From Ideas to Practice, Pilots to Strategy is both an attempt – and an opportunity – to disseminate the best practices and lessons learned from the first movers, early adopters and bold innovators in the field of impact investing, with the goal of further advancing the sector.

When we published From the Margins to the Mainstream: Assessment of the Impact Investment Sector and Opportunities to Engage Mainstream Investors in September 2013, we sought to add clarity to the field through a realistic, current assessment. With over 10,000 people accessing the report in the first two weeks, it became evident that we touched on a strong need. However, given the relatively small scale of impact investing, we realized that more than clarification was needed. For active investors in the field, to shift impact investing from a small part of their portfolios to a full-fledged strategy requires operational and practical knowledge. New players in the impact investing space, looking to take it from a compelling idea to a real investment approach, need to know how to get started in this nascent and potentially rewarding sector. This codified know-how and repository of best practice is currently as embryonic as the sector itself.

Readers of the Margins to Mainstream report reached out from far and wide to ask for advice on how to start (or do even more) with impact investing. While we could hypothesize and make suggestions, it is only experienced impact investors who can speak with authority about what does and doesn’t work, and why. With that in mind, we curated this collection of short, action-oriented and insightful thought pieces on how to put impact investing to work.

Because the sector is in a nascent stage and engages diverse individuals, organizations and societies, no one solution will apply to every situation. Rather, this publication can serve as a trailhead and as a semi-trodden path for new practitioners; but much more trail-blazing will be necessary before the sector can call itself mature.

We advocate learning by doing, failing fast, synthesizing feedback and quickly re-engineering shortcomings into a more informed approach. Above all, we believe that intentions (and certainly good ones) matter with every action and step towards building a new sector. With these principles in mind, we can collaboratively and proactively ensure that the impact investing sector is on the best path forward.

For the many key players whose wisdom and expertise could not be represented here, we look forward to hearing from you and, where possible, including your perspective in future efforts to help bring the impact investing sector to maturity.

Contact us at [email protected]