ILPA has released a new report developed in collaboration with Tideline and Campbell Lutyens, Impact Investing: The State of Market Institutionalization. This research provides a pragmatic, LP-centered framework for understanding what is required to deploy impact capital on an institutional scale, and where barriers persist.

Drawing on primary research conducted between July and November 2025, the report reflects insights from more than 40 institutional investors and advisors representing pension funds, insurers, banks, endowments, family offices, and other market participants.

While the impact investing market has made notable progress, particularly in developing infrastructure, resources, and networks, the findings underscore persistent challenges around data quality, scale, and liquidity that continue to constrain institutional participation.

At the core of the report is a five-pillar Institutionalization Framework—data, scale, infrastructure, resources, and networks—designed to introduce common language and structure for assessing market readiness.

The research highlights that data remains the weakest link, with nearly 90% of LPs citing gaps in financial performance data as a major constraint, while liquidity and the absence of robust exit and secondaries mechanisms remain critical bottlenecks.

At the same time, networks emerged as the strongest pillar, with LPs relying heavily on peer learning and industry initiatives to navigate a rapidly evolving but uneven ecosystem.

This report is intended to help industry stakeholders understand institutional expectations and how to better address them, resulting in greater maturity of the impact investing market.

We encourage you to explore the full report as well as our growing library of other impact investing related resources, available now on the ILPA website.