This report introduces impact investing for families, defining it as aiming for both financial returns and measurable social/environmental impact, and explores various motivations and approaches families take. It outlines a seven-phase framework for families to explore, strategize, and optimize their impact investment efforts across different asset classes, sectors, and geographies, while emphasizing the diversity of opportunities and return profiles within the market. The guide highlights strategies such as “carve out,” “integration,” and “all-in” for implementing impact investing within family enterprises.
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Case Study: Solving Problems through Capital Markets
Jim Sorenson is a successful entrepreneur, business executive, investor, and philanthropist. He
is a pioneer impact investor and plays a leadership role in building the impact investing field
worldwide. Jim believes impact investing is a powerful method for scaling solutions to local and
global challenges, and for creating significant economic value. Jim makes impact investments with
his personal capital, out of the endowments of his foundations (in the form of mission-related
investments), and uses grantmaking capital from his foundations to make program-related investments (or PRIs).
This case study focuses on Jim’s PRIs as they constitute the majority of the impact investments
he makes. Jim uses PRIs as a tool to fill critical market gaps and catalyze financing for scalable
innovations with the potential to improve the livelihoods of poor and marginalized people. While
every family is unique, Jim Sorenson has experiences that can provide for shared learning. Through understanding the decision points and outcomes of Jim Sorenson’s work, other families can make more informed decisions as they develop and implement their own impact investing programs.
Navigating Impact Investing In Brazil
What does it take to build an impact investing ecosystem in an emerging market?
This report explores how Brazil’s social inequality, environmental urgency, and philanthropic tradition are creating momentum for values-aligned investing. With an expanding middle class and a rising number of family enterprises exploring new financial tools, the report captures the early architecture of Brazil’s impact ecosystem, from mission-driven businesses to collaborative investment funds.
While the opportunity is clear, the report also candidly addresses Brazil’s unique challenges: political and economic volatility, geographic concentration of capital, and a still-developing track record for financial returns. Yet Brazilian families are leading with creativity and conviction, operating impact-focused businesses, seeding funds, supporting social entrepreneurs, and building networks of trust. With deep dives into high-potential sectors like education, healthcare, and environmental preservation, this report provides practical entry points, strategies, and examples for families ready to lead with impact in Brazil.
Investimento de Impacto no Brasil
This report explores the impact investing landscape in Brazil, focusing on the role of families in driving this movement. It details the history and current state of impact investing in the country, highlighting opportunities in sectors like education, health, and environmental preservation.
The report also examines the challenges and trends within the market, while showcasing various approaches families are taking through business operations, fund investments, and philanthropic efforts to advance social and environmental good.
Primer: Private Equity
Families can make private equity investments that help generate social and environmental impact
at scale. By investing growth capital in fast-growing, intrinsically impactful businesses or by
improving the social and environmental impact of mature operating businesses, private equity
investors can generate commercial financial returns and address critical global challenges.
The purpose of this primer is to explore various private equity strategies families use to achieve
their overall impact and financial objectives. This document is intended to be explanatory and not
a source of investment advice.
Primer: Fixed Income
Fixed income (FI) is a cornerstone of traditionally balanced investment portfolios, offering stable
income, varying liquidity, and a relatively low risk profile. Given the prevalence and diversity of FI
investment opportunities, families who wish to create or expand an impact investment portfolio
may find FI to be a good place to start.
Families are making FI impact investments across sectors, geographies, and return profiles.
The purpose of this primer is to explore the different ways families make FI impact investments in
order to achieve their impact and financial objectives. This primer is intended to be explanatory,
and not a source of investment advice.
Primer: Real Assets
Real assets can create a tangible, enduring impact. By investing in affordable housing, green
buildings, and sustainable land management, families can generate positive, physical change in
communities they care about most.
Several ImPact member families are using assets they already own, such as family farms or real
estate companies, to create measurable social and environmental impact. Other families are
making new impact investments in real assets as part of their general asset allocation. Real asset
investments are particularly well-suited for investors whose impact objectives include supporting
underserved communities, enhancing resource efficiency, or improving sustainable food and fiber
systems.
The purpose of this primer is to explore various real asset impact investing strategies families use to achieve their overall impact and financial objectives. This document is intended to be exploratory
and not a source of investment advice.
Miami 2025: ImPact Strategy Summit Key Takeaways
The ImPact Strategy Summit 2025 gathered participants from around the globe to discuss operationalizing impact, focusing on aligning capital, influence, and imagination for a just and regenerative future, and exploring systems thinking, community building, and crisis response.
The event featured various sessions on topics like the future of cities, impact investing fundamentals, wealth management, climate change, and democratic systems, emphasizing collaboration, intergenerational well-being, and strategic action. Participants engaged in discussions, panels, and workshops aimed at discerning individual and collective responsibilities in addressing global challenges.
Primer: Early Stage Investments
Early-stage impact investments can be a powerful tool for scaling businesses that are designed to
make money and have measurable social impact. Though investments in mission-driven startups
are risky, they can generate extraordinary financial returns while enabling innovative businesses
to address critical social and environmental problems.
Early-stage impact investing can help preserve a family’s sense of collective purpose and cultivate
entrepreneurial spirit across multiple generations. The tangibility, excitement, and mission clarity
of early-stage impact investments often appeal to younger family members and can help engage
them in the management of family assets.
The purpose of this primer is to explore the different early-stage impact investing strategies families use to achieve their overall impact and financial objectives. This document is intended to be explanatory and not a source of investment advice.
Primer: Cross-Border Impact Investments
Many of The ImPact’s member families are inspired by the opportunity to invest for impact in emerging markets. Investments in these markets have extraordinary potential to create social and environmental impact. These opportunities also present new and sometimes complex legal considerations. The goal of this primer is to provide families with a summary of the important issues and an outline of the key questions to ask their local and international counsel when making international impact investments.
This primer contains two parts: Part one explores the critical role that local counsel plays in appropriately assessing, structuring, and managing investments. It also explains how an understanding of local legal systems and cultures can facilitate better managed transactions. Part two of the primer outlines the questions families should discuss with their local counsel before entering into an international investment agreement.
By no means does this primer exhaust all the potential legal issues that may arise within cross-border impact investments. Rather, it is intended to be a tool for families to use as they conduct their due diligence and engage local legal counsel. This primer is the product of a partnership between The ImPact and New York University Law School’s International Transactions Clinic. The authors of this primer are Monica Hernandez and Claire Bang, advised by Professor Deborah Burand.