Rutger Bregman to impact investors: 'A lot of things are just not fundable'

Rutger Bregman, historian, author and founder of the School for Moral Ambition, on stage at Norrsken Impact Week, Barcelona, 2026. Image credit: Siôn Lawrence-Geschwindt for Impact Loop
14 Oct 2026
23:30
Rutger Bregman, historian, author and founder of the School for Moral Ambition, on stage at Norrsken Impact Week, Barcelona, 2026. Image credit: Siôn Lawrence-Geschwindt for Impact Loop
Historian Rutger Bregman, perhaps best known for confronting billionaires at Davos, has told impact investors that some of the world’s biggest problems will never make them money.

"I think that there should be a bigger place for philanthropy, to put it bluntly," he said on stage at Norrsken Impact/Week in Barcelona.

Rutger Bregman thinks impact investors need to accept that not every problem can be invested in.

The Dutch historian, perhaps best known for confronting billionaires over tax avoidance at Davos, was speaking with Norrsken founder Niklas Adalberth at Norrsken’s Impact/Week in Barcelona.

Asked for an uncomfortable truth for the room, Bregman said the most neglected issues tend to have no business model.

"I think that there should be a bigger place for philanthropy, to put it bluntly. Like, a lot of things are just not fundable," said Bregman, who is the founder of non-profit organisation The School for Moral Ambition.

He used malaria as an example, which kills around 600,000 people a year, most of them children under five.

"Can we solve that? Of course we can solve that. But who’s going to invest in it?" he said.

His remarks come as impact investors face growing pressure to show they can deliver both financial returns and measurable progress on problems such as climate change and global health. Bregman doubted whether that was possible or even a necessary ask.

"This whole story that I’ve heard a lot in the impact investment community is 'we give you exactly the same returns as the normal investment.' But, well, I think that’s BS," he said.

He said factory farming has the same problem. Alternative proteins were once expected to beat meat on taste and price, but Bregman said “it turns out, it’s a long road”.

He ended with a question for investors who put the mission first. "A lot of impact investors should ask themselves, is it really about the impact? Also, when the returns start to disappoint."