International nongovernment organizations wouldn’t know a deal if it hit them in the face, an impact investor recently told Stephanie Marienau Turpin. As director of social enterprise development at the INGO Pact, Marienau Turpin took issue with that assumption, in part because she’s seen evidence to the contrary.
Over the past six months, the number of INGOs involved in impact investing has risen considerably. One group, the INGO Impact Investing Network — launched last winter to bring together INGOs working in or considering impact investing — has doubled in size. Already, INGO-managed or founded impact investing funds control $545.1 million in assets, according to a newly released report by the network.
Most INGOs are still in the early stages of developing their impact investing strategies — whether that includes receiving investments, making them, providing technical assistance or helping build financial ecosystems. As more players enter the market, they are sharing innovations and best practices, some of which are laid out in the network’s report.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
