Overcoming Challenges

James Perry

Panahpur Foundation

In this video, Toniic Member James Perry shares some highlights from his journey toward deeper impact in his portfolio.

My name is James Perry and I’m an impact investor because I think all investment has an impact. 

Our impact investment objectives are really broad, because we want to see how much positive social and environmental impact we can have with our investment capital. We are currently about 80% deployed into impact investments, and we think we will be 100% deployed within the next 18 months. 

We do due diligence ourselves, but often we find ourselves collaborating with other investors and sharing information and sharing due diligence because one of the core elements of impact investing is that it’s about collaboration and working together. 

There are a lot of challenges in impact investing that come from the professional and advisory community because it’s a new idea. And often because they might not understand it, they’re often quite resistant to people adopting it. So a big challenge is advisors who don’t feel like they have any value to add, and therefore, try to put you off. 

Increasingly, we’re wanting to work with advisors, and we’re finding that we’re also having more and more good conversations with advisors who are interested in understanding more about impact investing. 

Start! There’s nothing like making a start. When you start to explore how your money can bring deeper meaning, then you start on an extraordinary journey of adventure.

If not you, then who? If not now, then when?