This is a comprehensive guide for investors looking to enhance their impact and financial performance by forging partnerships with local communities. The report empowers investors to identify and pursue community engagement opportunities within a place-based impact investment approach.

The report highlights the significance of community engagement in shaping investment decisions and outcomes. It contains guidance on how investors can deepen their impact and meet performance objectives by directing capital towards underinvested areas for improved living standards and inclusive communities. The report outlines the spectrum of public participation levels, ranging from information sharing to empowerment.

The report provides practical steps and additional resources for doing community engagement well. It stresses the importance of effective engagement strategies that require different levels of resourcing. Investors can leverage partnerships to engage communities through intermediaries leading to mutually beneficial outcomes. Importantly, the report also highlights common pitfalls to avoid when engaging with communities.

The report summarises good practice examples that investors can learn from to engage with communities. It lists case studies that illustrate good practices in community engagement as part of investment decision-making. The report provides practical examples of community engagement throughout the document, mostly done by investors, providing insights into how effective community engagement benefits investors and local communities.

The guide outlines a step-by-step guide for successful community engagement to help those investors who want to deepen their place-based impact investing approach or those who want to start on their journey. The report leaves investors confident in identifying place-based impact investing opportunities and provides the tools needed to develop and deliver community engagement approaches. Investors are provided with a checklist to ensure they do community engagement in a way adapted to their circumstances and needs.

The report offers guidance on integrating ESG factors into investment decision-making processes, demonstrating how they can benefit investors financially and reduce risks. The report provides practical guidance on evaluating ESG risks and opportunities in underinvested areas. The report recommends that investors put in place appropriate accountability mechanisms to ensure they deliver on their ESG commitments.

The report recommends implementing community engagement as an explicit criterion for selection of investments, including funds, asset, and companies. Investors should incorporate community engagement into their standard due diligence processes. The report recommends integrating community engagement into existing processes used to assess, monitor, and manage investments, either from an ESG or impact perspective, as is most relevant to their practice. The report encourages investors to formalise their community engagement approach, commitment, and policies in public documents to increase trust and transparency.