Looking at Nonprofit Fianance Fund's “Complete Capital” Approach

The rise of the impact investment movement is poised to unlock substantial new capital for social purpose. Innovative nonprofits are already rethinking the way they do business and are going to heroic lengths to extract maximum impact from every dollar. And increasingly, we have the data and knowledge we need to tackle social ills.

But the ultimate contribution of impact investing, and similar innovations, will not come in the form of interesting investments or channeling grant money more efficiently. Instead, it will come by addressing two fundamental challenges of our moment: How will developed countries sustain a safety net in the wake of macroeconomic and demographic pressures? And how will developing countries ensure that economic growth is more equitably shared?

To answer those questions requires us to reframe how we work. We need to move away from silo approaches when we ask “Where can I make meaningful loans?” or “How can I give away my grant money better?” Instead, we must ask “How do we work together to solve the social challenges that matter?”