The devastating consequences of divestment, like deteriorating infrastructure, vacant lots, and vast expanses of food and green space deserts, are glaringly obvious in low-income areas of Philadelphia. These inequalities in resources and opportunities have created a vicious cycle of poverty and made upward mobility very difficult.
For the Philadelphia region, relying solely on traditional philanthropic models is insufficient to address these entrenched disparities and complex challenges. Poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation cannot be solved by simply chasing profit margins and depending on philanthropy.
In response to these types of challenges and opportunities across the region and the globe, impact investing has emerged as an increasingly popular approach to provide needed capital to address many of the systemic social and environmental challenges. This approach has gained momentum nationally and globally. The Global Impact Investor Network estimates that the size of the worldwide impact investing market is USD $1.164 trillion. This marks the first time the organization’s widely cited estimate surpassed the USD $1 trillion mark.
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