However, even comparing non-profit donations to hedge funds implies that making a donation is like for-profit investing. This is a view that many impact-interested donors appear to hold—the prevalence of the phrase “impact investing” as a term for efficient giving drives this analogy home.
My understanding was that “impact investing” refers only to making investments/loans intended to both have an impact and be repaid or generate financial returns, rather than to efficient/effective giving more broadly. So it doesn’t seem to me that the prevalence of that phrase is evidence that many impact-interested donors think making a donation is like for-profit investing (though it does independently seem plausible many impact-interested donors think that). Would you disagree?
(This is only a minor point anyway, and wouldn’t affect any of the key points of the article.)
Thanks for this interesting post.
My understanding was that “impact investing” refers only to making investments/loans intended to both have an impact and be repaid or generate financial returns, rather than to efficient/effective giving more broadly. So it doesn’t seem to me that the prevalence of that phrase is evidence that many impact-interested donors think making a donation is like for-profit investing (though it does independently seem plausible many impact-interested donors think that). Would you disagree?
(This is only a minor point anyway, and wouldn’t affect any of the key points of the article.)