MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP UP: “Sizing the Impact Investing Market,” Published by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

This is a summary of a paper by Abhilash Mudaliar and Hannah Dithrich; published by GIIN; April 2019; 16 pages; available at: https://thegiin.org/research/publication/impinv-market-size

The authors assemble data, including the results of the Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN’s) Annual Impact Investor Survey, to estimate the size of the worldwide impact investing market. GIIN defines “impact investments” as those that return a monetary profit while creating “positive, measurable social and environmental impact.” As of December 2018, the authors estimate the total assets under management (AUM) within the impact investing universe to be valued at USD 502 billion.

The survey included responses from 1,340 impact investors, of which 750 provided AUM data. To estimate AUM for the remaining 590 organizations, the authors used averages from similar organizations that did provide their AUM data.

Of the survey respondents, 64 percent are asset managers and 21 percent are foundations. The remainder include banks, development finance institutions, family offices, pension funds and insurance companies. One prominent feature of the data is that the universe of impact investors is composed mostly of small investors, but a few major investors have disproportionately large portfolios. These include asset managers to which many investors have contracted out the management of their impact portfolios.

By Tiannah Steele, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

GIIN publication
https://thegiin.org/assets/Sizing%20the%20Impact%20Investing%20Market_webfile.pdf

GIIN homepage
https://thegiin.org/

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