Advancing Social Impact Investments through Measurement Conference: Summary and Themes

Author(s): David Erickson, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Both the community development and impact investing fields are working diligently to find ways to bridge their divides and in many ways they are closer together now than ever. But if we are to make real progress in combining forces, focusing in particular on how we measure social and environmental outcomes holds promise in resolving overarching questions around wise use and targeting of limited resources. Coordination, and even integration, could be hastened if both fields could agree on how to use data and measurement to track progress on social and environmental outcomes.