Giving Compass' Take:

• ImpactAlpha's David Bank discusses how the field of impact investing may be in a state of flux, with some influencer pushing for new thinking that would move away from a "market first" mentality. But what comes next is still fuzzy.

• No matter whether you're driven by "neoliberalism" or some other political ideology, the basic point of impact investing is still the same: try to do good and make money at the same time. Are these two concepts too incompatible in today's world? It's worth having philosophical discussions to see if we're still heading in the right direction.

In terms of priorities, improved evidence may be the next big priority in impact investing.


Whole fields, as well as people, have their theories of change. Organized philanthropy once functioned as a kind of advance guard for public policy (think public health or Social Security). With government increasingly immobilized, shifting “the market” has become more attractive to foundations as an alternative theory of change.

Hewlett Foundation's Larry Kramer isn’t buying it. “Just as we’re reaching the point, after a 40-year reign of market fundamentalism, that we recognize markets have huge problems, that philanthropy has just discovered the market,” he said. “In some ways philanthropy is 10 years behind.”

Rather than warmed-over market solutions, Kramer is looking for a more fundamental rethinking. On the basis of Kramer’s 14-page essay called “Beyond Neoliberalism," Hewlett has embarked on a two-year, $10 million effort to identify a new intellectual paradigm suited to the challenges of wealth inequality, wage stagnation and economic dislocation due to globalization and automation. The populist rumblings of recent years indicate the broader hunger for a market reordering, he notes.

I took the opportunity to read Kramer’s memo. My first observation was that a critique of neoliberalism is itself feeling passé in our post-modern swirl of ideology and alliances. The exhaustion of the idea may already be a given; the challenge is what comes next. My second reflection is that the negative framing  — beyond the old thing, rather than toward the new thing  —  itself reflects a failure of imagination. Kramer says we simply don’t yet know what comes next.

Read the full article about pushing impact investing beyond "neoliberalism" by David Bank from ImpactAlpha at medium.com.