Finding the Right Impact Investor for Your Social Enterprise

This article was originally published on Pioneers Post.

If you’re a social entrepreneur, you’re likely familiar with the challenge of finding investors who truly share your commitment to driving change. Even impact investors with the best intentions are often plagued by competing priorities—namely, profit and impact. While the premise of ‘doing well by doing good’ has inspired many investors to consider impact, others have rightly come to challenge the idea that social and environmental change is inherently compatible with market-rate returns. John Elkington, the man responsible for coining the “Triple Bottom Line” approach, has notably “recalled” the management concept aimed at placing economic, social, and environmental priorities on equal footing.

“Fundamentally,” Elkington recently wrote, “we have a hard wired cultural problem… Whereas CEOs, CFOs, and other corporate leaders move heaven and earth to ensure that they hit their profit targets, the same is very rarely true of their people and planet targets.”

Unfortunately, the effect of this profit-driven culture on impact investors is particularly acute. While the idea of making an impact is always appealing, many investors are wary of making the bold commitments necessary to advance transformative change. And others, simply drawn to the latest trend, may capitalize on claiming the ‘impact investor’ title without following through. So, how can you find investors who truly share your priorities?

Read the rest of the article on Pioneers Post.