Oxford report

MacArthur recently funded a review of academic research on impact investing as a way to broaden understanding of the field and support a more robust, efficient marketplace.

Researchers at Oxford University’s Said Business School (SBS) used a $60,000 grant from the Foundation to review current literature, identify key gaps and outline a research agenda to better inform policy, practice and market development. Previously, the Foundation provided a $50,000 grant for nonprofit and social enterprise practitioner scholarships to Oxford’s Impact Investing Executive Training program.

SBS is home to a number of research centers, including the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship which has led research, education and policy efforts related to impact investing for a number of years. The report, titled The Landscape of Social Impact Investment Research: Trends and Opportunities, was released in March 2016. It identifies a number of ideas to strengthen the contributions of academic research towards building more robust practice of impact investing.

“Impact investing has grown so quickly that it can be difficult for practitioners and academics to stay on top of evolving best practices and emerging innovations,” said Debra Schwartz, Managing Director Impact Investments at MacArthur.  “Oxford’s experience and commitment to this work are helping make those critical connections and advance this important field.”