The Predistribution Initiative (PDI) is pleased to share insights from our 2022 - 2024 collaboration with Impact Frontiers (IF) on the Investor Influence Project. Formerly named Investor Contribution 2.0, this project commenced with the Impact Management Project in 2020, and then continued with IF. The work took an expansive view of the multifaceted ways investors shape outcomes for workers, communities, consumers, and nature and recommends that these considerations should be an embedded part of investors’ impact management approaches, recognizing that:
For an investor with the goal of positively changing outcomes experienced by stakeholders, this project also frames the importance of considering the extent to which the investor’s activities caused those changes in outcomes.
We are grateful to the numerous people and organizations who provided input into this extensive project.
Throughout these consultations, the PDI team learned that there is not a strong understanding across the investment community about how their activities relating to investment structures and investment governance may – often inadvertently – be associated with negative outcomes for stakeholders and/or the environment. Additionally, there is not a strong understanding of how these activities are associated with system-level or macro-financial outcomes, and how those outcomes can then affect investors’ diversified portfolios through feedback loops. Lastly, investors sought a better understanding of “what does good look like?” These are all questions we are unpacking through follow-on work, particularly in partnership with the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD, of which PDI is a co-founder and Steering Committee Member).
As mentioned above, PDI continues to advance research on the relationships between financial actors’ activities and impacts and risks. The findings from this work will be used to better socialize a common understanding of “impact pathways” (pathways through which investors influence outcomes for people and nature) and their feedback loops (how these impacts translate into financial risks and opportunities in diversified portfolios). In collaboration with partners, this information can then inform improved:
This complements PDI's two additional capacity building workstreams, which support investors in reform of practices to foster lasting broad-based prosperity across workers and communities.
Stay tuned for more details on next steps, including getting involved. We hope you will join us as we continue to co-create learnings and tools on these important topics!
