There is a long-standing misconception that investments can only serve one purpose. Investors were told they could either make money or make a difference, but not both. 

The rise of impact investing, a rapidly growing market and mainstream managing strategy, is turning this false choice on its head by demonstrating that purpose-driven investments can deliver competitive returns while still creating meaningful social and environmental benefits.

The Evolution of Impact Investing

Growing rapidly over the past two decades, impact investing has not only been a viable and mainstream strategy, but a rising star in the investment market. According to the Global Impact Investing Network (GINN), an organization that supports education and research to accelerate the impact investing industry, the global impact investing market has risen to over $1.5 trillion dollars (USD). In their latest market sizing report (published in 2024), the organization notes the industry is setting new historic benchmarks in both assets under management (AUM) and organization and investor participation. 

Modern investors, particularly millennials and Gen Z, increasingly want their money to reflect their values. They're asking not just "What returns can I expect?" but also "What impact will my investment create?" This shift in conversation and demand is driving innovation in investment products that serve a dual purpose by combining financial performance with measurable social outcomes.

Real estate has long stood as a fundamental community asset and offers particularly compelling opportunities for impact investing. Unlike stocks in distant corporations, real estate investments create visible, measurable changes in the communities where people live, work and play. 

Healthcare Real Estate: A Case Study in Impact

Healthcare infrastructure represents one of the most direct forms of impact investing. Investing in healthcare real estate can not only deliver capital gains and wealth-building opportunities, but can also transform the lives of neighbors and communities. By bringing medical care closer to home, investments in healthcare real estate can increase accessibility for underserviced communities and people which has a strong correlation to improved health-outcomes. 

Consider the impact metrics of a typical healthcare real estate development:

Access Improvement: New medical facilities reduce travel time for specialized care, making healthcare more accessible to underserved populations.

Economic Development: Healthcare facilities create high-paying, stable jobs that support local economic growth and attract additional businesses.

Property Value Enhancement: Quality healthcare infrastructure increases surrounding property values, benefiting entire neighborhoods.

Community Health Outcomes: Better access to healthcare services directly improves population health metrics and quality of life.

These benefits extend far beyond the immediate investment, creating positive ripple effects throughout the community for decades.

Measuring Impact: Beyond Good Intentions

Impact investing should include rigorous measurement and accountability. Effective impact investing goes beyond good intentions and provides strategic planning, measurement, and ongoing management to ensure both social and financial outcomes are being met. 

Unlike charitable giving, impact investments must demonstrate both social outcomes and financial returns. With effective planning and management, this dual-impact model can often lead to better outcomes than purely philanthropic approaches.

Key impact metrics for real estate investments may include:

Job Creation: Both construction jobs during development and permanent positions in completed facilities contribute to local employment.

Service Accessibility: Measuring improvements in travel time, wait times, and service availability for essential community needs.

Economic Multipliers: Tracking how investments attract additional businesses, services, and economic activity to the area.

Environmental Benefits: Assessing energy efficiency, sustainable building practices, and environmental impact improvements.

Affordable Access: Ensuring that developments include affordable housing components or accept insurance programs that serve low-income populations.

Avoiding Impact Washing

As impact investing grows in popularity, some investment products make exaggerated or misleading claims about their social benefits. True impact investing requires:

Measurable Outcomes: Specific, quantifiable metrics that can be tracked and verified over time.

Additionality: Evidence that the investment creates benefits that wouldn't occur without impact investor capital.

Intentionality: Clear strategies for creating impact, not just coincidental benefits from traditional investments.

Accountability: Regular reporting and third-party verification of impact claims.

Materiality: Impact that is significant relative to the scale of the investment and the community need being addressed.

The Financial Case for Impact Investing

Impact investments often outperform traditional investments because they are conscious of and align with powerful social and economic trends. This might include: 

Demographic Demand: Investments addressing aging populations, urbanization, and changing lifestyle preferences benefit from sustained demand growth.

Regulatory Support: Governments often provide tax incentives, zoning benefits, and streamlined permitting for developments that serve community needs.

Tenant Stability: Essential service properties typically enjoy longer lease terms, lower vacancy rates, and more stable cash flows than purely commercial properties.

Exit Premium: Properties with documented community impact often command premium valuations from buyers who value social responsibility.

Data from market indices and research from respected institutions like Harvard Business School and NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business show that companies with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices consistently outperform their peers in the long horizon. This performance advantage often reflects both reduced risk and enhanced growth opportunities.

Avoiding Impact Washing

As impact investing grows in popularity, some investment products make exaggerated or misleading claims about their social benefits. True impact investing requires:

Measurable Outcomes: Specific, quantifiable metrics that can be tracked and verified over time.

Additionality: Evidence that the investment creates benefits that wouldn't occur without impact investor capital.

Intentionality: Clear strategies for creating impact, not just coincidental benefits from traditional investments.

Accountability: Regular reporting and third-party verification of impact claims.

Materiality: Impact that is significant relative to the scale of the investment and the community need being addressed.

Real Estate's Unique Impact Advantages

Real estate offers several unique advantages for impact investing:

Visibility: Unlike abstract corporate social responsibility programs, real estate investments create physical assets that communities can see and use.

Durability: Buildings last for decades, creating sustained impact that extends far beyond the initial investment period.

Local Focus: Real estate investments directly benefit the specific communities where they're located, creating tangible connections between investors and impact.

Essential Nature: Housing, healthcare, education, and infrastructure meet fundamental human needs that persist regardless of economic conditions.

Building Wealth While Building Communities

The most compelling aspect of impact investing is the alignment between personal financial goals and community development. Instead of viewing investment returns and social good as competing priorities, impact investors recognize them as mutually reinforcing.

This alignment creates several advantages:

Purpose-Driven Motivation: Investors who believe in their investments' social mission tend to make better long-term decisions and avoid panic selling during market volatility.

Enhanced Due Diligence: The focus on community impact often leads to more thorough analysis of local market conditions, demographic trends, and long-term sustainability.

Stakeholder Support: Investments that serve community needs typically receive better support from local governments, residents, and other stakeholders.

Legacy Building: Impact investments create positive change that extends beyond the investor's lifetime, contributing to generational wealth building and community development.

Technology's Role in Democratizing Impact

Historically, impact investing opportunities were available to and driven by institutional investors and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. New technology platforms have changed this dynamic and democratized opportunities by making impact investments accessible to smaller investors. In the process, they’ve also expanded and enhanced the rigorous due diligence and impact measurement needed to safeguard effective investments. 

Modern investment platforms offer several advantages for impact investors:

Transparency: Digital platforms can provide real-time updates on both financial performance and impact metrics, allowing investors to see exactly how their money creates community benefits.

Accessibility: Lower minimum investments and simplified processes make impact investing available to a broader range of investors while still maintaining due diligence safeguards. 

Education: Platforms can explain complex impact measurement methodologies and help investors understand the connection between their capital and community outcomes.

Community: Investors can connect with others who share their values and learn from shared experiences in impact investing.

Getting Started with Impact Investing

Investors interested in impact investing, consider practical steps like defining your values and 

Define Your Values: Identify the social and environmental issues that matter most to you, whether healthcare access, affordable housing, environmental sustainability, or economic development.

Research Opportunities: Look for investment platforms and products that offer transparent impact measurement and align with your values.

Start Small: Begin with a portion of your portfolio to gain experience with impact investing before making larger commitments.

Measure and Learn: Track both financial and impact performance to understand how your investments create value across multiple dimensions.

Stay Engaged: Participate in investor updates, site visits, and community events to maintain connection with your investments' impact.

The Future of Purpose-Driven Investing

Impact investing represents more than a trend—it's a fundamental shift toward recognizing the interconnection between financial markets and community wellbeing. As climate change, inequality, and infrastructure needs create growing challenges, capital markets must play a more active role in solutions.

For individual investors, this creates unprecedented opportunities to align personal wealth building with positive social change. The days of choosing between financial returns and social impact are ending, replaced by investment strategies that pursue both goals simultaneously.

Real estate, as a fundamental building block of communities, will continue to play a central role in this evolution. When you invest in healthcare facilities, affordable housing, or sustainable infrastructure, you're not just diversifying your portfolio—you're participating in the essential work of community building.

The question is no longer whether impact investing can deliver competitive returns. The evidence clearly demonstrates that it can. The question now is whether traditional investing—divorced from social and environmental considerations—can compete with strategies that harness the power of purpose-driven capital.

For investors who want their money to work as hard for their communities as it does for their portfolios, impact investing offers a path forward that serves both financial and social goals. The future belongs to those who recognize that building wealth and building communities are not competing objectives, but complementary strategies for creating lasting value.

Fund Momentum’s Dual-Impact Model

Fund Momentum's approach exemplifies the dual-impact model: generating competitive financial returns while creating measurable community benefits. Our 80/20 model—blending financial growth with guaranteed giving—ensures that every investment automatically contributes to community development.

This approach recognizes that sustainable impact requires sustainable returns. By maintaining financial discipline while prioritizing community benefit, we create investments that can scale and replicate across multiple markets and communities.

Learn more about our current investment opportunities and contact us today.