On January 26th at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Credit Suisse Research Institute, in collaboration with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, released a new report entitled Investing for Impact: How Social Entrepreneurship is Redefining the Meaning of Return (download pdf here).
The report provides insight into the major trends shaping impact investing today and its ability to tackle some of the world’s most intractable societal problems. As noted in the report,
“the field is at an early stage of development, with participants grappling with a number of hurdles such as agreeing on standardized impact metrics, finding optimal financing mixes, avoiding mission drift, and, of course, connecting investors who can deploy “patient capital” with promising social enterprises. The purpose of this report is to offer investors and social entrepreneurs alike a better understanding of these complexities.”
Contributors to the publication include some of the most prominent leaders in the field today – including our very own, Cathy Clark!
In chapter six, “A New World of Metrics: Trends in Monitoring Social Return” (page 30-35), Cathy and Jed Emerson present an overview of the current trends in the development of metrics to measure social impact and offer pragmatic advice to newer investors.
Interested to learn more about the opportunities and complexities of impact investing – including the promise and risks of promoting growth for social enterprises, the importance of the right mix of financing structures to achieve scale, the development of standardized metrics, and the lessons learned by pioneering Impact Investors?
Download this fantastic report here!