On the 5th of March, the NAB and Van Lanschot Kempen hosted  ‘Impact close to home 2.0.’, moderated by Mark van Wijngaarden (Van Lanschot Kempen). 

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Impact close to home has become an important trend within the impact investing sector in recent years. It has the potential to drive significant change and address societal challenges that strengthen the Netherlands competitiveness, resilience, while positioning the country as a driver of innovation, and a leading impact economy globally. 

 

Simona Benvenuti opened the event by focusing on the recent developments in impact investing globally and in the Netherlands. She further highlighted the growing number of institutional investors adopting impact targets indicating a willingness of investors to do more impact investing. According to her, and a report of Dutch Pension Funds Impact Investments by the NAB, real estate continues to be attractive sector, underscoring the sector’s relevance in delivering long term returns while addressing social and environmental issues.  

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Building on this, Ulrike Kostense from Invest-NL, explored what is needed to unlock local impact potential. She underlined that impact capital is particularly scarce at the growth stage with many funds struggling to raise capital from both public and private capital providers. Ulrike highlighted two essential strategies:

a) Crafting a compelling narrative, that creates a sense of urgency and explain the ripple effect of inaction.

b)  Continuous education to improve products and market readiness. 

She emphasised that, co-creation with institutional stakeholders remains crucial by taking their risk appetites and return expectations into consideration to ensure innovative start-ups become investable.

 

Jeroen van Westen explained PME Pensioenfonds total portfolio approach, where impact is embedded across asset classes. Beneficiaries’ preferences strongly influence PME's strategy, with impact close to home frequently cited as a priority by the pension funds’ participants. Despite global geopolitical risks, PME’s exclusion framework remains tied to OECD guidelines, though there is an increased attention on fiduciary manager selection. Affordable housing emerged as a competitive investment theme in line with “impact close to home”, as offers diversification and provides inflation linked-returns.

 

Eszter Vitorino from Van Lanschot Kempen and Xenia Loos from Collective action then delivered an energetic exploration of emerging solutions investing linked returns. Among the findings, the great mismatch between pressing issues and opportunities provided by the market. Using a total portfolio lens, they identified potential solutions across multiple asset classes.

 

In the final session, Rayane Cheniouni (Van Lanschot Kempen) together with Alexandra Mailliet & Fabio Rodrigues Dos Santos (Eiffel Investment Group ) presented a co-creation exercise on private debt solutions. They demonstrated how true additionality can be achieved through close-to-home investments, supported by tools such as a territorial impact score and the Theory of Change. They underlined the need to treat credit and impact analysis with equal weight. They emphasised the need for fiduciary and asset managers to agree on impact KPIs as much as financial performance expectations. 

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The session concluded with a lively Q&A, generating thought provoking questions. 

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Key takeaways 

•  Impact close to home can create real investor additionality - and it’s increasingly clear that delivering impact does not require sacrificing financial returns. 

• Pension funds need stronger alignment on what “impact” truly means. Investing closer to home can make that definition more concrete and deliver visible, tangible outcomes for beneficiaries. 

• There remains a mismatch between societal challenges and investable opportunities. Innovative capital structures are needed to accelerate progress. 

• The current VC model needs rethinking along with long termism.  Innovative forms of capital structures, impact covenants and patient capital can be considered to scale companies and innovation now and in the future.  

• First time funds are still underfunded, but pooling funds with little track-record can make them more attractive and accessible.

• Corporate private credits and embedding an impact covenant can play a decisive role to ensure that not only the supplied capital is protected, but that also the expected impact is guaranteed.

• Impact requires a systemic lens. Challenges are interconnected and bridging silos through impact investing can help build a more resilient and adaptive society. ​

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Finally, as we reflect on the session, it remains important to say that ‘Impact close to home’ does not represent a shift away from global investing, nor should it be seen as the only strategy for delivering impact. Rather, it reflects a balanced approach that combines global systemic transition with domestic structural investment. Investments in the Netherlands and Europe should therefore be complemented by impact investments in underserved geographies, helping to bridge the SDG financing gap in emerging markets and address global challenges that also influence inequalities in the Netherlands.

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You can download the slides of the presentation by clicking here.