What Is Impact Investing?

Impact investing is an investment strategy aiming to generate specific beneficial environmental or social effects with financial gains. Impact investments might take numerous asset classes and result in many particular outcomes. The idea of impact investing is to invest capital and use the money for positive social results.

Understanding Impact Investing

The term first showed up in 2007, but it developed in practice several years earlier. A primary goal of impact investing is to reduce the adverse effects of business activity on the social environment. That’s why impact investing might sometimes seem to be an extension of philanthropy.

Investors use impact investing in a company’s commitment as a strategic view to corporate social responsibility. Also, there is a sense of duty to help society before they positively involve that company.

The type of impact varies according to the industry and the specific firm in that industry. Some typical examples include returning the community by investing in sustainable energy to help save the planet.

Institutional investors’ impact in terms of investing includes hedge funds, banks, private foundations, pension funds, and other fund managers.

However, a range of web-based investment platforms, financial service companies, and investor networks now try to offer individuals an opportunity to participate. One major part includes microfinance loans, which provide small businesses in emerging nations. Women seem to be the main beneficiaries of such loans.

Types of Impact Investments

Impact investments are in various forms of capital. Like any other investment class, it provides investors with a variety of possibilities regarding returns. But most importantly, these investments mainly offer a financial return with the investor’s conscience.

The possibilities for impact investments continuously varies, and investors might prefer to put their money into developed economies or EM – emerging markets. Impact investments span several industries, such as:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Energy, immaculate and renewable energy
• Agriculture

Environmental, Social, & Governance

ESG stands for the environmental, social, and governance practices of investment. It might also have a material impact on the performance of this particular investment. Integrating ESG factors enhances common financial analysis by identifying possible risks and other opportunities behind technical valuations.

Special Considerations

Environmentally and socially responsible methods attract impact investors. It means that some companies can financially benefit from committing to socially accountable systems. Impact investing appeals mainly to younger generations, like millennials, wanting to give back to society. Therefore, this trend seems to expand as such investors get more influence in the market.

Investors also seem to profit from it. A survey done by the Global Impact Investing Network in 2020  found that more than 89% of impact investors reported the data that showed that their investments met or even surpassed their financial expectations.

Before moving forward, we could also talk about Profit itself.

Profit

Profit is related to net income on the income statement. But many people usually identify it as the bottom line. There are variations of Profit on the income statement used to analyze a company’s performance.

However, there are other profit margins between the top line, also called revenue, and the bottom line also called Net Profit. For example, the term profit might arise in the context of Operating Profit and Gross Profit. These are necessary steps on the way to net Profit.

After defining the idea of Profit, we could also talk about the difference between revenue and Profit.

Revenue vs Profit: An Overview

Revenue is the total number of income resulting from the sale of services or goods related to the company’s primary operations. Profit, typically called net Profit, is the amount of income after accounting for all costs, debts, additional income, and operating costs.

Revenue

Revenue is often related to the top line as it remains at the top of the income statement. For example, the amount of money a shoe retailer makes after selling its shoes before considering any expenses is considered its revenue. Income is not revenue if this company also gets income from any other subsidiary company or investments. It is because the company does not get this money only from the sale of shoes. The company counts additional income and different types of expenses separately.

The Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is considered one of the most famous impact investment funds. The celebrated Windows pioneer launched it with around $50 billion total endowments. While most of them try to engage in philanthropy, the Foundation also has an additional strategic investment fund with more than $2.6 billion under its management. According to the fund’s website, the strategic investment fund attempts to support projects or organizations that benefit the world’s poorest sectors.

Soros Economic Development Fund

The Open Society Foundations include the Soros Economic Development Fund, launched by George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist. Soros contributed more than $19 billion to the Open Society Foundations, while $90 million is invested in impact ventures. As the name suggests, the Foundation attempts to support open societies by promoting legal reforms, democracy, higher education, journalism, and many other fields.

The Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation, launched by Edsel and Henry Ford in 1936, has an initial endowment of $26,000. Today, it seems that it owns one of the world’s largest private endowments, represented with $14 billion in management. However, the Ford Foundation announced several plans in 2017 to invest more than $1 billion in business ventures.

What Is an Impact Investing Company?

An impact investing company is an investment fund that attempts explicitly to support environmental and social outcomes while generating financial returns. Some of these impact funds invest in situations that they think will produce strong returns. Some others also consider profits as a secondary consideration.

An impact investing strategy, also known as an investment strategy, targets firms or industries that generate environmental or social benefits. For example, some investors attempt to support electric cars, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, microfinance, or other sectors they consider worthwhile.

The Bottom Line

Impact investing is a part of a popular trend of socially responsible disciplines that attempt to reduce adverse outcomes of traditional business activities.

By supporting firms and industries, impact investing can produce environmental or social benefits while earning a profit.