This report provides a framework for assessing the social impact investment market and focuses on the need to build the evidence base, in particular for impact assessment compared to existing social service delivery models.

This publication is a sequel to the OECD 2015 report on social impact investment (SII), Building the Evidence Base, bringing new evidence on the role of SII in financing sustainable development.

This book provides a preliminary attempt to understand the impact investors’ preferences and characteristics. It offers an empirical insight of the main features characterizing social risk of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and explores the correlation existing between social risk and financial return. It assesses case studies of social impact investment architectures and their legal and operational limits. It also analyzes new trends in social impact measurement, focusing on the Spanish and Swedish experiences. The book concludes with a road map of priorities and policy strategy for social impact investments development.

This book provides a detailed study of the social impact funds industry. In particular, chapters focus on: The contextualization of social impact funds within the social impact investment market; The exploration of features, investment strategy and classification of funds; An in-depth analysis of the emergent literature; An analysis of case studies of impact funds; A synthetic assessment of the industry, conducted through a cluster analysis; The exploration of investment strategy and mission consistency of funds active in the market aimed to show funds attitude to be defined as “impact-oriented funds”; The investigation of determinants of funds’ target performance. This volume will be useful to scholars, students from different academic disciplines such as economics, finance, political science, entrepreneurship, and practitioners who are interested in impact investing and in the financing of social impact programs through impact-funds.

The triple bottom line is an accounting framework with social, environmental and financial factors. This Handbook examines the nexus between these areas by scrutinising aspects of socially responsible investment, finance and sustainable development, corporate socially responsible banking firms, the stock returns of sustainable firms, green bonds and sustainable financial instruments.

Providing an in-depth case study on the emergence of social impact investing in the UK, this book develops a new perspective on financialization processes that highlights the roles of non-financial actors. In contrast to the common view that impact investing gears finance toward the solution of social problems, the author analyzes how these investments create new problems and inequalities. To explain how social impact investing became popular in British social policy despite its unclear effectiveness, the author focuses on cooperative relations between institutional entrepreneurs from finance and various non-financial actors. Drawing on field theory, he shows how seemingly unrelated social transformations – such as HM Treasury's expanding role in public service reform – may act as resonance spaces for the spread of finance. Opening up a new perspective on financialization processes in the terrain of public policy, this book invites readers to refocus scholarship on capitalist dynamics to the meso-level. Based on this analysis, the author also proposes ways to transform social impact investing to increase its potential for reducing global inequalities.

Impact Investment and Social Finance gain more and more international attention. Local ecosystems are forming share, national legislation and other factors highly influencing this development. Comparing those ecosystems can give valuable insights, what countries could learn from each other and to what extend national solutions are needed. This study is a first comparison between the UK and German impact investing markets. It is based on a qualitative research method, namely explorative and semi-structured interviews as well as two focus groups. The status quo of both countries as well as the challenges found in the German market are then used to draw conclusions on how the German market could benefit from the UK's development. Results are clustered around demand, intermediaries and supply as well as national context, regulatory framework, impact and leadership. This study concludes to what extent the UK market can act as a role model and which challenges require a 'German solution' or can be met by adapting actions taken in the UK.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development offers a masterplan to create a better world for the people and the planet. It’s scale and ambition, however, requires new development partnerships supported by adequate financial and technical resources. As a response, development practitioners started to explore alternative and complementary innovative instruments to finance the SDGs -one of which is the prospects for increased cooperation and coordination between Islamic finance and impact investing. To date, however, the academic and development literature has lacked a systematic exploration of this promising collaboration between Islamic finance and impact investing. This present study attempts to fill this gap by developing the first knowledge product to increase awareness on this collaboration. I for Impact attempts to raise awareness on the compatibility between Islamic finance and impact investing. It reviews recent developments and key factors for growth, pinpoints similarities between the two sectors, and makes policy recommendations for development actors to create the conditions for the two sectors to benefit from each other.

The global community has spoken loud and clear: more resources must be mobilised to end extreme poverty and mitigate the effects of climate change. Blended finance is emerging as an important solution to help raise resources in support of the Sustainable Development Goals in developing countries.

As public services budgets are cut, the ‘Payment by Results’ (or Pay for Success) model has become a popular choice in public sector commissioning. Social Impact Bonds are a variant of Payment by Results also promoted by proponents of social (or impact) investing. But how effective are these approaches? This short book asks whether the Payment by Results model is an efficient way to unlock new capital investment, help new providers to enter the ‘market’ and foster innovation, or whether the extension of ‘neoliberal’ thinking, complexity and the effects of managerialism undermine the effective delivery of social outcomes. Synthesising lessons from the UK and US for the first time, the book draws on published work in both countries together with insights from the authors’ own research and consultancy experience to offer a balanced and bipartisan overview of a field where the evidence has been weak and there are strong ideological agendas in play.