NextBillion Editor

Announcing NextBillion’s Latest E-book (and the first from NextBillion Financial Innovation): A compilation of posts and videos from our Impact Investing Insights series

Impact investing is a fascinating, at times confounding sector. It’s been the subject of unbridled enthusiasm among socially focused investors and entrepreneurs, with early advocates proclaiming its potential to transform capital markets into a force for good in the world. It’s also been the subject of a bit of a backlash, as skeptics compared these lofty expectations to the relatively paltry amounts being invested. Meanwhile, advocates, entrepreneurs and investors alike have passionately discussed questions ranging from the best ways to assess and maximize the social impact of capital, to the risks of ordinary investments claiming the impact label in an effort to tap into investors’ growing interest in socially responsible investing.

But though the evolution of the sector has been fitful at times, that interest has continued to grow. And in recent years, it has extended to major fund managers, wealthy families and foundations, development finance institutions – and increasingly, to retail investors as well. A wealth of new research and resources has followed, along with a growing amount of attention in the media and on the global conference circuit.

In the spring of 2014, NextBillion Financial Innovation Editor James Militzer attended one of those conferences, the Sustainatopia Impact Conference. While there, he conducted interviews with 11 top investors, academics and advocates about their views on the sector’s vast potential, and its equally large challenges. We have assembled the resulting videos into this e-book, “Impact Investing Insights,” which covers a broad cross-section of the topics and trends that drive impact investing today. It’s the first in a series of e-books we’ll be publishing in 2015, compiling some of NextBillion’s topical series into handy resources that can be easily viewed and shared. We hope you’ll find them both interesting and informative.

Editor’s note: Both the video production and articles compiled in the e-book were by NB Financial Innovation Editor James Militzer. The e-book was designed by Charles Tidwell, Projects Administrator at The William Davidson Institute.

Click here, or on the image to the left, to download the E-Book

Categories
Investing, Social Enterprise
Tags
financial inclusion, impact investing, innovation, social enterprise