# Impact Investing ## [Calculating the Value of Impact Investing](https://hbr.org/2019/01/calculating-the-value-of-impact-investing) [Chris Addy,](https://hbr.org/search?term=chris%20addy) [Maya Chorengel,](https://hbr.org/search?term=maya%20chorengel) [Mariah Collins,](https://hbr.org/search?term=mariah%20collins) and [Michael Etzel](https://hbr.org/search?term=michael%20etzel) An evidence-based way to estimate social and environmental returns. Impact investing—directing capital to ventures that are expected to yield social and environmental benefits as well as profits—provides investors with a way to “do well by doing good.” But whereas the business world has tools for estimating a potential investment’s financial yield, it lacks them for estimating social rewards in dollar terms. Now the Rise Fund and the Bridgespan Group have developed what they call the *impact multiple of money* (IMM) to demonstrate the value of putting impact underwriting on the same footing as financial underwriting. In this article they explain their six-step process for calculating it: (1) Assess the relevance and scale of a potential product, service, or project. (2) Identify target social or environmental outcomes. (3) Estimate the economic value of those outcomes to society. (4) Adjust for risks. (5) Estimate terminal value. (6) Calculate the social return on every dollar spent. The IMM, they write, “offers a rigorous methodology to advance the art of allocating capital to achieve social benefit.” --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://wiki.oikos-international.org/sustainable-finance/interviews/resources/research/impact-investing.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.