Impact Investment must evolve to realise its potential
Impact Investment is a powerful vehicle but it must evolve. We have written a series of seven provocations to promote dialogue and start conversations. We believe in order for Impact Investing to realise its potential - rather than becoming an extension of prevailing financial paradigms and practices - there are seven opportunities to explore and interrogate.
We will release them gradually via our social media channels. Below are links to PDF versions. We encourage you to engage with us and explore what the future could offer and how we can lead better outcomes for people, places and our planet.
A series to challenge your thinking
Introduction
In order for Impact Investing to realise its potential, rather than becoming an extension of prevailing financial paradigms and practices, we suggest there are seven opportunities to explore and interrogate. Here we share a series of provocations which we hope will promote dialogue, and contribute to new thinking about the potential for transformational impact investment in Australia, New Zealand and the wider Asia Pacific region.
Impact investment needs to stretch horizontally
A horizontal focus to Impact Investment could increase participation, engage investors in questions of wealth transfer, and democratise and localise impact investment in ways that emphasise equity and impact. Crowdfunding is one such mechanism. Read Provocation #1.
Generating impact through anchor institutions
In our second Impact Investment Provocation we explore the market-making potential of Anchor institutions and collaboratives, suggesting they could help us move from idea to action in place-based impact investment in Australia. Read Provocation #2.
The missing middle is still missing
Many of the biggest opportunities for preventative intervention and impact exist in emergent spaces. But much of the current appetite for impact investment is in comparatively ‘de-risked’ and ‘ready’ propositions. What if we re-frame these spaces as opportunities for transforming markets and finance to match the impact we are seeking to create?
Patient capital
This provocation tackles one of the key mindset and practice barriers that often underpins a mismatch of intention and impact in the investment field when it comes to using capital for addressing complex issues - patience. What is patient capital, how can we shift to it & what role does government play?