Annotated Bibliography – Evaluating Impact Investing

The Centre for Development Impact (CDI) contributes to learning and innovation in the field of impact evaluation, through the use of appropriate, mixed method, and robust evaluation designs. It is a joint initiative between Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Itad and the University of East Anglia (UEA). ‘Impact’ in impact investing has been touted as bringing a new dimension to investing, going beyond investment’s traditional ‘risk’ and ‘return’ dimensions, and even becoming a new paradigm in solving society’s problems (Social Impact Investment Taskforce 2014a). Yet, there has been a growing body of literature in the past few years calling for increased scrutiny of the sector so that the nature of ventures can be improved and so that a more significant positive change can be brought to the beneficiaries ultimately targeted by impact investments, namely communities, households and individuals (Jackson 2013b). In this sense, evaluation of impact investing must go beyond the function that most often underpins it, namely accountability (Jackson 2013b; Liket, Rey-Garcia and Maas 2014). We created this annotated bibliography because we wanted to bring the literature on both ‘impact investing’ and ‘evaluation’ into one place – and in doing so, further encourage debate on the role of evaluation in understanding and measuring the social and environmental dimensions of such investments. This annotated bibliography is intended for a global audience of business professionals, impact evaluation professionals, students, academics and researchers. It is designed to enable quick and easy access to current and relevant publications in the evaluation of impact investing.