Scaling Impact Investing: The Rule of Institutional Investor Capitol

Impact investing continues to gain momentum in the US and abroad, but scaling it has proven difficult.  The fact that momentum has not translated into institutional capital reaching critical mass is not surprising.  Why?  Because at the most basic level, impact investing is challenging the building blocks of capitalism, and its profit motive, as the sole path to maximizing shareholder value.  This is the language of fiduciaries and common ground is yet to be reached, but will it ever and does it matter?  

A recent piece by Bob Massie in Institutional Investor focusing on ESG (environment, social, governance) criteria for institutional investors provides great insight. He offers a critical set of considerations and arguments that fall under the impact investing umbrella.  One of the most powerful sentences in the article:

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