Social investment and impact investing

This guest blog on why foundations should invest more of their endowments in impact investments is by Laura Boyle and Matthew Mannix. Laura Boyle is Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Snowball. Matthew Mannix is an independent philanthropy and impact investment consultant.

The London Early Years Foundation has launched a £1.5m charity bond. Why did they choose to finance their next phase of growth this way?

NPC have been awarded the tender to produce an independent review for the government on the future of subsidy for blended finance. What exactly is subsidy for blended finance?

For us at NPC, 2022 is our 20th year of existence. 20 years working with, and as part of, this terrific charity and philanthropy sector to help it maximise its social impact. Already this year we are excited by lots of things we have upcoming.

Snowball, a fund management firm that seeks to maximise social and environmental impact, sets out how their new framework measures and assesses the impact of an investment.

'Cuddly capitalism' needs a clear way of assessing if it's doing good. At NPC we have long argued that to attract more capital towards solving the world's most pressing social and environmental issues, investors need more transparency around returns; both financial and impact.

More than a quarter of the assets run by US fund managers are deemed as ‘sustainable’. How is 'sustainable' defined and who is keeping an eye on the credentials and the impact practice of these funds?

Plum Lomax, NPC's Principal for Impact Investing introduces our work with the Connect Fund and their efforts to build the social investment market in England.

U2's Bono and a private equity firm seem like an unlikely pair to solve the question of impact measurement. Nevertheless, they are having a go. What pitfalls do they need to avoid?