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Viewpoint: Moving Beyond the Tradeoff Debate in Impact Investing
At Omidyar Network, we are bullish on impact investing. But we’ve also been frustrated by some of the rhetoric we hear, especially the ongoing — almost ideological — debate about whether there is a necessary tradeoff between financial returns and social impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Investors Sharpen Focus on Social and Environmental Risks to Stocks
Pfizer stock was riding high in June 2015, up 128 percent in five years, making it the second-most valuable American drug maker. Nine out of 10 Wall Street research analysts recommended that investors hold it in their portfolio, if not buy more.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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Social Business Roundup: My Ivory Tower or Yours? Will Cash-strapped Pensions Turn Back to ‘Sin Stocks’?
In the weekly roundup, the CEO of the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) in London says universities shouldn’t teach social entrepreneurship because they aren’t accessible to all; namely, poor people who are often best positioned to help solve social problems in their own neighborhoods. But there's a flaw in his logic. And on Monday, CalPERS, the U.S.'s largest public pension fund, will meet to decide whether to end its 16-year-old policy of divesting from tobacco stocks. Is the tide starting to turn against ESG investments among public pension funds?
- Categories
- Education, Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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Cash-Poor Millennials Lead the Impact Investing Revolution in Philanthropy
Socially and environmentally conscious Millennials are reinventing philanthropy by merging traditional foundations with profit-making endeavours and social enterprises, a new report says.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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New Platform Aims To Attract Reluctant Impact Investors
For impact investing to grow, a critical mass of mainstream funders needs to embrace it. Helping to make that happen is the goal of ClearlySo ATLAS, a recently announced platform with which private equity investors can assess the impact of their portfolio companies. The underlying framework is geared to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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ESG demand grows despite performance doubt
Interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing is set to grow despite no hard evidence on how it influences performance, according to Kelsey Biggers, head of investment risk at Franklin Templeton.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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A huge public pension fund faces an agonizing decision: Should it reinvest in tobacco?
Sixteen years ago, CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund, vaulted to the forefront of the social investing movement by voting to dump its $671 million in tobacco stocks.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
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Next Up for Impact Investing: ‘Solve for Market Demand, Not Investor Preferences’
Pioneers in the impact investing field have always wanted to take the movement mainstream. Well, they're getting there. Attendees at the Global Impact Investing Network's Investor Forum 2016 in Amsterdam, when compared to the 2013 forum in London, included more fund managers, more wealthy family advisors and large foundations, more big money people. Now comes education for the bigger players eager to get involved.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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