Impact Investing

Catalog description

This course provides an introduction to the impact investing landscape and its evolution, players, and tools. After situating impact investing vis à vis both other forms of investing and other social change tools, we explore what makes an investment impactful - and how one would go about determining that and measuring it. Through a combination of readings, case studies, class discussion, and projects, students will gain deep insight into the perspective of the impact investor and consider how it relates to other stakeholders and to social change writ large. We will examine the process by which an investor develops an impact thesis, sources and evaluates opportunities, all the way to structuring a deal, monitoring financial and social returns, and exiting the investment responsibly. The course aims to combine practical knowledge about how impact investments are made with critical thinking about the field’s potential and limitations.