NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, December 12, 2014

An overwhelming majority of “impact investments” met or exceeded financial and social-benefit goals, according to a survey released Thursday.

The survey, prepared by the Aspen Institute and the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown University, was accompanied by case studies documenting the challenges and successes of the investing strategy.

Impact investing is an approach in which investors attempt to reap both a financial return and a social benefit, such as improved reading rates among young students or reduced recidivism among former inmates. The studied concentrated on investments intended to improve health and education or to reduce poverty.

Thirty-nine institutional investors who responded to the survey said they had committed a total of $2.5-billion to efforts in those designated areas. About half of the investors set both financial and social benchmarks. Of those, 80 percent said their investments had met or exceeded financial expectations, and 90 percent said their investments had met or exceeded social goals.