By: Sung-Hyui Park

To what extent do impact investment terms replicate forms of power, privilege and control that are poorly aligned with mutual trust, respect, and collaborative partnership? Given this, how can investment terms, legal documentation and processes within impact investing better embed the principles and values of equality?

The Equalising Deal Terms (EDT) project is a recently launched initiative facilitated by EIIP and Bates Wells – supported by the Connect Fund – to build on and extend these and other key developments to advance the field of equality impact investing (EII). This project seeks to address the (sometimes inadvertent) power imbalances between impact investors and their investees that arise from current practices relating to investment terms, legal documents and processes.