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Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change
A leading investment professional explains the world of impact investing -- investing in businesses and projects with a social and financial return--and shows what it takes to make sustainable, transformative change. Impact investment -- the support of social and environmental projects with a financial return -- has become a hot topic on the global stage; poised to eclipse traditional aid by ten times in the next decade. But the field is at a tipping Will impact investment empower millions of people worldwide, or will it replicate the same mistakes that have plagued both aid and finance? Morgan Simon is an investment professional who works at the nexus of social finance and social justice. In Real Impact, she teaches us how to get it right, leveraging the world's resources to truly transform the economy. Over the past seventeen years, Simon has influenced over $150 billion from endowments, families, and foundations. In Real Impact, Simon shares her experience as both investor and activist to offer clear strategies for investors, community leaders, and entrepreneurs alike. Real Impact is essential reading for anyone seeking real change in the world.
243 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 3, 2017
About the author
Morgan Simon
9 books18 followersMorgan has been instrumental in the founding of three leading organizations in the field:
· She is co-founder of Toniic, an educational non-profit devoted to social impact where she also served as founding CEO from 2010-2013.
· She is a co-founder and Chair of Transform Finance, a non-profit organization raising awareness about social justice issues within the impact investor community.
· As the founding Executive Director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, Morgan provided social investment education to over 100 colleges and universities across the country.
Morgan is a very active board member for several organizations. She is on the board of The Working World, and co-chair of ROC United, a non-profit worker center supporting over 25,000 restaurant workers nationwide.
Previously, Morgan worked with grassroots organizations and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Mexico, Honduras and Sierra Leone, in corporate reform with ForestEthics, and in domestic microfinance with Women's Initiative for Self Employment in Oakland, California, where she currently resides.
She received a B.A with High Honors in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College, and serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program at Middlebury College, teaching impact investment and social enterprise.
· She is co-founder of Toniic, an educational non-profit devoted to social impact where she also served as founding CEO from 2010-2013.
· She is a co-founder and Chair of Transform Finance, a non-profit organization raising awareness about social justice issues within the impact investor community.
· As the founding Executive Director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, Morgan provided social investment education to over 100 colleges and universities across the country.
Morgan is a very active board member for several organizations. She is on the board of The Working World, and co-chair of ROC United, a non-profit worker center supporting over 25,000 restaurant workers nationwide.
Previously, Morgan worked with grassroots organizations and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Mexico, Honduras and Sierra Leone, in corporate reform with ForestEthics, and in domestic microfinance with Women's Initiative for Self Employment in Oakland, California, where she currently resides.
She received a B.A with High Honors in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College, and serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program at Middlebury College, teaching impact investment and social enterprise.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 7, 2018
Solid primer on impact investing for those who are interested in learning about it and making some changes in where they direct their dollars. This could be expanded to include general ESG-focused investing or deepened to be a more technical resource for practitioners.
January 6, 2018
I read this as part of a book club, and it's the best business and investment book I've read in a long time. She carefully constructs her argument for achieving greater social justice through investing without sounding like a radical socialist (or worse as some peeps might say). She has real-world examples and invites the reader to join the cause and help scale it. I recommend it to all adults, but especially to those with investable assets.
December 4, 2025
An accessible introduction to philanthropy and "impact finance and investment," not just for people working in the nonprofit/NGO world. A lot of great ideas, insights, and advice that are actually actionable. Real Impact is very much a white paper turned into a full on book but I commend the effort. The beginning and the ending really grab your attention, but the book tends to lag in the middle. Overall, a worthwhile read.
November 2, 2020
This was a very hard book to get through because the content was extremely dry. However, once I got past “the why” and into “the how,” I was intrigued. This book would never have hit my radar on its own, and I’m thankful that someone in my Women and Wealth book club suggested it as a monthly reading. I appreciated having my eyes opened to how our investments can be working to impact social change (or not) and what concrete activities can be done to move in that direction.
April 7, 2018
This is a solid 3.5 stars.
There is important information in this for activists who aren't familiar with ways that investing - or directing money in general - can have a powerful impact on social change. The book gives examples of how good intentions can lead to problematic outcomes if communities and systems are not considered at the start. The book importantly highlights the glaring lack of interaction between activists and investors, and how bridging this divide will lead to more effective investing for the good of all.
The book's achilles heel, from my perspective, is that the author implies that others have not considered the complexities of investing for good. She highlights the importance of including the community but this assumes that there is a clear community to connect with. Of course aid (or impact investing) is most successful when there is an engaged community. She gives the example of the initial success of micro-finance - and the significant problems that followed when it became a fad or for-profit. What she doesn't address is that, when community engagement is required for ongoing success of a program or intervention, then impact financing is necessary but not sufficient. There may be limits to scaling any grass roots program because it is engaged humans, not funding, that ultimately determines how effective any investment is for social change.
It is clear that Ms. Simon thinks deeply and systemically in the work that she does in relation to impact investing. However, a gifted individual does not make for the success of an entire field. Her belief that impact investing will eclipse aid is overreach. There are limitations and benefits to each... and a more helpful approach, it seems, would be to create interfaces where experienced people in both areas can create the most effective strategies incorporating assessments of efficacy at different points along the way.
There is important information in this for activists who aren't familiar with ways that investing - or directing money in general - can have a powerful impact on social change. The book gives examples of how good intentions can lead to problematic outcomes if communities and systems are not considered at the start. The book importantly highlights the glaring lack of interaction between activists and investors, and how bridging this divide will lead to more effective investing for the good of all.
The book's achilles heel, from my perspective, is that the author implies that others have not considered the complexities of investing for good. She highlights the importance of including the community but this assumes that there is a clear community to connect with. Of course aid (or impact investing) is most successful when there is an engaged community. She gives the example of the initial success of micro-finance - and the significant problems that followed when it became a fad or for-profit. What she doesn't address is that, when community engagement is required for ongoing success of a program or intervention, then impact financing is necessary but not sufficient. There may be limits to scaling any grass roots program because it is engaged humans, not funding, that ultimately determines how effective any investment is for social change.
It is clear that Ms. Simon thinks deeply and systemically in the work that she does in relation to impact investing. However, a gifted individual does not make for the success of an entire field. Her belief that impact investing will eclipse aid is overreach. There are limitations and benefits to each... and a more helpful approach, it seems, would be to create interfaces where experienced people in both areas can create the most effective strategies incorporating assessments of efficacy at different points along the way.
December 9, 2018
Another book that would be better as just a long article somewhere. Using Impact Investing to look at social justice is an interesting approach and frankly would have liked to see more detail on that, rather than a lot on generalities of impact investing. Transform Finance however is definitely worth a deeper look.
January 16, 2018
I'm deeply inspired by Morgan's book on impact investment. Her enthusiasm is qualified by her critical thinking of the field but the challenges did not cloud the prospect. This book is a cornerstone to paving the road for the mainstreaming of impact investing and it should be a thought provoking read for investors and founders alike. Some paragraphs suggested deep thinking and wisdom on Morgan's part, some serve as a wakening call.
"Real is the potential for a new field called impact investment to completely restructure the global economy, making social and environmental responsibility integral to how we move money through society, rather than an afterthought."
"Real is the fact that impact investment is in danger of replicating the same mistakes of the aid industry by focusing on palliative rather than structural change, and by choosing outside 'experts' as its leaders rather than responding more to those whose expertise is grounded in a lived reality."
"The approach is not an attempt to 'dismantle the master's house with the master's tools'; rather, it is aligned with this statement by philosopher Frantz Fanon: 'I, the man of color, want only this: that the tool never possess the man.'"
"Take your lead from the affected community you seek to serve. Accept that you cannot determine someone else's priorities and therefore can never act on your own to address a collective problem"
"Impact investment is an attempt to align money with values. It is the practice of selecting for-profit investments in light of a growing awareness of the social and environmental outcomes of such investments."
"A student asked Warren Buffett whether, if you wanted to have positive social impact, it made sense to make a bunch of money as quickly as possible first, and give it away later. Buffett is said to have replied: 'Isn't it a little like saving up sex for your old age?'"
"Investment, and commerce generally, is a neutral tool, but given its historical legacy it needs exceptional guidance to succeed in not propagating injustice. Just as the absence of effective government does not lead most of us to endorse anarchy, the economy's failures should lead us to seek more effective practices, not to eliminate the idea of investment."
"You're not necessarily evil if you make money from an investment. And equally, you're not necessarily virtuous if you give money away."
"I wanted to be someone who wasn't just targeting what was wrong with the world, but who was also participating in building viable alternatives to our current economic system."
"Poverty, I began to understand, is a crisis of autonomy, both individual and collective, a lack of choice to live life in a way that respects your physical needs, cultural values, social and political context and familiar obligations."
"Replicating markets that are extractive and abusive by nature in other environments will only deepen the imbalances of power and resources that have become a feature of an 'unavoidable externality' of the American system."
What was at issue?
"Communities should be protagonists not just recipients."
"Entrepreneurship is a birthright for some, and an incredible struggle for others"
"Genius is evenly distributed by zip code; opportunity is not"
"Social entrepreneurs are thought to be celebrity business leaders, not servant leaders."
"While we should celebrate the progress achieved through incremental change, it is intellectually lazy to be content with anything less than fundamental change and reflects a lack of accountability to the people we claim to be serving in our work."
"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don't let the good be the enemy of the perfect."
How to get it right?
1) Engage communities in design, governance and ownership;
2) add more value than you extract;
3)fairly balance risk and return between investors entrepreneurs and communities
"What if we focused not just on income, but on asset building for individuals and communities? What would it look like if we focused on equality just as much as we do growth?"
"Real is the potential for a new field called impact investment to completely restructure the global economy, making social and environmental responsibility integral to how we move money through society, rather than an afterthought."
"Real is the fact that impact investment is in danger of replicating the same mistakes of the aid industry by focusing on palliative rather than structural change, and by choosing outside 'experts' as its leaders rather than responding more to those whose expertise is grounded in a lived reality."
"The approach is not an attempt to 'dismantle the master's house with the master's tools'; rather, it is aligned with this statement by philosopher Frantz Fanon: 'I, the man of color, want only this: that the tool never possess the man.'"
"Take your lead from the affected community you seek to serve. Accept that you cannot determine someone else's priorities and therefore can never act on your own to address a collective problem"
"Impact investment is an attempt to align money with values. It is the practice of selecting for-profit investments in light of a growing awareness of the social and environmental outcomes of such investments."
"A student asked Warren Buffett whether, if you wanted to have positive social impact, it made sense to make a bunch of money as quickly as possible first, and give it away later. Buffett is said to have replied: 'Isn't it a little like saving up sex for your old age?'"
"Investment, and commerce generally, is a neutral tool, but given its historical legacy it needs exceptional guidance to succeed in not propagating injustice. Just as the absence of effective government does not lead most of us to endorse anarchy, the economy's failures should lead us to seek more effective practices, not to eliminate the idea of investment."
"You're not necessarily evil if you make money from an investment. And equally, you're not necessarily virtuous if you give money away."
"I wanted to be someone who wasn't just targeting what was wrong with the world, but who was also participating in building viable alternatives to our current economic system."
"Poverty, I began to understand, is a crisis of autonomy, both individual and collective, a lack of choice to live life in a way that respects your physical needs, cultural values, social and political context and familiar obligations."
"Replicating markets that are extractive and abusive by nature in other environments will only deepen the imbalances of power and resources that have become a feature of an 'unavoidable externality' of the American system."
What was at issue?
"Communities should be protagonists not just recipients."
"Entrepreneurship is a birthright for some, and an incredible struggle for others"
"Genius is evenly distributed by zip code; opportunity is not"
"Social entrepreneurs are thought to be celebrity business leaders, not servant leaders."
"While we should celebrate the progress achieved through incremental change, it is intellectually lazy to be content with anything less than fundamental change and reflects a lack of accountability to the people we claim to be serving in our work."
"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don't let the good be the enemy of the perfect."
How to get it right?
1) Engage communities in design, governance and ownership;
2) add more value than you extract;
3)fairly balance risk and return between investors entrepreneurs and communities
"What if we focused not just on income, but on asset building for individuals and communities? What would it look like if we focused on equality just as much as we do growth?"
November 26, 2017
I'm a long-time environmentalist, turning to activism in the face of climate change. Many of my activist friends are system change advocates and anti-capitalists. I keep asking them, and what would you replace the system with? I never get a definitive answer, so I embraced this book with great interest. I totally bought in to the starting premise that impact investment is preferable to charity/aid/philanthropy, even fair trade. It's something I've long sensed but didn't know how to articulate. Morgan Simon does an excellent job of this.
The only drawback of the book for me is that it assumes a certain basic knowledge of finance and uses terms that are not a part of my vocabulary. Usually I got the gist, but sometimes I had to goggle some of the terminology. Probably preferable to boring those who are more knowledgeable with definitions.
The case studies helped a lot. The idea of community involvement in design, oversight, etc. is good. In due diligence, finding out what people want. But my primary interest is public transit, which wasn't covered. Most people want cars, so what do you do with that? Some of the best entrepreneurs have inventive ideas that we could never think of.
I was especially pleased to get a list of impact investment advisers, and look forward to re-organizing my investments. Thanks you, Morgan Simon, for this timely spur and getting me to think more soundly about possible “interventions” and solutions.
The only drawback of the book for me is that it assumes a certain basic knowledge of finance and uses terms that are not a part of my vocabulary. Usually I got the gist, but sometimes I had to goggle some of the terminology. Probably preferable to boring those who are more knowledgeable with definitions.
The case studies helped a lot. The idea of community involvement in design, oversight, etc. is good. In due diligence, finding out what people want. But my primary interest is public transit, which wasn't covered. Most people want cars, so what do you do with that? Some of the best entrepreneurs have inventive ideas that we could never think of.
I was especially pleased to get a list of impact investment advisers, and look forward to re-organizing my investments. Thanks you, Morgan Simon, for this timely spur and getting me to think more soundly about possible “interventions” and solutions.
October 4, 2017
As the director of an innovative new investment fund at my foundation, Real Impact was perhaps the single most important read for me in understanding the field of impact investment--its origins, where the field has come, and where we need to take it if impact investment is truly going to support a healthier economy for our communities and planet. I also found the book to be a total page-turner! Beyond just learning about impact investment, you get to follow the fierce path forged by the author as a remarkable young woman who saw radical potential in impact investment--and who became a force to be reckoned with in the field before she was even 30. An edifying and inspirational read.
- Joanna Levitt-Cea, Director of the Buen Vivir Fund, Thousand Currents
- Joanna Levitt-Cea, Director of the Buen Vivir Fund, Thousand Currents
Did Not Finish
June 7, 2021My husband and I tried this as a read-aloud before bed, hoping to find info about how to invest more ethically and with social justice in mind. The book's is geared more towards institutional investors, rather than individuals, though, so this was not a good fit for us.
The author is prone to lecturing about what others have done wrong in the past, rather than showing what is going right in the present. And she often doesn't provide much backup for her claims, or uses unpersuasive logic/reasoning to argue her points. Doesn't mean those points aren't well taken, but it made my spouse suspicious of them because of the aforementioned unpersuasive logic/reasoning, which annoyed me.
We stopped reading about mid-way through. Hope to find another book more suitable to our goals.
The author is prone to lecturing about what others have done wrong in the past, rather than showing what is going right in the present. And she often doesn't provide much backup for her claims, or uses unpersuasive logic/reasoning to argue her points. Doesn't mean those points aren't well taken, but it made my spouse suspicious of them because of the aforementioned unpersuasive logic/reasoning, which annoyed me.
We stopped reading about mid-way through. Hope to find another book more suitable to our goals.
February 6, 2018
This isn’t just another book about social enterprise or impact investing. Morgan Simon poses the question - how to direct investments and finance to create and sustain more substantial underlying transformation as it relates to communities and enterprise alike. The principles set forth in her book, aptly termed Transformative Finance, can be adopted by investment teams, individuals, and for profit enterprise. This book upended what I bought I understood about impact investing and provides clear guidance and lessons on a way forward to make a real and lasting shift in sustainable finance and enterprise.
December 21, 2017
A thought-provoking account of the ways in which we can be more effective at combining social impact and investment returns.
December 15, 2020
A great primer on impact investing
June 14, 2022
Got gifted this after doing a keynote at a Harvard Business School event. Useful topics to think about, including the all important, what metric do you choose to measure impact.
January 29, 2023
An introductory book about impact investing, that is suitable for institutional investor. (Last chapter about what individual investor can do though!)
April 26, 2025
Liked the enthusiasm of the author. However couldn’t agree more with a comment by a fellow commenter that it could have just been written as a long article rather than a book.
June 20, 2025
An intriguing and useful blueprint for a budding, hopeful industry.
December 27, 2017
The author has a zero-sum game vision of the world. This becomes clear through several of her arguments ans examples. A lot of the insights are based on the author's view of the world and not logic and evidence, the arguments many times are emotional not rational.
August 22, 2020
Excellent book, The author explains Impact Investment in an easy to understand way and then goes into detail with its significance. This could be the textbook for a graduate level seminar. Makes you want to re-evaluate your portfolio.
April 20, 2019
The good:
Morgan Simon lays out in great detail the procedures and possibilities of Impact Investment. A marriage of capitalistic interests and positive social change seems counterintuitive at times, if not impossible. Simon gives the blueprint for how it is not only possible, but can be sustainable, worthwhile, and ultimately advantageous over traditional investments.
Simon also made sure to outline ways the everyday person can get involved. Impact Investing is not only for Fund Managers or Billionaires, but can be a real strategy for anyone making daily consumer or personal investment decisions.
The so-so:
Morgan Simon really glosses over the idea of redefining “market rate.” The idea of throwing away the traditional return on investment held as an industry standard seems like it might need its own brown. This seems like the largest barrier to Impact Investment, that one might have to ask investors to settle for good-not-great returns for the sake of social change. A novel concept, but not necessarily a popular one.
Morgan Simon lays out in great detail the procedures and possibilities of Impact Investment. A marriage of capitalistic interests and positive social change seems counterintuitive at times, if not impossible. Simon gives the blueprint for how it is not only possible, but can be sustainable, worthwhile, and ultimately advantageous over traditional investments.
Simon also made sure to outline ways the everyday person can get involved. Impact Investing is not only for Fund Managers or Billionaires, but can be a real strategy for anyone making daily consumer or personal investment decisions.
The so-so:
Morgan Simon really glosses over the idea of redefining “market rate.” The idea of throwing away the traditional return on investment held as an industry standard seems like it might need its own brown. This seems like the largest barrier to Impact Investment, that one might have to ask investors to settle for good-not-great returns for the sake of social change. A novel concept, but not necessarily a popular one.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews