Sustainability, systems and investing for impact: Roles for evaluators

Jane Linda Reisman and John E. Sherman

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2025, vol. 111, issue C

Abstract: Sustainably addressing the greatest social and environmental threats of our time requires a systemic approach employing a variety of policy and financial strategies including social finance. Emerging over the past few decades, numerous social finance strategies have grown to become an intentional part of the global equation. This paper illustrates an approach to evaluating social finance strategies for advancing social and environmental sustainability that embraces complexity and therefore incorporates systemic factors inextricably tied to sustainable impact (both social and financial). It showcases an evaluation of a social finance fund intended to increase the flow of capital into low-income communities in the United States and to reduce the barriers to creating equitable wealth for businesses led by people of color and women.

Keywords: Sustainability; Impact investing; Systems; Theory of change; Philanthropy; Racial equity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:epplan:v:111:y:2025:i:c:s0149718925000606

DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2025.102593

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