For those of us tracking developments in social finance, both the federal and the Ontario budgets announced this week hold promise that policy leaders are searching for innovative and collaborative approaches to tackle our most pressing problems that will drive our tax dollars towards greater impact.

Concurrently, a speech to the Nova Scotia general assembly affirmed the maritime province’s commitment to foster social enterprise through as part of their plan to increase economic stability, following a promising development in British Columbia to introduce community contribution companies.

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Yesterday, I posted Part II of my interview (read Part I) with Ben Thornley, Director of Insight – Pacific Community Ventures’ thought leadership practice in high-impact investing. Here’s Part III, wrapping up with Ben’s hopes on what readers will take away from Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for Institutional Investment with Social and Environmental Benefit and what’s next for InSight’s important work on policies around impact investing.

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Yesterday, I posted Part I of my interview with Ben Thornley, Director of Insight – Pacific Community Ventures’ (PCV) thought leadership practice in high-impact investing. In Part II of this series, Ben discusses his views on the relevance of Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for Institutional Investment with Social and Environmental Benefit to countries outside the US and weighs in on the UK’s Social Value Bill.

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When you’re looking for change, ask Obama or his American crowd.

They are about to change the game for emerging American businesses struggling to access capital and average investors looking to place capital in local, impact ventures.

After months of debate, the US government passed the bi-partisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act [PDF] (JOBS Act or HR 3606), new legislation designed to modify existing securities regulations, “…to make it easier for smaller businesses and startups to raise money from the public…”

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Released by InSight at Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) and the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) at Harvard, Impact at Scale: Policy Innovation for Institutional Investment with Social and Environmental Benefit clearly demonstrates that institutional investors, such as pension funds and endowments, that invest in social outcomes are earning a competitive rate of financial return. These institutional investors, with a total of over $20 trillion in assets, are critical to building the momentum of impact investing and bringing this growing sector to scale.

Recently, I interviewed Ben Thornley, co-author of the report, about the challenges and opportunities facing policymakers to catalyze institutional investments in organizations that produce social and environmental impact.

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