Great investments are about backing brilliant people with fantastic ideas – right? Or does the best impact come from clear planning and a touch of realism and humility?
The Belgian impact investor Piet Colruyt on a Uganda-based enterprise that resisted pressure to tick every box at once – convincing him that 80% can be good enough.
The microfinance success story isn’t as clear-cut as it seems – but there’s plenty we can learn from it when it comes to investing in other sectors. FSG’s Harvey Koh sets out a pragmatic approach.
Social investors are still too focused on internal battles – distracting them from the huge potential impact they could have by partnering up. Big Society Capital's CEO makes the case for the (sometimes) more difficult path of collaboration.
Foundations are uniquely placed to support social ventures, but they won’t be taken seriously as impact investors until they deploy their endowments as well – and until we help them do so.
Investing for impact, where the primary goal is social impact, looks set to grow far more slowly than demand for such finance – unless we make some major changes. Chris West identifies five opportunities to tackle the mismatch.
It’s time to set the boundaries of impact investing and say 'arrivederci' to those who are failing to support genuinely new solutions to pressing social issues, argues Italy’s leading venture philanthropy pioneer.
