The Editor's Post: On our radar: the impact world in 2026

As the first two weeks of January have indicated, 2026 is likely to be a rollercoaster. Trying to predict what’s going to happen in the impact space is near impossible, so instead I’m sharing a few things that we at Pioneers Post will be keeping a close eye on in the next twelve months – here’s what’s on our radar for 2026.

Can the ‘business for good’ movement resist populist forces? 

The golden years of corporate sustainability seem to be truly over. Under pressure from the Trump administration and allies, many companies and financial firms have rowed back on their social and environmental commitments (examples include Meta scrapping diversity programmes and the collapse of the Net Zero Banking Alliance). The European Union, once a champion of environmental and social progress, is watering down or blocking flagship laws aimed at keeping companies in check, as populist political parties become more powerful. 

In spite of these headwinds, the movement to do business for good keeps growing: the number of B Corps, for example, has topped 10,000 globally. But standing up to corporate and political pressure is hard, as is shown by Ben & Jerry’s founders' long running battle against the owner of the ice cream brand (Magnum, previously part of Unilever) which they accuse of eroding the business’s social mission. Unilever bought Ben and Jerry’s in 2000, with a commitment to preserve and expand the brand’s social mission. 

B Lab, the nonprofit behind the B Corp movement, is currently looking for a new CEO – whoever gets the job will have a huge challenge to face; and in the end, collective action will be the decisive factor.

Will the UK’s Office for the Impact Economy deliver?

The Labour government’s launch of a new office to create partnerships between the impact community and policymakers was greeted with much applause last November. But delivery is what is going to matter: currently in a “co-design” phase, according to its director Emily Braid, it will take time for the office to create the real ‘step change’ that it aims for. There is a committed coalition of ministers and civil servants who want to make it work, she said in an open call with sector participants – but as we know in the world of impact, good intentions aren’t measurable impact.

Is impact investing having an existential crisis?

Impact investing isn’t having a great time right now: PitchBook recently demonstrated fundraising for private impact funds dropped by nearly 50% between 2022 and 2024. More generally, the GIIN last year found investment volumes for impact were down 30% year-on-year in 2024. Meanwhile, VC investment in impact ventures has collapsed, as per Dealroom’s estimate last autumn.

The GIIN’s survey also shows impact investors are becoming increasingly risk-averse, shunning emerging markets and less established companies – prompting entrepreneurs to wonder what’s the point of impact investing at all, if it can’t step up when times are hard. And the debate over whether one can really create impact “at commercial rates of return” is being fuelled by some research suggesting impact, indeed, has a cost.

In this context, Kevin Parr, director of the Mulago Foundation, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review an article that set the sector on fire: There is no such thing as impact investing – there is only philanthropic investing (ready to lose some money for impact) and commercial investing (seeking market-rate returns), and pretending that there is something in between is nonsense, he argues. 

The flurry of reactions – both for and against the argument – reflected how febrile the movement is at the moment. Parr’s piece could trigger a reckoning about what impact investing really is, and even whether it is really a thing at all any more. Will 2026 be the year of the great impact investing reset?

Will the global south achieve impact independence?

The concept of “finding solutions to your own problems” has been a driver for the impact sector in developing countries for a long time – with social enterprises across the global south finding financially self-sustainable solutions to local issues, and impact investors seeking to leverage capital from domestic sources like local pension funds. 

Last year’s big development story was dramatic cuts to international aid – starting with the shutdown of USAID. The immediate impact was disastrous; and it created a new paradigm where building your own solutions becomes not just an aspiration, but a necessity. We can expect impact businesses and finance in the global south to innovate at breakneck speed.

This week's top stories:

Schwab Foundation announces 2026 award winners ahead of Davos conference

Private impact fundraising nosedives from 2022 to 2024 – latest PitchBook report

The missing link: how financing African agribusinesses transforms outcomes for millions of smallholder farmers