RSF is Leading the Way in Moving from Impact Investing to Regenerative Finance

Forbes.com contributor Christopher Marquis interviews Jasper van Brakel

Over the last decade and a half, the idea of “impact investing” – where funds are directed to generate not just financial return but also social and environmental impact – has become increasingly popular in investment and social impact circles. According to a report by the IFC, $2.3 trillion were invested for impact in 2020, an impressive sum, yet this is only around 2% of total assets invested globally in 2020.

A pioneering firm in the impact investing space is RSF Social Finance. While the Rockefeller Foundation coined the term “impact investing” only as recently as 2007, San Francisco-based RSF has been working according to the field’s underlying principles since its founding in 1984. RSF currently has over $230 million under management.

More recently, RSF has been pioneering in a new investment area, “regenerative finance”.  As part of my research of purpose-driven businesses, I interviewed RSF CEO Jasper van Brakel to learn more about this new type of investment and why it is important for society and the planet.  He told me that “In short, regenerative finance is a tool to support change makers who are moving our economy from being extractive to being regenerative.”

Read the interview on Forbes.com.