Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money while Making a Difference

Abstract

An investor in Hong Kong wants to secure her children's economic future.But, she also wants to use her wealth to address the social and environmental challenges she cares about and thereby leave a broader legacy.She becomes convinced that simply giving her money away cannot be the only way she can make a difference.So, she redirects her assets into investments that preserve her wealth and also directly tackle problems of poverty and environmental degradation.A group of friends volunteering for a nonprofit organization look for ways to help reduce poverty in rural Mexico.They stumble onto the idea of lending small amounts to poor people who cannot access loans from banks.But they struggle to secure donations and instead take on loans.When their success exhausts their available charitable capital, they convert to a for-profit enterprise and eventually hold an initial public offering on the Mexican stock market that raises more than $300 million.Suddenly they find themselves in the middle of a global media storm, lionized as saviors and vilified as greedy capitalists.A senior investment banker in New York decides to shift career tracks to contribute to the fight against global poverty.But instead of leaving Wall