Network organizations and field builders will play a key role in supporting this strategic plan and realizing our vision of a future where all investments contribute to positive social and environmental impact. There are a number of recommended actions in this Roadmap that they are especially well suited to advance, outlined below.
Develop and promote clear best practices
To address the current fragmentation of approaches and lay a foundation for analysis, rating, and comparing impact across investments within a given theme
Field building organizations with consultants, supported by a broad swath of leading investors
Continue ongoing efforts, and test and adopt best practices throughout the industry over the next three to five years
Develop and promote clear best practices
To address the current fragmentation of approaches and lay a foundation for analysis, rating, and comparing impact across investments within a given theme
Field building organizations with consultants, supported by a broad swath of leading investors
Continue ongoing efforts, and test and adopt best practices throughout the industry over the next three to five years
Update existing incentives structures so that allocation and compensation decisions reflect impact performance
To increase accountability and demand for impact
Asset owners and asset managers
Immediately, with steady uptake over five to seven years, enabled by standardized impact measurement practice
Build ratings that assess a range of factors related to impact and incorporate impact into existing indices and ratings
To enhance the credibility and comparability of impact investment products through rigorous third-party research and thus reduce diligence costs
Ratings agencies, including boutique firms and mainstream ratings actors
Over the next five to seven years, with efforts to analyze impact performance beginning immediately
Develop training programs on impact investing for financial industry professionals, such as wealth advisors and investment managers at large financial firms
To translate client demand into capital deployed by growing advisors’ awareness of impact investing opportunities
Industry associations of finance professionals (to develop third-party offerings), large financial firms (to develop in-house trainings) and business schools (to develop MBA curricula)
Over the next few years
Expand and increase the effectiveness of services that build entrepreneurs and project developer capacity
To reduce capacity gaps so that growth in demand for impact capital matches growth in supply
Incubators, accelerators, business consultants, and direct investors
Immediately and ongoing
Develop regulations that incentivize product development, impact measurement and reporting, and the provision of capacity-building support
Drive behavior change by shaping the environment in which impact investors and businesses operate
National governments, with support from practitioners and industry-advocacy groups
Varies depending on national or regional policy context