Global Impact Investing Network: About Us

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of impact investing.

The GIIN supports collaboration, develops industry infrastructure, and undertakes research and advocacy to foster a coherent impact investing industry. The GIIN's programmatic agenda is rooted in the challenges investors face. It serves as a forum for identifying and addressing the systemic barriers that hinder the impact investing industry's efficiency and effectiveness.

The GIIN works to increase dramatically the level and effectiveness of capital that is supporting market-based solutions to social and environmental problems. Our goal is to help foster a coherent impact investing industry that channels investment capital efficiently to accelerate the development of solutions to pressing social and environmental problems. Impact investing can be a powerful complement to philanthropy and government efforts to address many issues, including relief for suffering communities, eradication of disease, stabilization of climate change, provision of basic social services such as housing and sanitation, and development of a green revolution in Africa.

The GIIN is operating under the fiscal sponsorship of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, which provides it with its 501(c)3 charitable status under US law.

Programmatic Strategy

The GIIN's programmatic strategy focuses on 3 key areas:

1. Investors' Council

The GIIN Investors' Council is a group of leading impact investors representing a diverse range of institutions from around the world. The Investors' Council provides leadership in the industry, serves as a platform for disseminating the latest research and best practices, and supports the creation and adoption of industry infrastructure, including impact metrics.

The Investors' Council supports working groups focused on specific impact investing themes. The first working group is Project Terragua, a group of investors who are focused on increasing investment in sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Industry Infrastructure Development - IRIS

The GIIN coordinates the development of industry infrastructure that benefits all impact investors by addressing common challenges and creating a more efficient marketplace. The core initiative of this work is Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) , a common language and framework for measuring social and environmental performance of impact investments. IRIS addresses a major barrier to the growth of the impact investing industry - the lack of transparency and credibility in how funds define, track, and report on the social and environmental performance of their capital. IRIS provides a standardized approach that leads to lower transaction costs and an improved ability to understand the impact of investments.

To date, the project has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, B Lab, Acumen, Deloitte, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. IRIS builds on prior work in the social impact assessment field while further developing and clarifying the means and metrics for enabling better investment.

3. Outreach

The GIIN Outreach Initiative elevates the profile of impact investing. By highlighting exemplary impact investments, industry progress, and best practices, the GIIN aims to increase the scale and effectiveness of
impact investing.

A core focus of the GIIN is to distribute, commission, and conduct research that provides more transparency for the field and will lead to more efficient execution of impact investments. As a part of this, the GIIN will draw upon the research efforts of other organizations to inform the impact investing community. Research will cover industry-level topics, case studies, and product analysis. This research will be made available through the GIIN online resource center.