Are all Next Gen family offices impact oriented?

There’s a widely accepted belief in the impact and wealth world: when the next generation steps in, capital naturally shifts toward impact.

It’s a comforting idea. Yet, it is also not consistently true.

Over the past years, through my work with Project Maji, FLO FUND Kokomodo Generation Forest Invest and Cotierra and through my participation in Next Gen-focused gatherings, I’ve spent significant time engaging directly with next-generation principals of family offices.

What I have observed, in follow-up meetings rather than on conference stages — is far more nuanced.

Interest Is High. Conversion Is Not Guaranteed. At events, the energy is real. The language of impact, sustainability, and systems change is fluent. The intent, in many cases, is sincere.

Yet when those initial conversations move into second meetings, investment committees, or concrete allocations, not everyone comes back.

Of course, some do — and are deeply engaged partners.

Others do not — even when alignment seemed obvious at first. This isn’t about hypocrisy or bad faith. It’s about structure, incentives, and readiness.

Why the Assumption Breaks Down? Here are some observations....

Authority vs. Advocacy

Many NextGen principals are influential, but not decisive. They carry vision, not always voting power. When impact reaches the investment committee, different priorities often surface.

Impact Still Feels Experimental

Even for families with long-term horizons, impact is sometimes perceived as less proven, harder to measure, or more complex to explain internally than traditional asset classes like private credit or real assets.

Analysis Paralysis

I see this frequently. The desire to “get impact right” leads to endless frameworks, advisors, metrics, and comparisons. Momentum is lost while certainty is pursued — and capital stays safely on the sidelines.

Africa and Emerging Markets Are Misread

Despite strong fundamentals, opportunities connected to Africa or frontier markets are still too often filtered through a development lens rather than an investment one. That misunderstanding slows decisions.

Values Don’t Automatically Translate into Portfolio Construction. Caring about impact and knowing how to allocate capital toward it are two very different skills.

What This Means for Impact Builders?

For those of us building real-world solutions — in water infrastructure, sustainable forestry, agri-systems, or community-scale enterprises — this matters.

We cannot assume that being NextGen equals being impact-ready. What works better is meeting families where they actually are:

Separating pilot capital from preservation capital;  Making impact legible in risk–return terms; Designing structures that reduce friction rather than increase it;  Offering pathways, not pressure

A More Honest Conversation:  The future of impact capital won’t be driven by generational labels. It will be driven by governance, capability, and trust. Some next-generation family offices are leading decisively. Others are still observing, recalibrating, or stepping back.

Both realities can coexist. Acknowledging this complexity doesn’t weaken the impact field. It strengthens it. Since capital does not mobilize on narratives. It moves when conviction, structure, and opportunity finally align.