GIIN Board Chairman and Rockefeller Foundation Managing Director Antony Bugg-Levine talks about the wide range of impact investors, the need for innovative business and financing models, the future role of philanthropy, and the importance of rigor in the growing impact investing industry.

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"No doubt there are forces in the financial services industry that will seek to lower the standard of what an impact investment is. Lower standards will make it easier for institutional investors and wealth advisors to meet their clients' growing interest in impact investment without developing radically new business models or skills.

"This is where credible metrics become important. Without standards for measuring and reporting on social impact, it is increasingly becoming difficult to distinguish enterprises that are great at creating real social impact from those that are just great at telling stories about their work. Fortunately, a major effort is now underway to create a common language for reporting on social impact. The Impact Reporting and Investment Standards, housed in the Global Impact Investing Network, have the potential to help investors understand - and importantly, compare - the social and environmental impact of investments they make."

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