Engaged Investment has launched a pilot to test the creation of the world’s first investment index for the growing emerging market of social investment (‘impact investing’, as it is called globally). This is an important next step forward towards creating the infrastructure needed for the global expansion of social finance.
Tomorrow (5 Dec) in Brussels I will be presenting my views on the impact measurement discourse at a conference on “Measuring the Social Impact of Social Enterprises”. My approach will be to explore how to frame the discussion in the context of a market centric perspective as part of developing EngagedX – the world’s first financial index for impact investing. For the purposes of compiling an index, we are agnostic about specific metrics used and instead seek to determine a meta-framework approach for how to map and categorise the data of all metrics in use.
I recently went to Washington to learn about the new global impact economy being advocated by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and specifically to find out whether it is aligned with social business and social investment initiatives in Europe. Indeed, there is much more commonality than disparity, and (hopefully) this is the beginning of […]
Is the social usefulness of financial instruments misunderstood in a similar way to how, in the darkness, the aspiring animal musicians in the folktale Town Musicians of Bremen are mistaken for being a witch? Financial language is confusing at the best of times, sometimes the same term means different things to various people and on […]
UK at watershed moment for social impact investing with potential to be global leader
Social impact investment has the potential to evolve from being an emerging market to a very large, mature investment market attracting mainstream investors, according to a report published today. Making Good in Social Impact Investment: Opportunities in an Emerging Asset Class argues that the UK is well placed to be a global leader in the field, as social impact investment builds on our record as home to a well-developed, not-for-profit, charitable and voluntary sector and our historic strengths in financial services.
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The underlying reasons for this apparent feral behaviour are complex and individual motivations will vary, but there are some underlying psychological themes which may help us understand why the rioting was so contagious and why so many people were compelled to join the looting and rampaging through the streets of England. These riots are not protests against anything specific, but they do manifest a collective call by people for improvements in their own lives. This problem, where it occurs, is so deep that it is plainly naive to expect that people caught up in it should know better or be able to help themselves. Read More »
The Taskforce for a European social investment bank/ fund/ facility will be launched in Krakow, September 2011
(organised in cooperation with the Euclid Network (of European civil society professionals))Read More »
Social investing (equivalent to impact investing) encompasses such an increasingly broad range of financial activities and products, that some of it may be considered investment banking for the social sector. Examples include Social Impact Bonds and the sophisticate structured funds incorporating first-loss equity tranches, mezzanine finance and the provision of debt and equity underwriting. In the anticipation of UK High Street banks being separated according to retail or casino activities, on which side of the line should social investments lie?Read More »
Featuring Charles Darwin, Ayrton Senna, Strawberry Fields, Steven Hawking, Shaka (King of the Zulus), Steve Wozniak and Karl Marx. There is a healthy dose of blue-sky thinking in this article. I have included some provocative thoughts in the spirit of stimulating a coffee-house style debate and have consciously permitted some naivety to freely explore the […]
Karl H Richter 