New Report Explores How Sovereign Wealth Funds Integrate Social Impact

The Jain Family Institute (JFI), in partnership with the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF), has published a new report, The State of SWF Social Impact Integration: Trends and Opportunities, based on survey responses from 21 sovereign wealth funds worldwide.

The report builds on insights first shared at the May 2025 workshop, “Measuring and Monitoring Social Impact: Best Practices for Sovereign Wealth Funds,” co-hosted by JFI and IFSWF in New York City, and offers a comprehensive analysis of how sovereign funds are incorporating social impact into their mandates, measurement practices, and investment strategies.

The survey, designed by JFI Research Manager Roberta Costa and Fellow Ege Aksu, was distributed to all IFSWF members. As sovereign funds with a development mandate multiply and the impact investing sector matures, the survey finds that SWFs have largely moved beyond the question of whether social impact matters, and toward practical questions of how best to define, evaluate, and implement it. While approaches remain diverse, a shared sense of urgency and growing experimentation point to significant momentum across the field.

Key findings include:

• Many funds have, or are creating, impact methodologies. Most development funds report they already use a defined methodology, while a majority of savings funds report that they are planning to develop one, signaling high interest across the board in integrating social impact into investment processes.
• Mandates shape priorities and practices. Development funds tend to align social priorities with national policy goals and use broader, multidimensional metrics, while savings funds often prioritize infrastructure, clean energy, and environmental goals, and are less likely to assess social outcomes systematically.
• Measurement is evolving, but still uneven. Most funds use both quantitative and qualitative approaches, but definitions, indicators, and attribution practices vary widely. While a degree of framework fragmentation persists, Early signs of convergence are visible, particularly around the UN Sustainable Development Goals and selected industry frameworks, but gaps in comparability remain.
• Data limitations present both a challenge and an opportunity. Internal or investee-provided data remains the primary source for most funds, with limited integration of public or third-party sources. Expanding access to high-quality, standardized data could enhance credibility and facilitate peer benchmarking.
• Barriers reflect different stages of integration. Sovereign wealth funds in the early stages of measuring and monitoring their social impact cite a lack of clear methodologies and difficulty aligning social goals with investment objectives. More advanced funds report second-order challenges like improving data quality, embedding evaluation in workflows, and scaling impact practices.
• Financial additionality is on the radar, but underdeveloped. While many funds acknowledge the concept, few have adopted systematic approaches for measuring the unique catalytic role of sovereign investments. This presents a major opportunity for shared learning and methodological innovation.

Read the full press release here.