"Are you really risking your wealth?"
This year’s PYM Impact Days marked an important milestone: the 15th annual Impact Days. The conference looked at impact investing from a 360-degree perspective: rather than zooming in on a theme within impact, PYM focused on the processes an impact investor goes through. We started the conference by diving into people’s ‘Awakenings’. What was the moment they decided to allocate some capital to impact? What was their ‘aha moment’? After being inspired, experienced investors shared the lessons they had learned throughout their impact investing journey. We ended the days by reflecting on what future direction people intended to go into and activating them to do so.
Here are my 3 key takeaways from the 2025 PYM Impact Days:
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Impact starts from within.
Throughout the conference, many people shared that the largest impact they could make at this stage was influencing the people around them. Not all families or family offices are already convinced that their wealth should be allocated towards impact. For those already convinced, change starts by getting more people on board. Similarly, people in banking shared that often it is still lone advocates of impact investing who drive the change within. There is still much to do to convince such organisations of the merit and success of impact investing, and once more people see this, their collective impact will increase.
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Creating a positive impact takes courage.
During the conference, Liet van Beuningen asked the audience ‘Are you really risking your wealth?’. This question turned out to be central to my own experience at the conference and that of many others. Because indeed, to truly make an impact, we cannot stay in the safe lane. During one of the World Cafes, someone at my table shared courageously about a failed impact investing experience - failed from a financial perspective, at least. He had invested in the fashion recycling industry, and while the investment had not been returned, he acknowledged he still made a return; it was just an impact return rather than a financial one.
- Additionality and intentionality are key.
During one of the breakout sessions we dived into fund selection, where some fund (of funds) managers highlighted the importance of additionality and intentionality. When selecting a fund to invest in, it is critical to ensure that the fund is seeking impact that is additional, meaning that the impact would not have occurred without the investments of the fund. Similarly, finding fund managers who are intentional about this is key. One fund of funds manager shared that a good way of understanding who a fund manager is and what motivates them is to get them out of the board room or office, for instance, by going out in nature or visiting a museum together.
Lastly, we reflected on the fact that language matters, and the words we use matter. Lisette Schuitemaker pointed out during the conference that wealth in Dutch means ‘vermogen’. But ‘vermogen’ also means capability. Investors should see their wealth as a capability to create meaningful impact.
