Social Impact Investing

SOCIAL IMPACT INVESTMENT: BUILDING THE EVIDENCE BASE
Box 6.2. GIIN\JP Morgan Survey
J.P. Morgan and the GIIN have been collecting data on impact investors through surveys since 2011. The joint
surveys target investing organizations such as foundations, funds or financial institutions and apply a broad definition
of impact investment, as described in Chapter 4. Individual investors are however excluded from the analysis. Also,
only investors with assets under management above USD 10 million are included. As a consequence, the resulting
sample is not representative of the whole SII market. Nevertheless, it is amongst the most comprehensive sets of
information on the supply side of the SII market.
So far, three different survey waves have been carried out (2011, 2012 and 2013) and the sample of investors
has been increasing (52, 99 and 125, respectively). Also, respondents do not necessarily overlap which means that
caution is needed when interpreting trends along the different survey waves —The table below provides a comparison
of targeted SII (amounts that investors are willing to invest) and the actual investment volumes in 2011, 2012 and 2013
survey waves. It is possible to see significant investment leaps between the survey waves. These cannot be regarded
as market growth but rather sampling changes. Saltuk et al. (2014) make a comparative analysis that carefully focuses
on the 67 survey respondents that had participated the year before (Saltuk, 2013). Tracking the exact same individuals
would allow comparing a priori targeted investments for a given year with the subsequent volume of investments in that
year.
2011 survey 2012 survey 2013 survey
n=52; n=88 n=87 (2013) n=125 n=124 (2014)
Targeted
2012
Transactions
(volume)
2012
8,0
investments
Targeted
2013
Transactions
(volume)
2013
10.6
investments
Targeted
2014
3.8
9,1
investments
investments
Note: in billion USD. Information on survey response rates is not available
12.7
investments
The survey results convey information on a number of different investor characteristics, including investor size
(AUM), investor type (e.g. family office, fund manager, foundations, etc…), headquarters and geographical focus,
sector focus, asset class focus, investment stage focus, return expectations, sources of capital (for intermediaries).
In addition, information is also gathered with respect to investors’ perspectives, in particular regarding: i)
Adequate risk and return profiles; ii) Motivations for impact investments; iii) Evolution of the SII market (e.g. usage of
standards, investment opportunities, availability of capital for SII); iv) Major challenges for impact investing; v) Role of
policy; vi) Planned investments in the near future (1 year); vii) Importance of metrics to evaluate performance.
Source: Saltuk et al. (2011; 2013; 2014)
6.30 An important challenge in collecting supply-side data relates to confidentiality requirements. This
is also an issue for data collection in the venture capital and angel investment markets, in which supply
side data is collected by survey from investors. For example, while most information from financial system
regulators is not disclosed, data originating from survey exercises often needs to be anonymised (e.g. if it
requires the disclosure proprietary or other types of sensitive data). For example, confidentiality issues can
be particularly relevant for high net-worth individual.
6.3.3. Intermediaries and transactions
6.31 In terms of sizing the SII market, obtaining transaction data is crucial. However, this type of data
is very hard to access, perhaps due to the fact that the market is still in embryonic phase in most countries
and the necessary data collection processes have not been put in place. Currently the data remains in small
pockets, used only by those directly involved in the transactions.
© OECD 2015 89