Impact investing is always happening, whether we think about itor not. If you put money in a bank account, the bank uses yourmoney and there is an impact. If you invest in the stock market,even if you invest in an index fund of all stocks, your money isstill making an impact. The only question is, are you consciouslychoosing the kind of impact that you want to have.

Consumers are waking up, becoming conscious of the impact oftheir spending in alignment with their values. Millennials arechoosing to work in jobs that are more closely aligned to theirvalues. In the same way, investors are beginning to ask questionsabout impact of their investments.

Amit Bouri is a thought leader in the area of impact investing.He is the cofounder and CEO of GIIN, The Global Impact InvestingNetwork.

GIIN is a nonprofit with a mission to increase the scale andeffectiveness of impact investing. They provide several tools tohelp anyone from students to impact investors to make data-drivendecisions. Their site is rich with answers for generalconsumers.

The GIIN noticed that investors need a common language todescribe and compare the social, environmental and financialperformance of their investments. Therefore, GIIN has developedIRIS, a catalog of generally accepted performance metrics helpimpact investors to measure and manage the performance of theirinvestments.

Fund managers and investors need a way to find one another.Therefore, The GIIN provides ImpactBase. ImpactBase is asearchable, online database of impact investment funds and productsdesigned for investors. An accredited investor can sort investmentopportunities by impact themes (e.g., Green Tech), targetgeographies, asset class (fixed income, private equity, etc.),status (open, commitments, etc.) and target returns, includingrisk-adjusted market rates.

Impact Investing Quotes from Amit Bouri:

“Impact investments are investments made into companies ororganizations with the intention of having a positive social and/orenvironmental impact, alongside financial returns.”

“How do we build the capital markets that will support thegrowth of social entrepreneurs?”

“The role of capital is shifting in terms of what people thinkabout what capital should be accomplishing.”

“People are thinking about where their values belong verydifferently.”

“It’s really important to think about the impact your assets arehaving, and they’re all having an impact whether you like it ornot.”

“I encourage you to think more broadly about your investments.We don’t typically think of our savings accounts asinvestments.”

“As long as you have a bank account, you’re technically aninvestor.”

Announcing Culture Shift Learning Academy

In today’s episode, we announce Culture Shift LearningAcademy, a comprehensive system to help you flesh out yoursocial impact idea and start achieving it.

Enrollment isn’t open yet, but you can join the waiting listwith other changemakers. Just go to http://TonyLoyd.com/assessmentand enter your email address. As a thank you, I’ll send you theSocial Entrepreneur Startup Readiness Assessment. Thisuseful tool is designed to help you to determine where you are onyour startup journey and to successfully focus your developmentefforts.

Social Entrepreneurship Resources:

• The GIIIN: https://thegiin.org
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theGIIN
• Culture Shift Learning Academy waiting list: http://tonyloyd.com/assessment