Compass Series
Navigating Impact Lenses
Navigating Impact Lenses
When certain social themes are cross-cutting and understood to influence the impact outcomes of almost all investments, across multiple sectors, they rise to the level of providing a “lens”. This is particularly the case when certain power dynamics and investment biases are obscured. Sample lenses in impact investing include the gender lens, racial equity lens, refugee lens, and now the child lens being introduced by UNICEF.
These lenses serve a number of useful purposes. They help to improve an investor’s prospects of creating real impact by making unseen injustices visible, they provide frameworks for more easily integrating critical social and environmental dimensions into the investment process, and they raise the bar on important core practices in impact investing, like measurement, target-setting, and stakeholder engagement.
In this important Tideline Compass Series discussion, we invite leading practitioners to discuss what it means to implement a particular lens, and how to navigate the practicalities, benefits, and difficulties of actioning multiple lenses.
A recap that summarizes some of the key takeaways from the panel can be found here.
Featured Speakers:
Erika Seth Davies
CEO
Rhia Ventures
Tim Docking
CEO
Refugee Investment Network
Caitlin Rosser
Director of Impact Management
Calvert Impact
Joy Anderson
President and Co-Founder
Criterion Institute
Cristina Shapiro
President of the Impact Fund for Children and the Bridge Fund
UNICEF USA
Ben Thornley
Managing Partner
Tideline
(Moderator)
Jade Huynh
Associate
Tideline
(Moderator)
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June 9, 2016 | This is the first in a series of briefings from the partners at Tideline, Christina Leijonhufvud, Ben Thornley and Kim Wright-Violich, sharing insights from our work with a diverse group of clients at the forefront of impact investing. In this edition,...
The Rapid Mainstreaming of Impact Investing
Navigating Impact Investing: The Need for Greater Clarity and Efficiency
The Launch of Tideline Marks a Significant Acceleration of Institutional Activity in Impact Investing
A Progress Report on Impact Investing
Impact Investing Through DAFS
Impact Alpha – “Impact value-creation playbooks provide X’s and O’s for generating alpha”
Impact Alpha – “After the investment and before the exit, how fund managers drive alpha through impact”
Impact Investor – “Long-term investor engagement key to maximising impact, says ICM report”
Compass Series Recap – “Navigating Impact Lenses”
This recap of Tideline’s recent Compass Series event was written by Jade Huynh. Watch the full recording here. This Compass Series discussion is dedicated to the late Suzanne Biegel, a pioneer of gender-lens investing who passed away on September 20, 2023 after a...
Compass Series Recap – “State of the Impact Investment Market”
This recap of Tideline’s recent Compass Series event was written by Yael Cohen. Watch the full recording here. At a time of both growth and momentum in impact investing as well as uncertain economic conditions, participants in Tideline's third annual State of...
The Optimism of Collective Action for Impact
By Dawn Chan, Eliza Foo, and Ben Thornley*Earlier this month, on the sidelines of Ecosperity 2023 in Singapore, we had the great privilege of convening a group of over 100 practitioners dedicated to social and environmental impact, including entrepreneurs, investors,...
Compass Series Recap – “Public Equities: The Case for Impact at Scale”
This recap of Tideline’s Compass Series event on public equities as a focus for impact investors was written by Dmitriy Ioselevich and Yael Cohen. Watch the full recording here. Pursuing impact in public equities remains something of a quandary. On the one...
Tideline submits comment letter on SEC’s proposed ESG disclosure rule
Top1000Funds – “Defining and diligencing impact funds”
Compass Series – “DEI 2.0 and why this time is different”
This recap of Tideline's Compass Series event on "Putting Diversity Promises Into Action" was written by Carol Lee and Jane Bieneman. Watch the full recording here. Despite decades of efforts to increase diversity and representation across the financial...
New Private Markets – “The bittersweet growth of the impact scene”
Pensions & Investments – “How institutional is impact investing?” (by Jane Bieneman)
This piece was originally published in Pensions & Investments. The impact investing market is gaining steam, as evidenced by nearly daily announcements of new products and entrants, not least of which is Temasek’s $500 million investment in LeapFrog in March 2021....
STATEMENT – “Tideline Managing Partner Ben Thornley and BlueMark CEO Christina Leijonhufvud Issue Statement on SEC Risk Alert and SFDR”
Tideline Managing Partner Ben Thornley and BlueMark CEO Christina Leijonhufvud today issued a joint statement in response to recent regulatory developments in the U.S. and EU aimed at clamping down on greenwashing and impact-washing in the investment management...
Compass Series Recap – “How climate-focused investors can become climate impact investors”
By Ben Thornley Tideline recently hosted a Compass Series event on Climate Investing with True Impact. The panel featured some of the world’s largest and most innovative investors in climate for a discussion on the difference between thematic investments in...
Tideline Speaks With ImpactAlpha: ‘Operating Principles Help Investors Hold Asset Managers Accountable for Impact
Impact Investing’s Next Chapter: Integrity Through Assurance
March 9, 2020 | Tideline and The Rockefeller Foundation partnered up to lead an engaging discussion on why impact verification is key to scaling the market with integrity in a virtual event entitled Impact Investing’s Next Chapter: Integrity Through Assurance. Watch...
Tideline Supports Guys and St Thomas’ Charity to Develop Impact Investment Strategy
How to Evaluate Funds That Invest in Women
Reducing Risks by Managing for Impact in Opportunity Zone Investments
An Innovative Model for Financing Affordable Eye Care Delivers
July 10, 2018 | Blindness is among the most preventable afflictions on Earth. While an estimated 253 million people worldwide are visually impaired and 36 million are completely blind – 80% of blindness is either curable or preventable. [1] The vast majority of the...
Creating an Impact Fund? Here Are Our Four Ground Rules
March 13, 2018 | Based on Tideline’s experience advising impact clients, as well as our work in traditional financial markets, we have found there’s a common set of best practices for creating a new investment fund or other vehicle, be it single bottom line or impact:...
South by Social: Austin is the Capital of Impact Entrepreneurship, Too
Investor Readiness: How Asset Owners can Prepare for Effective Impact Investing
Fulfilling the Promise of Catalytic Capital to Scale for Food Security
Ramping up Global Health Investments to Fight Diseases of Low-Income Countries
December 2017 | Tideline Partners’ Briefing
December 20, 2017 Dear Friends, As 2017 draws to a close, we wanted to thank you for your partnership and share some reflections as seen through Tideline’s recent work with leading investors, asset managers, and market builders in impact investing. We were thrilled...
The Investment Project: Mobilizing Private Investment for Development
Major Asset Managers Moving Slowly But Surely Toward Impact Investing
What a Difference a Year Makes: Tideline Grew Rapidly Reflecting Surging Interest in Impact Investing
Private Sector Investment in Global Health R&D: Spending Levels, Barriers, and Opportunities
A Seat at the Table
The Impact Management Project
Road Work Ahead: Smoothing the Flow of Impact Investing with Lane Markers and Turn Signals
Tideline Deepens Impact Investing Expertise with Strategic Hire
Be the Change: Five Steps for Transitioning into a Values-Aligned Career
Tideline Gives Path to Allocators in a Rapidly Changing Impact Investment Environment
Impact Investing Expert Proposes ‘Impact Classes’ to Parallel ‘Asset Classes’
Cracking the Code of Impact Investing
June 2016 | Tideline Partners’ Briefing
June 9, 2016 | This is the first in a series of briefings from the partners at Tideline, Christina Leijonhufvud, Ben Thornley and Kim Wright-Violich, sharing insights from our work with a diverse group of clients at the forefront of impact investing. In this edition,...
The Rapid Mainstreaming of Impact Investing
Navigating Impact Investing: The Need for Greater Clarity and Efficiency
The Launch of Tideline Marks a Significant Acceleration of Institutional Activity in Impact Investing
A Progress Report on Impact Investing
Impact Investing Through DAFS
A recording of Tideline’s Currents Series event on “Bending the Curve Toward Net-Zero: Introduction to ERP Analysis” (WATCH)
A recording of Tideline’s Compass Series event on “An Inside Look at One Allocator’s Approach to Impact Fund Diligence” (WATCH)
A recording of Tideline’s Compass Series event on “The Dawn of a Learning Age in Impact Management” (WATCH)
A video recording of Tideline’s Compass Series event on “Truth in Impact: Getting to Clarity on Sustainable Investment Labeling” (WATCH)
A video recording of Tideline’s Compass Series event on “Impact Investment at the Institutional Tipping Point” (WATCH)
In this Compass Series event, Tideline was joined by asset managers, allocators, and service providers to discuss the key developments in the impact investing industry that are laying the groundwork for full-scale institutional adoption. The conversation built...
A video recording of Tideline’s Compass Series panel, “Climate Investing with True Impact” (WATCH)
This month in the Tideline Compass Series, Ben Thornley moderated a discussion with some of the world’s largest allocators and most innovative investors in climate—drawing a contrast between thematic investments in climate-related market sectors, versus true...
A video recording of the inaugural Tideline Compass Series panel, “2021 in Impact Investing: The Year of Classification” (WATCH)
In Tideline's inaugural Compass Series panel on December 15, 2020, Tideline's Ben Thornley and Duke University’s Cathy Clark reflect on five years of progress since introducing the concept of ‘impact classes’, and the increasingly essential role of impact...
Impact Investing’s Next Chapter: Integrity Through Assurance
March 9, 2020 | Tideline and The Rockefeller Foundation partnered up to lead an engaging discussion on why impact verification is key to scaling the market with integrity in a virtual event entitled Impact Investing’s Next Chapter: Integrity Through Assurance. Watch...
Tideline Speaks at HWW’s Investing for Impact Symposium 2019/
Tideline Speaks at SOCAP19
October 22 – 25, 2019 | At SOCAP19, Ben Thornley moderated a session entitled “The Time for Action and Accountability in Impact”. Panelists Diane Carol Damskey (International Finance Corporation), Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen (UNDP), Sasha Dichter (60 Decibels), Leticia...