Impact Investing: A Brief History

Abstract

Over the last decade, impact investing has become an increasingly-discussed topic in the realms of both business and public policy. Impact investors are motived by a desire to advance social or environmental goals and an intuition that pursuing two goals at once - investment returns and social or environmental returns - is more effective than keeping them separate. This article reviews the recent history of impact investing, addresses some of the issues confounding the nascent field, and offers a few definitions that might bring more rigor and clarity to what remains, as yet, a simultaneously confusing and promising investment strategy.