IMPACTO’s founder and CEO, Belissa Rojas, recently blogged with Enrique Mendizabal, the founder and director of On Think Tanks (OTT), on the potential role think tanks have in the impact investing industry.

The article discussed how the new and unprecedented challenges we are facing worldwide is pushing investors to look for investments that not only attract long-term profitability, but also solve the key environmental and social problems our society and planet are experiencing. Impact investments meet those characteristics, as they seek financial returns alongside with social and environmental impacts.

Over the past decade the impact investing industry has grown substantially—the yearly capital invested in such investments grew by 32% from 2013 to 2018. That trend is expected to continue to grow, especially given the current global situation.  As the industry grows, investors demand more impact options and solutions to the challenges they face. Its capacity to effectively plan for, measure, and manage impact is a key one, but the article identifies other challenges:

  • Absence of a robust standard framework to measure, manage and benchmark impact.
  • Limited meaningful learning and evaluation activities.
  • Limited evidence that investments can generate financial returns along with positive environmental and social impact.
  • Lack of systematic inclusion of final beneficiaries voices
  • Perverse incentives that could jeopardize the industry’s ability to grow with integrity.
  • Investors’ conflicting expectations, priorities, and interests.

IMPACTO is partnering with the main leaders and players in the sector to support impact investors to address these challenges. OTT is one of those partners.  Together, we offer impact measurement and management (IMM) frameworks aligned with the SDGs and industry benchmarks, prospective and retrospective evaluations, systematic reviews and synthesis of existing evidence, funding strategies and investment decks, and numerous additional tools and solutions to increase knowledge, reduce information asymmetries and align industry priorities.  Please review our Services for further information and contact us with any questions.

The full article was originally published at: www.onthinktanks.org

~ Belissa Rojas is IMPACTO’s founder and CEO