Trompe l’oeil

Our latest article, entitled “Navigating the Moral Maze of Impact Investing” has appeared in CityWire USA’s January 30, 2017 issue. Click here to read it. You can also always find our articles and other mentions on our Libraries and Links page.

The original title of the article was “Trompe l’oeil”. For the non-Francophones in our readership, it is a French expression that loosely translates to a “trick of the eye”. It is frequently used to describe a work of art in which the artist has used a variety of techniques to create the illusion of three-dimensionality. In the context of impact investing, we used it to refer to what we might also more casually call window-dressing. We challenge our readers to discern between the illusion created by feel-good talking points about portfolio holdings and measurable and material positive change created through investment and engagement.