Investing for Impact: Operating Principles for Impact Management

Investing for Impact: Operating Principles for Impact Management (the Principles) have been developed by a group of asset owners, managers, and allocators to describe essential features of managing investments into companies or organizations with the intent to contribute to measurable positive social or environmental impact, alongside financial returns.

Impact investments have the potential to make a significant contribution to important outcomes by addressing challenges related to, for example, economic inequality, access to clean water and sanitation, agriculture productivity, and natural resource conservation. The Principles provide a reference point against which the impact management systems of funds and institutions may be assessed. They draw on emerging best practices from a range of impact asset managers, asset owners, asset allocators, and development finance institutions, and may be updated periodically. Asset owners may use the Principles to screen impact investment opportunities and/or ensure that their impact funds are managed in a robust fashion.