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“Impact investment will do a lot of good – but only if we can get it right.” That’s the key message put forward by Morgan Simon, managing director of Candide Group, founding CEO of Toniic and co-founder of Transform Finance, in her new book, “REAL IMPACT: The New Economics of Social Change.”

In it, she says the sector is at a turning point: “Impact investment is preparing for rapid scale—it’s now offered by the majority of major financial institutions, and … pension funds, high net worth individuals, corporations and foundations are taking environmental, social and governance factors into account in their decision-making. But if only financial institutions are involved in decisions around what is socially responsible, we will drown out the voices that have the most to gain or lose from the conversation—those whose communities are most directly affected by investments that are made.”

Since impact investing is poised to eclipse traditional charitable aid by ten times in the next decade, the conversation Simon is advancing is an essential one. That’s why we’re delighted to offer our readers a free chapter of her book, via our e-newsletter “NextBillion Notes” (click here to subscribe) – the chapter will be included in each weekly newsletter throughout the month of December, sent out on Wednesdays.

We selected what may be the book’s most provocative chapter for the giveaway, entitled “The Limits of Impact Investment.” In it, Simon lays out eight areas where the sector risks falling short of its potential – a few chapter sub-heads give a sense of her thinking:

“Impact Is Being Defined by Investors and Entrepreneurs Instead of Beneficiaries”

“Impact Investment Is Taking the ‘Easy Wins’—Celebrating Incremental Change Rather Than Restructuring Economic Systems”

“Capacity Building and Start-Up Capital Is Lacking for the 99 Percent”

The chapter deserves to be widely read and shared – as does the rest of the book, which also discusses how impact investing can live up to its ideals and achieve real impact at scale. Subscribe to NextBillion Notes now to read the chapter, and learn more about the book here.

Note: “Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change” by Morgan Simon is made available from Nation Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Photo credit: Pablo Garcia Saldaña, via UnSplash.