Allocating for Impact

Allocating for Impact

Subject Paper of the Asset Allocation Working Group

Social Impact Investment Taskforce
Impact Investing
Reports
Sep 2014

Despite increases in aggregate global wealth, levels of inequality and environmental degradation in many countries continue to rise. To help tackle this, impact investment aligns the positive power of private capital with the social and environmental needs of society at large. This makes impact investment a critical tool for the policymaker, bringing cost-effective solutions and incremental capital to some of our most intractable societal challenges, from life-saving vaccines to affordable housing.

Impact Investing also provides investors with a compelling opportunity: to align their investment strategy with their societal values, to spot areas of rapid growth (supported by a favourable policy environment) and even to identify potentially less correlated investment propositions. To solve problems on a global scale, we need global capital pools to respond. This means that, alongside the pioneering investors already allocating for impact, we need impact investment to find its formal place within institutional portfolios. This will happen when Chief Investment Officers and Investment Managers recognise that[nbsp] a diversified and thoughtful allocation to[nbsp] impact investments can fit with their fiduciary responsibilities, and when governments use well-designed policies to encourage and support such allocations.

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Allocating for Impact