The Global Impact Investing Network has offered its own take on a much discussed question: do “impact investing” and its variants under various names – sustainable investing, socially conscious investing, ESG investing, etc. – work? And, if so, how well? It looks at this question in a very granular way, focusing especially on II through private equity and private debt. Given this focus it engages in a meta-study, or literature review.

The GIIN begins with the observation that private equity is the most commonly employed vehicle for impact investing. It is used by more than 75% of the impact investors.

A 2015 Study with CA

Two years ago, GIIN partnered with Cambridge Associates, an investment consultancy, to develop the PE impact investing benchmark to assist understanding in this area.After updates, the underlying dataset for the benchmark now includes 71 funds, all seeking market rates of return while targeting social impact objectives. More than a third of the funds in the same managed over $100 million in AUM.

Classified by vintage year, 8% of the funds began investing between 1998 and 2001, 32% between 2002 and 2007, 27% between 2008 and 2010, and the remaining 32% between 2011 and 2015. [Actually, those numbers add up to 99% — presumably there was some rounding involved.]

Classified geographically, 39% of aggregate fund capitalization focused on Africa, 37% on the U.S, 17% on a mix of emerging markets, and the rest on a mix of developed markets.

How did they do? That 2015 study made the following points: