…………. A little less than a year ago, Monitor Institute, an affiliate of the consulting firm Monitor Group, released a comprehensive report on the current state of the impact investing world. If you have read my post regarding the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), or the Antony Bugg-Levine’s article in Beyond Profit magazine but want to learn even more, then you should check out Monitor Institute’s January 2009 report on impact investing, which (like the GIIN) was also a Rockefeller Foundation-supported effort.
Click for a two-page snapshot, 16-page executive summary, or the full 86-page report.
Phases of Industry Evolution
I’ll let the links above do the additional explaining, but I do want to mention at least one of the main points made in the Monitor report, which is related to what I wrote about in terms of the necessity of an “ecosystem” for impact investing. The Monitor graphic below (click to enlarge) summarizes perfectly the road ahead for impact investing, and as you can see, we are just beginning the “Marketplace Building” stage, or “Ecosystem Building stage,” if you will. The “centers of activity” and “infrastructure” shown below are a perfect parallel to Jeff Bussgang’s ingredients for vibrant venture capital ecosystems.
The next 10 years may very well be a “make or break” period for impact investing. “Will the promise of this moment be realized, making this new domain a major complementary force for providing the capital, talent and creativity needed to address pressing social and environmental challenges? Or will it remain a small, disorganized, underleveraged niche for years or even decades to come?”
Get Involved!
If you do believe, as I do, that impact investing can indeed become a major complementary force for change, then get involved! Email Rockefeller Foundation or the GIIN, or one of the scores of other related organizations mentioned in the Monitor Institute report, and see if you can do something! Contribute however you can towards the following five Priority Initiatives:
- Create industry-defining funds that can serve as beacons for how to address specific social or environmental issues
- Place substantial, risk-taking capital in catalytic finance structures
- Set industry standards for social measurement
- Lobby for specific policy/regulatory change
- Develop an impact investing network
“Concrete action will be required to build the marketplace that can address today’s challenges and tomorrow’s risks.”
All graphics are the work of Monitor Institute, used under Creative Commons license.
