A great example of innovation in social finance - the Global Alliance for Vaccine Immunization will offer Japanese bond investors higher-than-average yields to fund a program providing vaccinations to children in poor nations.

The goal is to raise upto $500 million through philanthropy, government contributions and private investors. Funds will be used primarily used to purchase vaccines, with the remainder spent on distribution and helping local authorities expand their health-care systems.

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These days we are on a financial market rollercoaster with dizzying daily plunges and stomach-wrenching twists and turns. In 2008 the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) lost roughly half of its value from a high of 15,000 to just over 7,500.

This news would be bad enough if it was someone else’s money, but it’s not. It’s our retirement savings on this wild ride and, for many, that elusive retirement date is slipping slowly out of sight. We used to think that financial markets were the playground of the rich, but increasingly we have come to realize that ordinary citizens’ savings underpin these markets.

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Responsible investing, sometimes referred to as socially-responsible investing, describes investment strategies which seek to maximize both financial return and social good. Specifically, it is the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into investment decisions.

In Canada, the Social Investment Organization (SIO) and Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) have taken leadership roles through proxy voting and shareholder engagement services, while also raising awareness through research and policy advocacy.

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Tides Top 10 of 2008: If you haven't seen this already, check out Tides Canada's annual list of outstanding social change organizations.

On Social Enterprise in the UK (hat-tip: Volans): An interview with Kevin Brennan, the Minister for the Third Sector, where he talks about the importance of social enterprise, its potential impact on public service delivery, the need for "lift-off" finance and more emphasis on measurement.

Social Entrepreneurship on Campus: Nathaniel from Change.org has a great post on trends and opportunities for social entrepreneurship at universities.

Charities Borrow For-Profit Strategies To Do Good: Well-written article from the Christian Science Monitor that describes recent interesting developments in the "hybrid" space in between the non-profit and for-profit worlds. References to social entrepreneurship, philanthrocapitalism, microfinance, L3Cs, and more.

Mission, Inc.: The Practitioner's Guide to Social Enterprise: New book by Kevin Lynch (Rebuild Resources) and Julius Walls (Greystone Bakery) that draws on their own organizations and learning from 20 other social enterprise leaders around what it takes to succeed in starting and running a social enterprise.

Mandatory CSR Reporting in Denmark: Denmark's 1,100 largest enterprises will now be compelled by law to describe their corporate CSR or socially responsible investment policies, the ways in which they've been implemented and the results they've produced.

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Happy New Year from socialfinance.ca!

We've seen tremendous excitement and energy in the Canadian social finance space in 2008, and 2009 looks like it will build on this success, and challenge us to do more to creatively harness finance for social good.

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