078, Amit Bouri, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) | The Conscious Investor

Impact investing is always happening, whether we think about it or not. If you put money in a bank account, the bank uses your money and there is an impact. If you invest in the stock market, even if you invest in an index fund of all stocks, your money is still making an impact. The only question is, are you consciously choosing the kind of impact that you want to have.

Consumers are waking up, becoming conscious of the impact of their spending in alignment with their values. Millennials are choosing to work in jobs that are more closely aligned to their values. In the same way, investors are beginning to ask questions about impact of their investments.

Amit Bouri is a thought leader in the area of impact investing. He is the cofounder and CEO of GIIN, The Global Impact Investing Network.

GIIN is a nonprofit with a mission to increase the scale and effectiveness of impact investing. They provide several tools to help anyone from students to impact investors to make data-driven decisions. Their site is rich with answers for general consumers.

The GIIN noticed that investors need a common language to describe and compare the social, environmental and financial performance of their investments. Therefore, GIIN has developed IRIS, a catalog of generally accepted performance metrics help impact investors to measure and manage the performance of their investments.

Fund managers and investors need a way to find one another. Therefore, The GIIN provides ImpactBase. ImpactBase is a searchable, online database of impact investment funds and products designed for investors. An accredited investor can sort investment opportunities by impact themes (e.g., Green Tech), target geographies, asset class (fixed income, private equity, etc.), status (open, commitments, etc.) and target returns, including risk-adjusted market rates.

Impact Investing Quotes from Amit Bouri:

“Impact investments are investments made into companies or organizations with the intention of having a positive social and/or environmental impact, alongside financial returns.”

“How do we build the capital markets that will support the growth of social entrepreneurs?”

“The role of capital is shifting in terms of what people think about what capital should be accomplishing.”

“People are thinking about where their values belong very differently.”

“It’s really important to think about the impact your assets are having, and they’re all having an impact whether you like it or not.”

“I encourage you to think more broadly about your investments. We don’t typically think of our savings accounts as investments.”

“As long as you have a bank account, you’re technically an investor.”

Announcing Culture Shift Learning Academy

In today’s episode, we announce Culture Shift Learning Academy, a comprehensive system to help you flesh out your social impact idea and start achieving it.

Enrollment isn’t open yet, but you can join the waiting list with other changemakers. Just go to http://TonyLoyd.com/assessment and enter your email address. As a thank you, I’ll send you the Social Entrepreneur Startup Readiness Assessment. This useful tool is designed to help you to determine where you are on your startup journey and to successfully focus your development efforts.

Social Entrepreneurship Resources: The GIIIN: https://thegiin.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/theGIIN Culture Shift Learning Academy waiting list: http://tonyloyd.com/assessment