Message from Amit Bouri, CEO
I am delighted to call your attention to two brand new GIIN research reports: Scaling the Use of Guarantees in U.S. Community Investing and The Financial Performance of Real Assets Impact Investments, which launches today. While these reports, at first glance, may seem to serve different types of investors (with one primarily highlighting the investment power of foundations and governments, while the other underscores successful activity of market-rate impact investors), the investors who participated in both are ultimately working toward the same purpose: helping more people and the planet by demonstrating the power of impact investing.
Individually, these two reports provide incredibly useful and practical information that will help different types of impact investors make better investment decisions. In tandem, they underscore a topic I continue to prioritize and speak out about: the need for greater respect across the entire investing spectrum.
If we are to build a successful global market and ecosystem, we of course need increased awareness, education, and data. We will also need to foster even greater collaboration and mutual respect among those impact investors that require market rates of return and those that target important business models that might not be as profitable. Both types of investors are absolutely essential, individually and together. Investors seeking market rates of return are essential for scaling products and businesses; and investors seeking below-market rates of return are critical for exploring new business models, seeding new funds, and even supporting some high impact organizations that will never produce market rates of return. Our vision is a world where these two important groups of investors work together in harmony to unleash all investment as a global force for good.
I hope you will join us in sharing these reports, and sharing your triumphs and learnings with others in this exciting and growing field.
Amit
Co-founder and CEO of the GIIN
The GIIN and Cambridge Associates launch The Financial Performance of Real Assets Impact Investments Report
The GIIN, together with Cambridge Associates, is pleased to announce a new report, The Financial Performance of Real Assets Impact Investments: Introducing the Timber, Real Estate, and Infrastructure Impact Benchmarks.
This study, which is part of a larger financial performance series, provides the first comprehensive analysis of the financial performance of 55 private real assets impact investment funds in three sectors: timber, real estate, and infrastructure. The report also launches the Real Assets Impact Investing Benchmarks, which will continue to track the financial performance of impact investing funds across the three sectors; Cambridge Associates will update performance data on the benchmarks quarterly. Encouragingly, the findings show that risk-adjusted market rate returns are achievable in impact investing, as evidenced by return distributions of similar funds with no environmental or social objectives; however, fund selection remains important.
Kicking off soon, the GIIN will begin data collection for a study on the financial performance of private debt impact investing funds; please contact Hannah Schiff ([email protected]) to participate or learn more.
Learn more about Financial Performance of Real Assets Impact Investments, here >
Learn about the GIIN’s new Initiative for Institutional Impact Investment
The GIIN has launched a new industry effort to support the meaningful participation of institutional asset owners in the impact investing market and, ultimately, increase the amount of institutional capital allocated to impact investments globally. To address the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges, trillions of dollars need to be mobilized from both the public and private sectors over the next 10-15 years. Institutional capital is a critical component in narrowing this capital gap via commercially viable, market-based mechanisms, including impact investing. The GIIN Initiative for Institutional Impact Investment supports institutional asset owners seeking to enter or deepen their engagement with the impact investing market, by providing educational resources, performance research, and a community of practice. To join the mailing list and community of practice, and to learn more, click here >
Everyone’s talking about blended finance, but who’s doing it? Explore the landscape of guarantees in U.S. community investing to learn more.
On April 25, the GIIN published a new issue brief, Scaling the Use of Guarantees in U.S. Community Investing. Guarantees are a powerful credit-enhancement tool that can provide investors with the ability to leverage more capital to address social and environmental challenges; however, they are currently underutilized in impact investing.
The report, supported by the Kresge Foundation, takes an in-depth look at the application, benefits, and scalability of financial guarantees in impact investing. The study outlines how guarantees have been used to date in U.S. community investing, what challenges have been associated with their use, and what opportunities exist to use guarantees at greater scale to support communities and the environment. This paper also includes case studies that highlight how guarantees have been structured in areas such as affordable housing, healthcare, community revitalization, and energy efficiency.
Read Scaling the Use of Guarantees in U.S. Community Investing, here >