Giving Compass' Take:

• A new report from the Global Impact Investing Network indicates that impact investing has roughly doubled in the past year, with money going to a wide range of causes. 

• What does the impact investing sector need to grow further? 

• Learn about the need for improved evidence for impact investing. 

In just one year, the estimated value of the impact-investing sector has roughly doubled. There are now $228 billion in assets under management, according to a recent survey from the Global Impact Investing Network, which is up an estimated $114 billion since mid-2017. Placing bets that provide both a financial and social or environmental return is booming.

Because GIIN is a nonprofit organization that works to increase the scale and effectiveness of impact investing, it asks major players in the field to volunteer their financials (so the numbers may be a little soft). But the number is skyrocketing.

According to the report, investors pumped $35.5 billion into over 11,000 deals last year, and expect to boost their amount of investment another 8% over the course of 2018. “Whether they want to address challenges such as gender inequality, access to education, climate change, etc. – we’re seeing more individuals and organizations around the world beginning to recognize that they can harness the power of their investment capital to drive changes in investment decisions to address many of these pressing global challenges,” says GIIN’s CEO and co-founder Amit Bouri.

Read the full article about impact investing growth by Ben Paynter at FastCompany.