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2026 Dispute Resolution Survey

Resolving Impact Investment Disputes:
Current Practices and Future Opportunities

Contact for questions about completing this questionnaire:

Zvia Schoenberg
Executive Director of the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship
NYU School of Law

Introduction

This is the first survey of its kind focused on the resolution of disputes in the impact investment sector. The survey is an initiative of the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship at NYU School of Law, with the support of White & Case.

The survey aims to gather views across the impact investment community. All stakeholders are therefore invited to share their perspectives. Your collective responses and insights will be published in a report that seeks to highlight current practices and identify opportunities to improve the resolution of impact investment disputes.

This questionnaire should take about 15 minutes to complete. In a second phase of the survey, we will conduct individual interviews with members of the impact investment community from December 2025 to February 2026. If you would like to participate in an interview, please indicate your interest at the end of this questionnaire.

Your participation in this questionnaire is confidential. Your name and the name of your organization will not appear on any materials published in connection with the survey without your consent. The information collected will be stored securely and used only for analysis related to this survey and any future surveys and research outputs.

The closing date for responses to this questionnaire is December 31, 2025. Results will be published in 2026.

We thank you for your participation and look forward to the survey’s findings. As the survey will benefit from a wide pool of participants, please feel free to forward this questionnaire to any other persons in the impact investment community who may be interested in participating.

Further information about the 2026 Dispute Resolution Survey can be obtained from:

Deborah Burand
Professor of Law Emerita
Faculty Director of the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship
NYU School of Law

Email: deborah.burand@nyu.edu
Instructions

• Not all questions may be relevant to all survey participants. Please answer as many questions as you can and leave blank any questions that may not apply to you.

• Required questions are marked with an asterisk.

• Please answer questions based on your current knowledge. Answering questions does not require any data collection or research.

• If your organization is part of a larger group, please answer only for the organization for which you work, rather than for the whole group.

• All questions are about impact investment disputes, meaning disputes that relate to investments made with the intention of generating both a financial return and a measurable positive social or environmental impact. Impact investment disputes may arise between investors and investees, as well as between co-investors. Such disputes may involve an informal process (e.g., meetings or correspondence between the parties) and/or a formal process (ADR, arbitration and/or litigation).

• All questions are about national as well as international impact investment disputes, meaning disputes involving parties from the same jurisdiction, as well as disputes involving parties from different jurisdictions.
Part 1: About You and Your Organization
1.Your name and title (e.g., Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof):(Required.)
2.Email address:(Required.)
3.Organization name and your role within organization:(Required.)
4.Your or your organization’s primary role: (Select all that apply)(Required.)
5.Regions in which you invest or operate: (Select all that apply)(Required.)
6.Industries in which you or your organization invests or operates: (Select all that apply)(Required.)
7.Over the past five years, in approximately how many individual impact investments have you been involved? (Select one option)(Required.)
8.Over the past five years, what was the typical size of the individual impact investments in which you have been involved? (Select one option)(Required.)
9.Over the past five years, what was the type financing of the impact investments in which you have been involved? (Select one option)(Required.)
10.Over the past five years, in what types of blended finance have you been involved? (Blended finance refers to financing that combines public and/or philanthropic with private sector capital) (Select all that apply)(Required.)
Part II: Experience With Impact Investment Disputes
Negotiating Dispute Resolution Clauses
11.What form of dispute resolution is typically included in the contracts of your organization or in the contracts of organizations that you advise? (Select all that apply) (ADR includes, e.g., mediation, conciliation, adjudication and dispute boards, but not litigation or arbitration.)
12.What are your organization’s preferred arbitration rules? (Specify up to three, in no order of preference)
13.What are your organization’s preferred seats of arbitration? (Specify up to three, in no order of preference)
14.What are your organization’s preferred jurisdictions for litigation? (Specify up to three, in no order of preference)
15.What are your organization’s preferred applicable laws? (Select one)
Resolving Impact Investment Disputes
16.Over the past five years, in how many impact investment disputes (as defined in the instructions above) has your organization been involved, either as a party or as counsel to a party? (Select one option)
17.Over the past five years, what types of issues were raised in impact investment disputes in which your organization has been involved? (Check the box for each type of issue if the issue has been raised; specify any other issue at the end)
Issue raised
Debt finance (e.g., failure to repay, breach of covenant)
White collar crimes (e.g., bribery, corruption, fraud, money-laundering)
Environmental issues (e.g., use of natural resources, pollution, climate change, energy use and waste management)
Human rights (e.g., human trafficking/modern slavery, displacement of indigenous peoples, destruction of cultural heritage sites, racial/ethnic/religious discrimination)
Corporate social responsibility issues, excluding environmental and human rights (e.g., child and forced labour, labour and working conditions, responsible sourcing, charities, community relations)
Public health issues (e.g., pandemic prevention/response, consumer product safety)
18.Over the past five years, how often were your impact investment disputes resolved by party agreement, as opposed to a decision in a formal dispute resolution process (litigation, arbitration, and/or ADR)? (Select one option)
19.Over the past five years, how often were your impact investment disputes resolved through a decision in a formal dispute resolution process (litigation, arbitration, and/or ADR)? (Select one option)
20.If you have been involved in a formal dispute resolution process, how long did it take from the start of that process to a final decision (excluding any proceedings to enforce a final decision if the losing party does not comply voluntarily)? (Select one option)
21.In your experience, how often do losing parties to an impact investment dispute comply voluntarily with an arbitral award or court judgment? (Select one option)
22.When your impact investment disputes are submitted to arbitration, mediation or conciliation, where do you find information about arbitrators, mediators or conciliators? (Select all that apply)
23.What information would you like to have about arbitrators, mediators or conciliators that you currently do not have, or do not have enough of?
Part III: Opportunities for Resolving Impact Investment Disputes
24.Based on your experience and/or that of your organization, what are the three most valuable characteristics of arbitration for resolving impact investment disputes? (Select up to three options)(Required.)
25.Based on your experience and/or that of your organization, what are the three most significant challenges to using arbitration for impact investment disputes? (Select up to three options)(Required.)
26.Over the past five years, have you had experience with the following procedural mechanisms for expediting arbitrations? Were they more efficient than non-expedited processes, and would you use them again? (For each mechanism you have experienced, check the corresponding boxes if your answer is yes / you agree)
Do you have experience with this mechanism?
Was it more efficient than a non-expedited process?
Would you use this mechanism again?
Bespoke expedited process agreed by the parties
Expedited formation of the arbitral tribunal
Expedited or other express-type arbitration process contained in arbitration rules chosen by the parties
Paper-only arbitrations with no oral hearings
27.What are the main reasons you chose or would choose an expedited procedural mechanism? (Select up to three options)(Required.)
28.Which of the following improvements and innovations would make arbitration, mediation or conciliation more suitable for resolving impact investment disputes? (Select up to three options)(Required.)
29.Should arbitral awards that decide impact investment disputes be made public? (Select one option)
30.What may be your concerns about publishing arbitral awards (with or without redactions)? How might it be possible to address those concerns?
Part IV: Personal Interview and General Comments
31.Would you be willing to participate in a brief, confidential interview to discuss points arising from the questionnaire and your answers?(Required.)
32.Is there anything you would like to add to your answers in this questionnaire, including any general comments you may have?