My project was focused on the measurement of social impact in impact investing. The Anesvad Foundation is an NGO that fights against neglected tropical diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the sources of income of the foundation is the returns from the investment of its endowment. To align the investment of its endowment with the mission of the foundation, they have a policy of investing a minimum of 20 percent of its financial assets in impact investing funds. With this policy, they try not only to obtain financial returns from the endowment but also having an impact aligned with the goals of the foundation. One of the main challenges of impact investment is the measurement of the social impact. During the summer, I worked on the analysis of the current methodologies of measuring the social impact of impact investments, the analysis of how the impact investing funds that are part of the foundation’s portfolio report their impact creation, and the improvement of the social impact reporting of the foundation.

I discovered the impact investing world thanks to my first year at CBS, and I realized that was the industry in which I wanted to work over the summer. Since the project I was doing was in impact measurement, all the people I spoke to insisted that it was key to have in mind (even if you are a fund of funds) the actual investment, since this is the company that is actually having the impact and collecting the data. Having done a Pangea project in my first year (in a company that could have been an investment of an impact investing fund) helped me to understand this and to have always in mind what information you can ask and how feasible it is going to be to obtain it. Also, having taken courses in value investing helped me understand the financial part of the project. Finally, all the readings, analysis and discussions of the first year of the MBA were useful in facing the conceptual parts of the project.

This internship had two main challenges. The first one was the fact that we were working remotely. Not being physically present with your team makes the beginnings more difficult, since an extra effort is necessary to find time to learn from your team and build relations. However, the positive aspect of this is that it forces you to be more autonomous and independent. The second challenge was the fact that I was working in a topic (impact measurement) that is very new and in constant development, so it was important to understand and filter all the information on the topic and identify what of the new things are here to stay and which ones are not. Linked to this, the first part of the internship (analyze the different frameworks of impact measurement) was very conceptual and required an effort to understand and differentiate among frameworks that were apparently similar.

This internship was a unique opportunity to get to know the impact investing world in Spain and in Europe. I have learned that it is possible to combine financial return with social impact. I have also been impressed by how the different players in the industry help each other. On one hand, they all benefit from the growth of the industry so they win by helping each other. On the other hand, you can perceive that the social component that the impact investing world has and that it is one of the main factors that drives the people that work in the industry. Linked to all the above, this summer I have realized the importance of having a job in which you perceive the contribution you are having to the society. It can have a social component or not (for-profit companies also contribute to society). The key is to know and believe in what you are doing and how you are having an impact.