10% Target Programme
Making 10% impact investing the ambition for Dutch insitutional investors
The 10% Target Programme is our flagship initiative to accelerate impact investing among Dutch institutional investors. Through this programme, we encourage and support pension funds and insurance companies to allocate at least 10% of their Assets under Management (AuM) to impact investments that generate measurable social and environmental outcomes alongside financial returns.
Why 10%?
In our impact mapping study of 2022, we estimated that impact investments in the Dutch ecosystem account for only 4-6% of the total Dutch AuM. Together with our stakeholders across the ecosystem, we launched the 10% Target Programme with the ambition to double the size of the impact investing market in the Netherlands. The 10% target provides a clear and ambitious direction of travel. It encourages investors to move beyond individual investments or commitments and to make impact investing a meaningful component of their overall portfolio strategy.
Progress so far...
The market is moving. Today, impact investments account for 7-8% of total Dutch AuM, a significant increase from the 4-6% recorded at the start of the programme. Institutional investors are increasingly believing in the potential of impact investing to deliver environmental and social impact alongside with financial return.​​
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​By now:
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three pension funds and three insurance companies have set a 10% target.
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Many other institutional investors have set targets ranging from 4% to 8%
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Others have set targets in absolute numbers.
These commitments represent an important shift: impact investing is
increasingly becoming part of mainstream institutional investment strategies.
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From ambition to implementation
Setting a target is only the beginning.The 10% Target Programme works with investors and ecosystem partners to share knowledge, build capabilities and develop practical approaches for increasing impact allocations.
For example, we spoke with Rabobank Pensioenfonds and BPL Pension about how they developed their impact investment targets, the strategies behind them and how they approach impact investing in practice.
Learn directly from institutional investors:
Going beyond 10%: a 4% emerging markets ambition
Within the 10% target, we are encouraging institutional investors to embed a 4% target i.e to allocate 4% of their AuM to emerging markets.
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Why?
The SDG financing gap is the widest in emerging markets and this is where capital can still make the most difference. Difference in people’s lives and livelihoods and climate.
For investors, this also means looking beyond the most established impact markets and considering where their capital can contribute to the greatest real-world change.
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Know more about our other emerging markets programme and activities here.
Building the capabilities for impact investing
Increasing impact allocations requires more than setting portfolio targets. Investors also need the knowledge, tools and market infrastructure to identify opportunities, assess impact and make informed investment decisions.
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That is why the 10% Target Programme also supports capability-building and collaboration across sectors.
Real estate: turning knowledge into action
Real estate is one example of where investors can play an important role in addressing pressing social and environmental challenges.
Our Community of Practice in Real Estate brings together stakeholders to build knowledge and develop and deploy practical solutions to challenges
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Explore our work:
We have also interviewed eight major asset owners, asset managers, fiduciary managers and the Dutch Ministerie van Volkshuisvesting en Ruimtelijke Ordening to understand how organisations are pursuing real impact in real estate within today's constraints — and where there are opportunities for greater collective action. ​
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But how does impact investing work?
Impact investing is investing with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.... Read more about how we define impact investing here
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To understand how investors realise impact in practice, learn more from our curated practical case studies here:
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