Since I became CEO of GSG Impact in late 2024, the world has turned upside down. Public budgets looked inward, geopolitical tensions rose and debt service now outpaces social spending. Amidst all this, our current economic system is failing to meet the moment.
In this context, it is even more of an honor — and an even greater responsibility — to lead GSG Impact.
In 2025, GSG Impact continued to show that policy and markets can align for the public good. As Sir Ronald Cohen explains in his new book, a “paradigm shift” is possible.
One bright spot this year is that impact investing has moved from value signaling to value creation. Impact is now “what customers want,” noted our Board Chair Nick Hurd. And research demonstrates that impact does not compromise return expectations. In many cases, impact investments outperform traditional ones.
With more than $1.5 trillion in impact assets under management, growth is driven by risk management, fiduciary duty and lower market sensitivity. Our 2025 Traction and Trends Report reinforced this, showing meaningful gains in capital supply and demand, financial intermediation and market-building.
Another 2025 highlight is the rise of local leadership. Earlier in my career, I designed development projects. Many were impact investments. We would parachute into a developing market, structure a deal and perform annual reviews to see if it would turn a profit and benefit people. What we learned in the last 15 years is clear: The deals that succeed are supported by local policies and an ecosystem that sees the value of a triple bottom line.
This year, GSG Impact’s local National Partners, through our 48-country network, advanced impact policies — the legislation, market incentives and economic infrastructure that align capital flows with social and environmental outcomes.
One example is the new UK Impact Economies Office, launched by the UK Government, to grow impact. The Office reports into the Prime Minister’s Cabinet and offers a central point of contact for investors, purpose-driven businesses and philanthropists. The Office will advance the Better Futures Fund, an outcomes-based policy expected to mobilize up to £1 billion (about $1.3 billion) to support vulnerable children.
Governments across the world are exploring similar strategies to embed impact policy into economic planning. In Ghana and Zambia, local partners continued reforms to mobilize domestic capital and strengthen pipelines for intermediaries and small enterprises. These moves show how governments are treating impact as a driver of competitiveness and resilience.
A final sign of progress is impact policy’s ability to transcend politics. In an increasingly polarized world, there remains a shared desire for accountability, efficiency and doing more with each taxpayer dollar.
Impact policy can convene the right partners and bring coherence so that an impact economy can emerge.
The European Commission’s explicit recognition of impact investing within the revised Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, or SFDR, is one example of governments finding agreement despite diverging politics. Impact policy can be the unity in the chaos.
Looking ahead to 2026, GSG Impact will be developing the Impact Economy Index — a new global benchmark to measure, compare and accelerate how countries enable impact across their economic systems.
As many of us prepare to log off for the holidays, let’s remember the power of partnerships. When partners work together to align capital and policy, we can do more than develop an impact investment. We can develop impact economies.
That is the future we are building at GSG Impact.
Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen is the CEO of GSG Impact.
Guest posts on ImpactAlpha represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ImpactAlpha.
