How can we bring community engagement into impact investing?

In early 2023, we delivered a series of Community Cuppas in the North of Tyne region where we engaged members of local communities on key questions related to impact investing. We asked them who should be involved in such local decision-making and when community engagement should happen.

Members of local communities in North Tyneside, Newcastle, and Northumberland were joined by representatives from the North of Tyne Combined Authority and local investors. The outcomes of these Community Cuppas have been fed into a handbook for institutional investors - the likes of HSBC, M&G and Schroders - that considers the complexities of community engagement when working at an institutional level.

The handbook will address what level of community engagement is appropriate for investors to take and offer a menu of options for investors, alongside a set of principles about what good community engagement looks like.