What Would Impact Investing At Scale Look Like? $20 Trillion for Good
Recently, I interviewed Ben Thornley of InSight and author of a new study on impact investing, which demonstrates that institutional investors, such as pension funds and endowments that invest for social and environmental outcomes are also earning a competitive rate of financial return. Launched a few weeks ago in New York by InSight at Pacific Community Ventures and the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard and funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the report, Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for Institutional Investment with Social and Environmental Benefit, reveals numerous government strategies that catalyze private investment for public good, including laws in 20 states that allow or encourage “economically targeted investments” where a public pension system invests in its home state to support local economic growth while also targeting a financial return to the fund.
Ben Thornley is the Director of InSight – the thought leadership practice in high-impact investing at Pacific Community Ventures (PCV). PCV is a preeminent San Francisco-based Community Development Financial Institution and growth equity manager deploying $60 million in three funds with the aim of creating quality jobs in low-income areas of California.
Ben is responsible for PCV’s policy research and non-financial performance evaluation initiatives, working with prominent institutions including the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), The Rockefeller Foundation, and The California Endowment. InSight assesses the social impact of over $1.2 billion of private equity investments by 40 individual money managers and $17 billion invested by CalPERS in California, across asset classes.
Rahim Kanani: What was the motivation behind publishing Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for Institutional Investment with Social and Environmental Benefit?
Ben Thornley: The motivation was twofold: first, it was an important next step in our efforts to document how governments can support the growth of impact investing.
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This post also appeared on the Forbes Corporate Social Responsibility blog and can be viewed here. Distributed with permission of the author.
Rahim Kanani is a writer, advocate, strategist and entrepreneur for global social change. His articles, opinions, and interviews with global leaders can be found at www.rahimkanani.com. Follow Rahim on Twitter @rahimkanani and on Facebook. Have an idea for a great interview? Email rahim@rahimkanani.com.
