Gil Crawford, CEO of MicroVest, an impact investing asset manager based in Bethesda, Md., recalls a loan officer relating a story to him about a group of women gathered in a town square in a small town in El Salvador a decade ago.

The loan officer was asked if he could tell which women were there for their first loan and which were returning for second or third loans to keep their successful small businesses going. When he said no, he was told the women who had school-aged children with them were there for their first loan. Those without children had profitable small businesses and could afford to send their kids to school.

That is the kind of difference impact investing can make in the lives of people who would otherwise be struggling, Crawford said. MicroVest works in emerging and frontier countries to facilitate loans provided by investors, people who not only want to help the community and the world but expect a return on their money. (Frontier countries are those that are even less economically developed than emerging economies.)

Impact investing is only one of the investing options for those who want to “do good” with their investment dollars. Among the labels put on this growing field of investing are “impact investing,” “ESG” (for environmental, social and governance) and “SRI” (for socially responsible investing or sustainable, responsible impact investing), a field that promotes companies affecting communities positively and avoids those companies with more troublesome records.

The words and acronyms mean different things to different advisors and investors, but everyone agrees that the overall sustainable investing field is growing by leaps and bounds. “The language of ESG is evolving, but it is still an alphabet soup,” says Brie Williams, head of practice management for Global SPDR Business at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. “We need to standardize the language to help clarify the conversation. If advisors use language more deliberately, it will help the clients.”

Andrée Simon, president and CEO of FINCA Impact Finance, a microfinancier for people who do not have access to banking facilities (known as the “unbanked”) warns that in some cases impact investing through small loans can be highly risky, but it can also pay returns that exceed the stock market.

“Impact investing in these types of ventures is highly uncorrelated to the stock market,” Crawford adds. “The due diligence process at MicroVest allows us to discover investments that others are not finding and that can offer risk-adjusted returns. Lending to the poorest people in the world can give you good diversification.”

According to US SIF, the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, SRI investing grew by a third between 2014 and 2016 to $8.72 trillion in investments, representing one out of every five dollars under professional management in the United States. The 2018 report is now being compiled. The Global Sustainable Investment Alliance put the worldwide number at $23 trillion in 2016.

According to Schroder Investment Management’s “Global Investor Study 2017,” more than half (52%) of U.S. investors now “often” or “always” invest in sustainable funds, which is above the global average of 42%. Despite the growing interest, particularly among women and millennials, and the vast amount of money that is being transferred to younger generations, there are still two major gaps in this segment of investing. Advisors are not approaching clients about the possibilities, and investors are not acting on their stated desires, says Theresa Gusman, chief investment officer for the First Affirmative Financial Network, a Colorado Springs, Colo., firm specializing in sustainable investing.

Approximately 60% of advisors have expressed little or no interest in SRI investing, according to Morgan Stanley. Hendrik Bartel, CEO of TruValue Labs, a technology firm that specializes in data for asset managers and institutional investors, agrees. “Only 22% of advisors have approached their clients about sustainable investing in the past 12 months,” he says.

Even though a lot of people have started investing sustainably, there are even more who are interested. Eighty-six percent of millennials, 84% of women and 90% of wealthy women are interested in sustainable investing, according to Morgan Stanley and the Center for Talent Innovation, a research and advocacy organization that promotes diversity, and the great wealth transfer will bring even more interest.

There are ways to close the gaps, Gusman says. “Transparency needs to be increased,” she says. “Investors need to know the strategy they invested in is actually having an impact or that it does not contain any fossil fuels. Also, advisors and investors need to be better educated about sustainable investing.

“This is a fragmented space,” she says. “Just look at the number of different types of sustainable investing possibilities that are out there. For instance, an investor may want to promote women’s empowerment in a community in India. They can do that, but the opportunities need to be more accessible.”

Gusman feels 2018 is a watershed year for transparency and cooperation in sustainable investing. The Principles for Responsible Investment, a United Nations-sponsored network of investors who put impact investing into practice, has added a requirement this year for signatories to report on their sustainable investment activities and show what progress they have made in implementing them. The signatories will be ranked based on the degree of success in meeting the principles.

The principles have been in existence since 2005 and now have as signers about 2,000 institutional investors from 50 countries representing $70 trillion in investment assets. “Asset managers are beginning to demand more information from companies about their sustainable business practices,” Gusman says. It is important to know how investment companies are meeting the standards, “because what gets measured gets managed” and the more transparency that exists, the more investors will feel comfortable putting money into sustainable investments.

“It is becoming unacceptable to invest without considering ESG issues,” says Sapna Shah, director of strategy for the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). In the last 10 years, she says, there’s been a shift. Whereas investors used to simply avoid investing in companies pursuing questionable practices, now they seek investments that have positive impacts. “It is a paradigm shift.”

There will be another shift as younger advisors begin to take over for the older generation, says Derek Tharp, a financial planner with Conscious Capital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “The next generation of advisors will understand more about sustainable investing and there will be a shift in attitudes,” Tharp says. “Products also will evolve to make the investing easier.”

Investors are starting to look closer at some of the new products available and changes that existing companies are making, says Alanna Fishman, head of ESG for consulting firm HBW Resources.

For instance, “water is one of the biggest issues for energy companies,” Fishman says. “If you have two companies operating in the same space and one has a water management plan in place and one does not, the one without a plan will have less water available for production or will have to pay more for water. You invest in the one with the water management plan.”

Other options for those looking for impact investing include The Last Mile, sponsored by NPX, an organization based in San Francisco that says it wants to transform the way impact investing is financed in the nonprofit sector.

The Last Mile is a work project for prisoners. It is funded through a combination of investments and donations. The investors will receive a return on their money through the donations if the project is deemed successful, based on the number of hours inmates at San Quentin State Prison work. So far, the Last Mile has raised $800,000 from 11 investors and $900,000 from 16 donors.

Investors could earn returns of up to 12.5%, according to Catarina Schwab and Lindsay Beck, co-founders and co-CEOs of NPX. “We have analyzed the components that yield success for prison projects and feel positive about the Last Mile,” Beck says.

“When we get the first project accomplished, it will be easier to do the next,” adds Schwab, who says the pair hope investors will reinvest their returns. “There are not enough [investment opportunities] out there right now for this type of work.”

Some areas of the country, such as San Francisco, seem to lead in innovation in many industries, including impact investing, according to Megan Fielding, senior director of the Responsible Investing Group at Nuveen, a global investment manager. “I have conversations with clients across the board, but I am based in San Francisco,” Fielding says. “Outside of key areas like this, many advisors do not believe clients have an interest in sustainable or impact investing. Millennials are the most interested, but advisors say that generation does not have much money. Advisors may be waiting for the large transfer of wealth or for this generation to reach their peak earning years.”

In the last year, Nuveen has added new ESG and low-carbon focused products, but it has been involved in responsible investing since the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s.

Jensen Investment Management in Lake Oswego, Ore., also has been involved in sustainable investing for years and focuses on long-term profitability, says Kevin Walkush, a portfolio manager at the firm. “Clients are increasingly seeking out sustainable investing,” says Walkush. “To us, ESG is business as usual.”

Jensen has found that looking for portfolio companies with strong ESG performance—those that prevent pollution and eliminate waste, for example—will also give investors good bottom lines. He cites Apple and 3M as two major companies that have led the way on renewable energy and investing in the community and, as a result, have been very profitable.

“As we show advisors in real numbers that companies can make a profit and still adhere to sustainable principles, the gap between investors’ interests and their actions will close,” agrees Jessica Ground from Schroders.

“Investors have showed us they are willing to stay in these investments for two years or more,” Ground adds. “Companies that are managing environmental risks well will benefit from reducing risks.”

Others agree advisors and investors need to understand that sustainable investing is a long-term proposition.

Will Lofland, director and head of intermediary distribution for GuideStone Financial Resources in Dallas, says, “More and more investors are considering, or actively engaged in, investing for profit and a better world [but] advisors are not fully informed on the topics. It is hard for them to separate steak from sizzle.”

“People are not understanding that ESG is a long-term holding,” adds Sudhir Roc-Sennett, senior portfolio advisor at Vontobel Quality Growth based in New York.

“Advisors should bring up the options if the client does not,” adds Louise Herrle, managing director of the Capital Markets Division at Incapital LLC, a broker-dealer based in Chicago. “The conversations can be more intentional now because more sustainable funds are available. As more opportunities are created, the category will grow even more, and that energizes financial advisors. The more local the project, the easier the advisor finds it to connect with clients.”