On Tuesday, the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance hosted an educational briefing for Congressional staff on how impact investors and policymakers can partner to drive more private capital for public good – starting with supporting an inclusive recovery from the public health, social, economic and environmental challenges we are facing.
Senator Todd Young of Indiana - a champion of impact investing - kicked off the event, stating “when government and the private sector work together, particularly in a bipartisan fashion, the impact on our society can be endless.”
Fran Seegull, President of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance led the discussion, emphasizing the transformational potential at the intersection of impact investing and public policy. “As Members of Congress and the Administration work to craft policy solutions to address the imminent threats of our economy, environment and society, know that impact investors stand ready to partner, bringing their capital, networks and knowledge to the table,” said Seegull.
Seegull then invited several expert guest speakers to share their insights. Highlights of the discussion included:
Roy Swan, Director of Mission Investments at the Ford Foundation attributed their record $1 billion endowment commitment for impact to key regulatory developments. “There would be no impact investing at the Ford Foundation if there had not been public policy innovations and advancement,” said Swan.
Referring to the B Corp community, Andrew Kassoy stated, “what energizes people today is that the existing system isn’t accountable to stakeholders, and we need to think about changing the rules of the game. That can’t happen only through voluntary activity. It also needs the encouragement of public policy in order to make the economic system work for everybody.”
Audrey Choi, Chief Sustainability Officer at Morgan Stanley said about the business case for impact investing, “what's incredibly important for us all as a community...is figuring out how we can do this in a really high quality, rigorous way where we can continue to deliver best in class products...as well as being really rigorous about impact.”
Jim Sorenson, Entrepreneur and President of Sorenson Impact Foundation, touted the importance of authentic community engagement in his Opportunity Zones work, a tax incentive for investing in economically distressed communities. Sorenson’s Catalyst Fund uses an ‘Impact Scorecard’ to measure the commitment of the developer to impact, community engagement, affordability, inclusion, access to services, economic development and sustainability.
The Alliance has long been a champion of public policy as a lever for change in the impact investing community, mostly recently publishing Private Capital, Public Good - 12 policy recommendations around community investing, stakeholder capitalism and creating a just and equitable recovery.
The Alliance has also partnered with B Lab and a coalition of over 50 impact-oriented investor and business organizations in calling for the creation of a White House Initiative on Inclusive Economic Growth.
Tuesday’s briefing helps set the stage for further collaboration between impact investors and policymakers around critical shared priorities.