Image Credit: Mission Investors Exchange

Nearly 30 years ago, Atlanta captured the world’s attention as the city played host to the 1996 Summer Olympics. Last week Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) – one of the country’s leading impact investing networks – announced that Atlanta will host its 2026 biennial conference. While the two events vary greatly in scale and global relevance, as an Atlanta-based impact investing practitioner, this announcement is hugely relevant to me. As I processed my excitement, my thoughts drifted to the ‘96 Summer Games.

Hosting world events is a fiercely debated topic – with proponents and opponents turning over the relative economic, social, and environmental impacts to host cities. I’m not here to add to that debate. Regardless of personal beliefs on the matter, I think proponents and opponents can agree on the significance of the moment of selection. Atlanta’s selection created a very real call-to-action for local organizers and leaders. The “vision state” was defined so to speak, and the run-up to the Olympics would be a coordinated effort to bring about that end experience.

In roughly 18 months, Atlanta will host hundreds of impact investing practitioners (representing foundations, investment managers, innovative investment funds, community development investors from across the country). For two days, these practitioners – hailing from different places, representing different types of organizations, varying in experience levels, focusing on different strategies – will be invited to set those differences aside and create a space where they think of one another as peers. Why is this important? It’s important because mission and impact-first investing is often difficult, lonely work.

At its best, impact investing challenges the status quo and confronts conventional investment norms and practices. Put yourself in the shoes of a foundation executive asking their board to consider unlocking the 95% for mission. Think about the CDFI professional working in rural communities with traditional and exclusionary economic development priorities. Consider how organizations focused on solidarity economics and Black wealth-building must grow tired of philanthropic incrementalism. Practitioner conferences like those hosted by MIE, ImpactPHL, Neighborhood Economics, and others are vital spaces where individuals and organizations who are doing the hard work of shifting capital – away from Wall Street and into communities and socially-responsible investment endeavors – can feel supported and can share openly how this work challenges them.

To bring this full-circle, my excitement about Atlanta’s role in the upcoming MIE conference quickly transitioned into a “readying” state of mind. I questioned, Does Georgia’s impact investing ecosystem have a shared “vision state” for our role as host city for MIE’s 2026 conference? How are we using the 18-month runway we have in front of us to prepare our ecosystem stakeholders to best engage with this experience?

I have some thoughts on how I’d answer these questions.

  1. Diverse foundations partners from across Georgia see themselves as impact investors and participate in this event. It’s my hope that, by 2026, more of Georgia’s foundations are practicing (or are on their way to practicing) impact investing. For this to be true, GSIC and our ecosystem partners must work to make impact investing relevant and actionable for all Georgia foundations regardless of asset size, regardless of whether a foundation is structured as a public or private charity, regardless of geographic footprint (rural, mid-sized, and urban). I know that all foundations can (and I would argue should) use their endowments and investable assets to advance mission. I want GSIC to be a space that creates a pathway for foundations and endowments to move from aware of to interested in to practicing impact investing.
  2. Georgia’s “capital aggregators” are recognized as the field and practice leaders they are. Yes, an impact investing ecosystem needs sources of mission and impact-first investment (“capital suppliers”) like foundations, DAFs, anchor institutions, etc. But the full potential of an ecosystem is often harnessed when capital supply is met by innovative “capital aggregators” – like CDFIs, catalytic investment funds, land and community real estate trusts, venture funds, nonprofit and community-centered real estate developers, microlenders, etc. Georgia’s impact investing ecosystem teems with practice-pushing capital aggregators take The Guild, Focused Community Strategies, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, NeighborWorks Columbus, Common Market, and so many more! What are these partners (and others) excited about tackling? Are there new ideas or models they want to pursue that they need new or different capital resources to make possible? Can these partners do more to center mission, impact, and community benefit further in the coming months and years? These practitioners already have much to offer the broader impact investing field, and in the 18-months we have ahead of us, I hope these practitioners have the opportunity (and the capital resources needed) to pilot even more boundary-pushing approaches (and lessons) to share.
  3. Georgia captures the interest of non-local impact investors, and once they’re interested, we know how to invite them into our investment ecosystem. If Georgia’s philanthropic community shows up in force as impact investors, and if our on-the-ground capital aggregators have an opportunity to showcase their innovations and models, it’s conceivable that Georgia will capture the interests of non-local impact investors, be they national foundations, private investment funds, CDFIs, or other mission-first investors. This new (or even renewed) interest in Georgia could lead to more pools of capital that could be drawn into our communities. I hope that we use the precious time we have in the lead-up to this conference to ready ourselves to answer a straightforward but complex question. Where are there opportunities to invest across Georgia? I want GSIC to be a part of conversations across the state to help our communities articulate their shared community investment priorities. In doing so, I think we will be better prepared to convert non-local partners from interested to invested in Georgia.

Consider this your invitation to join my visioning exercise. If some of what I’ve offered resonates with you, or if you have something to add, reach out to me. Our deliberate march towards 2026 begins now!

Sydney England
Executive Director, GSIC