"A commonly held belief among investors is that impact investing-adding environmental, social or governance criteria to the investment selection process-will require a trade-off in performance. Though this may have been true in the early days of impact investing, the space has evolved significantly in the last decade.
In this paper, we will evaluate current impact investing by examining:
- What impact investing is and how it has evolved to be a viable investment approach
- How investors can maintain returns in their portfolios while investing for impact
- How impact investing can be used to identify risks and opportunities in the market
- Historical returns from a range of impact investments
- How investors can start accessing the impact investing marketplace today"

"This report from Oxfam and Sumerian Partners questions some of the assumptions around impact investment and highlights the experience of enterprises contributing to poverty reduction so that they might be better served by the field. It argues that the sector risks being discredited due to rising, unrealistic expectations about financial returns."

"The world is on the brink of a revolution in how we solve society's toughest problems. The force driving this revolution is "impact investing", which harnesses entrepreneurship, innovation and capital to power social progress. This report, Impact Investing: The Invisible Heart of Markets - Harnessing the power of entrepreneurship, innovation and capital for public good, examines what is needed to catalyse the growth of a global market for impact investment. It makes recommendations that can be implemented across Taskforce countries and beyond to deliver better social outcomes and improve millions of lives across the world. The report calls on governments and the financial sector to take action to unleash $1 trillion of private sector impact investment to tackle social problems."

"The study reviews the current state of impact investments in Singapore and Hong Kong, particularly those that have engaged with foundations. It further looks at the trends and challenges of the impact investment sector before presenting a list of recommendations."

"This research note asserts that impact investment, which is intended to create positive social or environmental impact beyond financial return, constitutes a new asset class. The report also includes the first large-scale data analysis of return expectations from more than 1,000 impact investments and compares them to established benchmarks for emerging and developed market debt and equity returns. We hope this report helps to advance a broader understanding of impact investing as an appropriate and economically effective way to complement government and philanthropy in solving the world's greatest problems at scale."

"Unitus Seed Fund has published a guide that has combined the methodology and approach the organization applied to designing to an impact measurement framework and consists of templates by sector for multiple types of businesses that can be downloaded for use."

"The following document presents five case studies to demonstrate how a diverse group of organizations have developed sound impact measurement practices, including how the seven guidelines are being applied in the organization, as well as the organization’s impact measurement practices, the contextual factors that shaped their impact measurement approach, how they involved key stakeholders along the way, and key “impact measurement lessons.” These case studies – which are highly diverse in nature – aim to help investors and investees translate the seven guidelines for impact measurement into an impact measurement approach that is right for them."

"Impact due diligence creates value for a broad range of stakeholders across the impact investing ecosystem, including impact investors, investees and the field at large. Key benefits include fostering internal alignment around intended impacts and priorities, deepening understanding of investees’ activities, supporting the construction of more positively impactful portfolios, improving investor and investees’ ability to communicate impact, strengthening relationships between investees and investors, and increasing firms’ ability to attract additional capital. In combination, the benefits of widespread adoption of impact due diligence should attract additional capital to the field and thereby foster the formation of more inclusive and sustainable financial markets."Impact Due Diligence: Emerging Best Practices" is the first of two reports intended to elevate the practice of impact due diligence."

"The following case study offers a micro-level analysis of a social impact company in East Africa and their approach to measuring social impact. In this policy paper, Public Policy Fellow Jamie Van Leeuwen and Michael Feinberg analyze the case study of Staffable, a social impact company in Kampala, Uganda and their approach to measuring the efficacy of social impact. They provide policy recommendations on how philanthropists, investors, and non-governmental organizations can standardize performance metrics to measure social impact investing, as well as recommend investments in workforce development in order to reduce dependency."

"This report aims to capture characteristics of the impact investing sector in Latin America over the past two years based on a sample of impact investors active in the region. Through institution-level and deal-level data shared by these investors, this report gives a snapshot of where and how capital is being allocated and identifies challenges that the ecosystem faces. The report focuses on the region widely while taking a deeper dive into three of the region's largest markets: Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico."