Editorial: Investors Can Achieve Market-Rate Returns and Their Social Impact Goals

Naomi Friend, a Managing Director in Cambridge Associates’ Mission Related Investing practice in London, outlines the growth-drivers of impact investing that the investment industry has seen over the last several years. In an editorial for the Winter 2016 issue of Philanthropy Impact, Friend analyzes Cambridge Associates’ 2015 Impact Investor Survey published jointly with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), stating “we are optimistic that investing for impact will move into the mainstream in the years ahead… One thing is very clear – impact funds can perform in line with top quartile non-impact funds but investors need to be aware of the significant dispersion between funds and dedicate appropriate resources to the selection process.”