Transition,” gathering community members to discuss challenges and opportunities in creating a fairer economic system. Key themes included family dynamics in impact investing, rooting efforts in Mexico, systems thinking related to climate change, and empowering women in leadership roles within families and philanthropy. The event also explored reimagining philanthropy, building impact portfolios, questioning economic growth, and engaging in arts and culture for social change.
New York 2023: ImPact Strategy Summit Key Takeaways
The ImPact’s 2023 Strategy Summit focused on operationalizing impact investing, addressing challenges families face in implementing their strategies amidst market volatility. Key takeaways included maintaining a long-term view, pursuing impact-first strategies without necessarily accepting concessionary returns, and using a systemic approach by utilizing various tools like philanthropy and advocacy alongside investments. The summit also highlighted the importance of advancing equity, supporting community-driven solutions, and engaging with impact fund managers.
Impact Investing for Family Foundations
A foundation is a powerful platform through which families can express their values in society.
Yet, most families only use a small portion of their foundation assets to pursue their philanthropic
missions. Funding solutions to the world’s toughest challenges requires far more resources than
are available through foundations’ grantmaking alone.
As families grapple with the scale of these challenges, many are seeking ways to activate more of their philanthropic assets towards their missions. Impact investing is a powerful tool for maximizing a foundation’s assets for good. This primer is a guide for families looking to align and activate their foundation’s assets to achieve their social and environmental objectives while meeting their foundation’s financial needs.
Family Offices: A Roadmap to Impact
From The Impact Investing Institute
This document serves as a guide for family offices interested in impact investing. It provides practical steps and resources for aligning wealth with positive social and environmental change while maintaining financial performance.
It outlines the roadmap to impact investing, covering internal advocacy, strategy development, investment policy creation, capital allocation, team building, and impact measurement and management. The guide emphasizes both “impact by design” and “shifting to impact” approaches for families. It further highlights the need for clear communication of values and impact intentions with external advisers and managers.
Building an Impact Investing Team
This guide from the Omidyar Network focuses on building effective impact investing teams, advising families on aligning their motivations and goals with talent strategy. It outlines a four-step approach, including defining goals, assessing operational needs, evaluating team structures (in-house, blended, or outsourced), and building the team. The document also features case studies of various foundations and funds to illustrate different approaches to team building and provides additional resources for further learning.
Early Stage Investing for Financial Returns and Social Impact in Emerging Markets
This report from the Omidyar Network focuses on “Frontier Capital,” early-stage investing in emerging markets that seeks both financial returns and social impact, specifically targeting low- and lower-middle-income populations. It identifies three segments of investment: Replicate and adapt, frontier, and frontier plus, each with varying levels of risk and potential impact, and calls for more risk-tolerant capital to support innovation in these areas. The document highlights the importance of mixed-income models and asset-light businesses for achieving scale and impact in these markets.
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors – Philanthropy Roadmap
This guide from The Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors is an introduction to impact investing. It discusses the definition of impact investing, its importance, various strategies and structures, and examples of how it is being utilized by organizations and individuals. The document also outlines the benefits and challenges of impact investing and provides resources for further exploration of the topic.
From the Margins to the Mainstream
This World Economic Forum report assesses the state of impact investing at the time, highlighting the gap between excitement and actual investment from mainstream investors, and proposes strategies to bridge this gap. It emphasizes definitional clarity, addresses challenges such as small deal sizes and lack of standardized measurement, and recommends actions for various stakeholders to accelerate capital flow into impact investments.
The report calls for greater transparency in financial returns and social impact measurement, while encouraging mainstream investors to engage further.