Download or read book Impact Investing at a Crossroads written by John Forrer and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-30 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no questioning the enthusiasm that welcomed impact investing as an alternative approach to making investments: Take account of both financial returns and the social and environmental impacts. But there is no denying that the approach has fallen well short of expectations. Impact investing has shown great promise as a major transformational investment paradigm, but in practice under-performing woefully and its prospects are dimming: It comprises less than 1% of the world’s equity investments, and too many claims of success are more about marketing and reputational value than hard evidence of positive social impacts. Drawing on over a decade of hands-on experience, this book presents a unique combination of a how-to guide and a reimagining – new models, frameworks, techniques, and tools – of what impact investing could be and could accomplish. It points to a new direction for future impact investments: achieve higher financial returns, more positive social and environmental impacts, and lower risks than conventional investments. Readers will learn what actions should be taken at each stage of impact investing, and which models, analytic frameworks, and techniques to use – and how to use them – for optimal results. This book offers a step-by-step guide to how impact investing can achieve its promise of transforming global investments into a powerful positive force for change. It is an inspiring and comprehensive resource for anyone who wants to understand how impact investing works and how it can be done better, from professionals at foundations, international NGOs, consulting firms, and government agencies, to students of finance, public policy, ESG, sustainability and international development.
Download or read book Impact Investing at a Crossroads written by John Forrer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2024-08-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resolving the conflict between making money and making the world a better place, this book is a step-by-step guide to how impact investing can achieve its promise of transforming global investments into a powerful positive force for change.
Download or read book Socially Responsible Investments written by Mario La Torre and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-27 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Palgrave Pivot aims to build a bridge between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable finance in financial markets. It investigates classic CSR topics in the light of a modern conception of sustainability. The first part emphasizes four relevant topics in the CSR panorama of financial institutions: banks remuneration practices; human capital disclosure; the impact of environmental performance on banks, and finally, the institutional investors’ attitude towards socially responsible investments (SRIs). The second part explores CSR practices within the financial markets and discusses risk-return profiles of SRI and non-SRI indexes in different time frames. It investigates whether thematic social responsible funds obtain different risk-return than traditional funds, and finally, assesses whether equity crowdfunding could foster social innovation. This book is aimed at scholars and students who are interested in social impact investing and practitioners involved in the social impact market.
Download or read book The Impact Investor written by Cathy Clark and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-09-22 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your money can change the world The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism offers precise details on what, exactly, impact investing entails, embodied in the experiences and best and proven practices of some of the world's most successful impact investors, across asset classes, geographies and areas of impact. The book discusses the parameters of impact investing in unprecedented detail and clarity, providing both context and tools to those eager to engage in the generational shift in the way finance and business is being approached in the new era of Collaborative Capitalism. The book presents a simple thesis with clarity and conviction: "Impact investing can be done successfully. This is what success looks like, and this is what it requires." With much-needed lessons for practitioners, the authors view impact investing as a harbinger of a new, more "multilingual" (cross-sector), transparent, and accountable form of economic leadership. The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism serves as a resource for a variety of players in finance and business, including: Investors: It demonstrates not only the types of investments which can be profitable and impactful, but also details best practices that, with roots in impact investing, will increasingly play a role in undergirding the success of all investment strategies. Wealth advisors/financial services professionals: With unprecedented detail on the innovative structures and strategies of impact investing funds, the book provides guidance to financial institutions on how to incorporate these investments in client portfolios. Foundations: The book explores the many catalytic and innovative ways for for-profit and non-profit investors to partner, amplifying the potential social and environmental impacts of philanthropic spending and market-rate endowment investment. Business students: By including strategies for making sound impact investments based on detailed case studies, it provides concrete lessons and explores the skills required to enhance prospects for success as a finance and business professional. Policy makers: Reinforcing the urgency of creating a supportive and enabling environment for impact investing, the book demonstrates ways policy has already shaped the sector, and suggests new ways for policymakers to support it. Corporate leaders: The book includes essential advice on the way business is and must be responding to a new generation of Millennial clients and customers, with unique insights into a form of value creation that is inherently more collaborative and outcomes-driven.
Download or read book Impact Investing written by Antony Bugg-Levine and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-08-02 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ground-breaking book on the transformative power of impact investing This is the first book to chart the catalytic path of this new industry, explaining how it is and can be a positive disruptive force. It shows how impact investing is a transformational vehicle for delivering "blended value" throughout the investment spectrum, giving a single name to a set of activities previously siloed in enclaves, revealing how they are linked within what is becoming a new field of investing. Written by two leaders in the growing field of impact investing, the book defines this emerging industry for participants on all sides of the funding equation (investors, funders and social entrepreneurs). Filled with illustrative examples of impact investing success stories Reveals how the field can expand in order to address the most critical social and environmental issues of our day Explores the wide-ranging applications of impact investing as well as entrepreneurial opportunities The authors do not take a normative approach to argue how investors should behave like an investment guide might but show how entrepreneurial people and institutions are already offering an integrated alternative.
Download or read book Global Handbook of Impact Investing written by Elsa De Morais Sarmento and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-12-30 with total page 1331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover how to invest your capital to achieve a powerful, lasting impact on the world. The Global Handbook of Impact Investing: Solving Global Problems Via Smarter Capital Markets Towards A More Sustainable Society is an insightful guide to the growing world-wide movement of Impact Investing. Impact investors seek to realize lasting, beneficial improvements in society by allocating capital to sources of impactful and sustainable profit. This Handbook is a how-to guide for institutional investors, including family offices, foundations, endowments, governments, and international organizations, as well as academics, students, and everyday investors globally. The Handbook´s wide-ranging contributions from around the world make a powerful case for positive impact and profit to fund substantive, lasting solutions that solve critical problems across the world. Edited by two experienced and distinguished professionals in the sustainable investing arena and authored by two dozen renowned experts from finance, academia, and multilateral organizations from around the world, the Global Handbook of Impact Investing educates, inspires, and spurs action towards more responsible investing across all asset classes, resulting in smarter capital markets, including how to: · Realize positive impact and profit · Integrate impact into investment decision-making and portfolio · Allocate impactful investments across all asset classes · Apply unique Impact Investing frameworks · Measure, evaluate and report on impact · Learn from case examples around the globe · Pursue Best Practices in Impact Investing and impact reporting While other resources may take a local or limited approach to the subject, this Handbook gathers global knowledge and results from public and private institutions spanning five continents. The authors also make a powerful case for the ability of Impact Investing to lead to substantive and lasting change that addresses critical problems across the world.
Download or read book Venture Capital at the Crossroads written by William D. Bygrave and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the role of venture capital in the creation of new businesses. The book provides information on the size of the industry and how risk-taking and the time perspectives of its practitioners are changing, and shows how venture capital is more than a question of lending money.
Download or read book Sustainable written by Terrence Keeley and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Should business and finance play larger roles in resolving the great social and environmental challenges of our time? Proponents of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing say yes. They argue that ESG financial strategies can help reverse runaway carbon emissions and fix income and gender inequalities, among other ills. ESG-integrated investments already encompass more than $120 trillion in financial assets. Are they working as promised? If not, how can they be improved? In Sustainable, a finance-industry veteran offers an insider’s look at the promises, prospects, and perils of ESG investing. Terrence Keeley argues that many ESG advocates have been overly optimistic about what it can accomplish. Divestment threats are ineffective tools for altering corporate behavior, and verifiably “good” companies do not systematically generate great returns. Most importantly, business and finance cannot cure social ills on their own: regulators, public policies, civil society, and individuals must all play specific, complementary roles to shape the future we want. Keeley provides comprehensive solutions that would promote more inclusive, sustainable growth. In particular, he recommends reallocating capital from some indexed products toward an emerging class of strategies with more verifiable social and environmental benefits. Keeley identifies dozens of alternative “impact investing” strategies that could generate true double bottom lines. He also highlights promising civic organizations with proven methodologies for achieving widely shared benefits at scale. Proposing practical, actionable, and in many cases profitable solutions to social and environmental problems, Sustainable offers an incisive vision of the roles business and finance can and should play in building a flourishing society.
Download or read book Sustainable Finance and Impact Investing written by Alan S. Gutterman and published by Business Expert Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides readers with a basic understanding of sustainable finance and impact investing including history, definitions of impact, current trends and drivers, future challenges, and an overview of the key players in the global impact ecosystem. The term impact investing first appeared in 2008. Today the most commonly used definition is investing made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. A wide range of individual and institutional investors that have already entered the impact investment marketplace and continued growing enthusiasm can be expected given that feedback from investors indicated that portfolio performance has generally met or exceed their expectations for both social and environmental impact and financial return. Established companies have been compelled to respond to calls by institutional investors to incorporate responsible environmental, social, and governance initiatives into their business models as a condition to continued support in public capital markets. Other companies seeking to demonstrate to impact investors their commitment to environmental and social responsibility have opted for emerging forms of legal entities, so-called social enterprises, which explicitly incorporate sustainability and multi-stakeholder interests into their governance and reporting frameworks. This book provides readers with a basic understanding of sustainable finance and impact investing including history, definitions of impact, current trends and drivers, future challenges, and an overview of the key players in the global impact ecosystem. The book also describes impact investment structures and instruments, social enterprises, and impact measurement and reporting.
Download or read book Sustainable Investing written by H. Kent Baker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Can investors do well financially and do good for the world? Should they try? Many assume that investors "don't care who wins" as long as they are making money. For some investors, this mindset still rings true. Yet, many other investors challenge this stereotype and prefer to "make money mean more." Thus, they have dual goals: making money and doing good. This viewpoint, called sustainable investing, has gained considerable momentum in the last few decades. Sustainable investing delivers value by balancing traditional investing with environmental, social, and governance-related (ESG) insights to improve long-term outcomes. Some view sustainable investing as critical to the sustainability of investing. The book aims to demystify sustainable investing for "average" investors. It uses a question-and-answer format to examine whether such investments have a place in investor portfolios. Each chapter also contains insightful and amusing quotes by investment professionals and others. The book includes six chapters. Chapter 1 examines the changing investment landscape. Chapter 2 explores corporate social responsibility and the evolving responsibilities and obligations of a business. Chapter 3 focuses on the roles of social and religious values in shaping sustainable investing. Chapter 4 discusses the many investment options available to sustainable investors, such as stock, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. Chapter 5 reviews the performance implications of sustainable investing. This research-oriented chapter investigates the intriguing question, "Can sustainable investors have their cake and eat it too?" Finally, Chapter 6 ends by focusing on building a portfolio with a purpose"--
Download or read book Adventure Finance written by Aunnie Patton Power and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-28 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The venture capital model doesn’t work—at least not for 99% of startups and small businesses. In this 99% are a lot of companies with incredible potential: businesses headed by female founders and those from diverse racial backgrounds, organizations headquartered outside of venture capital hubs, and purpose-driven enterprises that are creating social and environmental impact alongside financial success. Counter to what the press-savvy venture capital world would have you believe, there are a lot of funding options out there for startups and small businesses. Adventure Finance is designed to help you understand some of these options, and walk you through real examples of how other founders and funders have put them to use. In simple, approachable language, the book breaks down the different types of funding options available from revenue-based financing to recoverable grants to redeemable equity to distributed ownership and more. Through a mix of storytelling and frameworks, based on a decade of research and experience in investing in early-stage companies, this book will give you the ability to determine how each of these structures can contribute to your own funding journey. The goal for this book is to shift the conversation about startup funding and help founders and funders widen the spectrum of “mainstream” investment options in order to make the venture financing world more inclusive and purpose-driven.
Download or read book Collaborative Capitalism and the Rise of Impact Investing written by Cathy Clark and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This short format piece targeting impact investors and social entrepreneurs provides real-world examples of impact investing for social return based on author-developed cases derived from their work and research. It covers two overarching themes of impact investing with cases and supporting evidence. Coverage includes: MISSION FIRST AND LAST Summary of Theme: • Myth: Impact investing is either ‘financial-first’ or ‘impact-first’, where either financial returns or impact are prioritized across each stage of a fund’s or organization’s lifecycle. • Reality: Impact investing involves weighing financial and impact objectives differently throughout fund lifecycles. A clearly embedded strategy and structure for achieving mission is at the core of enabling a financial process of investing and in outperforming funds, this happens before any investment is made, and then again in the assessment of mission at the end of the investment. In between, most funds act very much like other investors, and financial concerns dominate. • Fund examples: Microvest’s founding by 2 global nonprofits and resulting practices; Bridges Ventures building in government goals and nonprofit trust structure from outset; RSF Social Finance’s funding areas and interest rates decided by its investors; then loan portfolios are managed with mainstream discipline. MULTILINGUAL LEADERSHIP Summary of Theme: • Myth: A single-minded focus on the financial elements of impact investing will guarantee success • Reality: Even as those responsible for making investments must be rigorously financial-aware, fund strategy and leadership is a cross-sector discipline and requires familiarity with policy, business and social sectors. • Fund examples: Omidyar Network’s professional EBay and investment- background staff turning to policy and infrastructure development to move a sector as a foundation would; Aavishkar’s founders have government fund backgrounds and include an Ashoka (social enterprise) fellow.
Download or read book Venture Capital at the Crossroads written by William D. Bygrave and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Venture capital (VC) has had a profound impact on the U.S and world economies. The landmarks of venture capitalism are the formation of the venture capital fund ARD in 1946 and the establishment of small business investment companies by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 1958. After a boom in the 1960s, the VC industry all but collapsed between 1970 and 1977. The VC industry revived in the 1980s and reached a peak in 1987 from which it declined. At the moment of its decline in 1990, the industry was radically altered and transformed and was at a crossroads from its recent shake-out. This book examines the state of the VC industry at this point in 1990, examining current trends, developments, and practices, and looking at future prospects for the industry, suppliers, and users of risk capital, as well as the nation's economy as a whole. The VC industry has been transformed by two changes. (1) New and specialized financial and investment strategies emphasize deal making, transaction crafting and closing, fee generating, and short-term gains. This "merchant capital" approach is oriented to investing in established firms, as opposed to the classic VC approach of providing equity financing in new, emerging, innovating, and technology-based firms. This change may be due to professionals entering the field from MBA backgrounds rather than business-building backgrounds. (2) The altered market has resulted in reduced opportunities, globalization, increase in available capital, and dominance of institutional money, and the VC industry is losing its classic company-building skills. The major virtue of the traditional VC industry, which has been a wellspring of innovation and great rewards, is the skills brought by the venture capitalists that add value in the firm's forming, building, and harvesting. Changes in the VC industry are seen in an explosion of investing activity, heterogeneity of industry structure, niche funds, declines in rate of return, and increased competition and shake-out. Examples of classic revolutionary industries financed by VC are the semiconductor, computer, and biotechnology industries. Some lessons from these industries are drawn. Lessons are also drawn from the case of the Winchester disc-drive industry, which represents a case of "capital market myopia." Historical VC returns have been in the 10% to 20% range, occasionally in the 20% to 30% range, and rarely higher. The main reason for the unsatisfactory returns on VC since 1983 has been the initial public offering (IPO) drought. The benefits and implications for the VC industry of syndicated investments are examined. The contribution of VC to economic development is explored in terms of internal and external factors. Some high-tech regions were not planned; some planned regional centers have failed. Three factors affect the flow of VC: investors who put up the money, entrepreneurs who form the company, and the venture capitalists. The value-added of classic VC investment lies in the guidance, contracts, know-how, and support of the backers. The relationship between the venture capitalist and management team critically affects the success of the venture. Also examined are relationships between flows of VC and public policy, capital markets, new technologies, and changes in industries. Most important in fostering VC are government policies. Since VC is vital element to entrepreneurship, the U.S. must actively foster classic venture capital by changing some national attitudes and policies in culture, education, and role of government, for which recommendations and suggestions are offered. (TNM).
Download or read book The Power of Impact Investing written by Judith Rodin and published by Wharton School Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new wave of investors is using impact investing to address some of the greatest challenges of our time--from climate change and water scarcity to lack of access to health care, education, and affordable housing--with the intention of also generating a financial return. This couldn't happen at a more critical time. While philanthropy continues to be a transformative force for good, global philanthropic funds, even when combined with the development or aid budgets of many national governments, add up to mere billions of dollars ... Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin and Margot Brandenburg, two of the foremost experts in the field, explain what impact investing is, how it compares to philanthropy and traditional investments, where opportunities are evolving around the world, and how to get started ..."--Publisher description
Download or read book Sustainable Innovation and Impact written by Cary Krosinsky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the Brexit and Trump election cycles, consistent, long-term policy solutions to environmental and other societal challenges are becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. Stepping into this breach is a clear opportunity for innovation by public and privately held companies, as well as the increasingly significant role of investment and consumption. Sustainable Innovation and Impact provides a roadmap of the many critical pathways of positive change emerging to achieve modern day societal success, including rapidly evolving corporate and investment innovation and impact strategy considerations. Exploring innovation around the future of energy, electricity and related technologies, as well as transportation and buildings efficiency, Krosinsky and Cort consider ideas framed around the circular economy, operational and supply chain strategies and the global economy. Drawing together a diverse range of contributors and case studies, this book will be of great relevance to students, scholars and professionals with an interest in innovation, economics and sustainability more broadly.
Download or read book Positive Impact Investing written by Karen Wendt and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book illustrates the impact that a focus on environmental and social issues has on both de-risking assets and fostering innovation. Including impact as a new cornerstone of the investment triangle requires investors and clients to align interests and values and understand needs. This alignment process functions as a catalyst for transforming organizational culture within an organization and therefore initiates the external impact of the organization, but also its internal transformation, which in turn escalates the creation of impact. Describing how culture is the social glue permeating all disciplines of an organization, the book demonstrates how organizational alignment can be achieved in order to allow strategic speed, innovation and learning, and provides examples of how impact can be achieved and staff mobilized It particularly focuses on impact investing, impact entrepreneurship, innovation, de-risking asset, green investment solutions and investor movements to counteract climate change and implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting culture, communication, and strategy.
Download or read book Generation Impact written by Adam Richards and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-08 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Generation Impact fills a significant gap in the impact accounting literature about how ambitions, pressures, and misgivings can be addressed, dealt with, and harnessed into forward-looking programmes for the creation, measurement, and management in social accounting.