Impact investing is discussed as a growing trend among wealthy individual investors in this New York Times 'Wealth Matters' column.

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More often, impact investing is described by what it is not. It does not work in the same way as socially responsible investing, which excludes areas a person does not want to invest in - like tobacco or guns - through a simple screening process. Impact investing focuses more on bringing about change - helping the working poor in India buy a home, for instance.

While most of the money is going into areas like helping to reduce poverty and improving the climate, it is not philanthropy. Investors expect at least a return of their capital with an adjustment for inflation and, in many cases, a lot more than that.

In the piece, GIIN Director Camilla Seth offers perspective on why standards like the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) are needed in the impact investing industry:

One of the main reasons for the slow growth is the lack of basic investing information. The Global Impact Investing Network is trying to remedy this. It has created standards to measure what a recipient says it is doing. "If an investor is trying to create jobs, the question is, 'How do I create more jobs?' " Ms. Seth said. "Everyone was measuring it in a different way. We want a job to be a job to be a job." She said the network had also built a reporting platform to track how investments were accomplishing their goals.

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