For those not in the know, impact investing is the latest wrinkle in the world of socially responsible investing. While there's no universal definition, it generally means investing in companies with a conscious social or environmental mission instead of focusing on businesses that merely have a product that does no harm.  A subset of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing, it's being championed by the Rockefeller Foundation and also has started to attract some big names, like JP Morgan Chase and Prudential Financial.

But just how to tap this market is up in the air. The arena is fledgling and chaotic, to say the least. To quote a Rockefeller Foundation report: "Investment funds, investment bankers, and market platforms have not yet achieved the scale and visibility to provide viable conduits for billions of dollars of latent impact investment capital."

 Now research conducted by a San Francisco firm, Hope Consulting  and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and others, provides at least a few tidbits of helpful research as far as the retail market goes. The study polled 4,000 investors, half with incomes of $80,000 to $300,000 and half making above $300,000.

For one thing, the research pinpoints three types of investors interested in some type of impact investing.  The implication is that companies should create investment opportunities that cater to one of these categories. Specifically, there are the "safety first" folks who care about downside protection and knowing they can at least get their principal back; the "socially focused" who zero in on specific causes; and "quality organization" people who want their investments handled by known quantities.

Also the research found that the biggest barriers to investing weren't questions about potential returns. Instead the stumbling block is a lack of what Greg Ulrich, who led the research, calls "infrastructure". Primarily that means readily available information and a network of knowledgeable financial advisors able to educate investors and make recommendations. The lesson here, according to Ulrich: "You need to get financial advisors on board. They're an incredibly important channel."

Ultimately, of course, there's the big question of just what kind of return you can offer investors. The jury is still out on that subject, for ESG investments and impact investing alternatives. Also the study concludes there's a $120 billion market opportunity, which is more than nothing, but isn't all that big.

Still, if investor interest in this area grows as it has in ESG then companies would be foolish to ignore it. Recently, the United Nations Environment Programme's Finance Initiative concluded that institutional investors may have a legal obligation to incorporate ESG factors or face the possibility they'll be sued for negligence. Who knows? Perhaps the same thing will be said of impact investing a few years from now.