Redefining Value From Outcome Based Funding to Tradeable Impact 2025

Executive summary As the world faces mounting pressure from climate change, social fragmentation and economic instability, the current models of social financing seem insufficient to address social and environmental challenges at scale. Tradeable impact offers a market-based alternative that rewards positive social and environmental outcomes with real economic value. Rather than relying on goodwill, philanthropy or compliance-driven regulation, tradeable impact reframes how value is assigned, transforming outcomes across education, health, caregiving and resilience into measurable, investable assets. As highlighted throughout this paper, tradeable impact is a financial innovation that reimagines economic fundamentals. Much like carbon credits internalize the cost of emissions, this system is a potential evolution of outcomes-based funding that incentivizes positive contributions using impact credits (ICs), turning social value into a financial asset or currency that could be earned, traded and reinvested. The model unlocks new revenue streams and lowers costs of capital (e.g. by providing impact-linked finance) for social entrepreneurs, NGOs and other impact- creating actors, driving capital towards effective solutions and embedding impact in the private sector. Overcoming substantial design and governance challenges will be crucial to realizing this vision, however. Social outcomes are complex, context- dependent and difficult to measure consistently. Without robust verification systems, price discovery mechanisms and legal infrastructure for transferability, impact assets risk being symbolic rather than functional. Poorly designed markets could amplify inequities, exclude grassroots actors and reduce impact to tokenized data points. Six foundational building blocks are needed to avoid these pitfalls: 1 Demand mechanisms – regulatory and financial incentives to generate buyer interest 2 Measurement and standardization – agreed frameworks for defining impact 3 Valuation and pricing – methods to assign monetary value and enable trading4 Market infrastructure – registries, exchanges and digital tools for secure transactions 5 Verification and integrity – trusted assurance systems to validate impact claims 6 Governance and inclusion – systems that ensure transparency, legitimacy and equity The paper explores three possible futures for tradeable impact: –Expanding markets for negative externalities (e.g. integrating social impact into carbon, biodiversity and/or plastic credits) –Scaling existing grassroots community currencies that reward impactful activities and integrate financialized impact assets into capital markets (powered by decentralized technologies like blockchain, based on a solid ecosystem of verification and clearing organizations, regulatory demand creation and central bank oversight) –A future where ICs evolve into a complementary currency, enabling systemic resource redistribution and reframing how prosperity is defined A phased transition – beginning with pilots, moving through institutionalization and culminating in full economic integration – is essential. Governments, companies, financial institutions and civil society can act in concert to build the required infrastructure and incentives. Early examples such as the Common Good Marketplace (CGM), Zlto and the Giga Initiative already demonstrate the potential of this approach at both community and global levels. Ultimately, tradeable impact is a mindset shift. It encourages humanity to build systems in which doing good is not a cost but a strategic advantage, where value creation is measured not only in profit but in societal progress. If pursued with integrity, equity and shared purpose, tradeable impact may become the cornerstone of a more inclusive, resilient and regenerative global economy.Tradeable impact turns social progress into economic value, transforming the market to incentivize impact. Redefining Value: From Outcome-Based Funding to Tradeable Impact 4