If you ask Google about impact investing, it’s likely you’ll find a similar definition from website to website, something like “an investment with a combined objective of social and environment impact providing a financial return.” Sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, conservation efforts, affordable housing, access to healthcare, and equal education provide the inspiration for impact investors today. Individuals and institutions come to this form of investment seeking to do well financially while simultaneously seeking to improve systems and practices in business sectors at the crux of climate change and social injustice.
But, this standard definition of impact investing, is merely the floor, limiting the true, multifaceted capacity of the impact investor. Some might ask, “Well then, what is the ceiling?” I beg the question–is there even a ceiling?
WHAT IMPACT INVESTING IS NOT
Impact investing is not just a financial return with positively-tied social and environmental outcomes. It is not just numbers and symbols based on end-goals. This perspective of impact investing is what I call “The Grammar of Impact”; a set of rules and guidelines–that when followed exactly, result in the same repeating patterns of the past.
Impact Investing As A Lifestyle
Rather, I invite you to participate in “The Poetry of Impact” where impact investing becomes a rather dynamic, amorphous way of living–a daily practice, a lifestyle. It is the embodiment of responsibility, sustainability, generosity, and joy through our every action. Can we really put an end-cap on our capacity to live respectfully, responsibly, and joyfully?
PHILOSOPHY OF IMPACT INVESTING
Impact investing requires our attention and intention–a constant questioning of how we spend and invest our money, how much waste we produce, how much water we use, how we speak to our neighbors. The philosophy of impact investing is intimately intertwined into every aspect of our day as a tool for reflection, a way of making meaning in our relationships with money, with our friends and family, with the world, and most rewardingly, with our deepest selves.
LEARN MORE ABOUT IMPACT INVESTING
Making Money More owner, Gino leads keynotes and conversations that inform and mobilize high net worth individuals, social impact investors and real estate investors to make money more.
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