There has been a great deal of recent discussion on impact investing: the zen-like space where investments have a financial return and demonstrated environmental or social impact.  Some may tell you that these opportunities exist just beyond the misty mountains of Pandora, in the lush, green Shire where Frodo and Bilbo Baggins play hacky sack.

In response to some of these critics and to build literacy and understanding at a local level, we need to make impact investing a bit more tangible.

Impact investing opportunities are very real, with living, breathing models in place around the world.  Accordingly, there is tremendous potential for local success through our social venture exchange project.  We are currently exploring the how, but this may give a first glance of what is possible.

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“The question isn’t how do we give better?  It’s how do we solve social problems better?”  (Antony Bugg-Levine) 

Over the course of two days at MaRS (April 6-7) Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation and leading visionary behind the impact investing movement, imparted his vast knowledge on many impact investing related subjects to over 200 people interested in the field. Though he is a native South African, Antony has close family ties to Canada and showed he is a kindred spirit, demonstrating a keen understanding of our Canadian context. 

Impact investing addresses deficiencies in our current system that attempts to solve the world’s most pressing issues – accessible education, clean water for all mankind, disease prevention, food security, etc.  People are starting to realize where the traditional system (foreign aid, charity and government intervention) fails and where new labour and market-based approaches can help.  Impact investments can seed innovation to solve these challenges while generating a financial return at the same time. For the new generation of wealth and socially responsible consumers, this makes for a very exciting proposition.  

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A special edition of the Making Waves magazine has been launched, titled "Capital for Communities". This edition explores the the central question of access to finance for community-based initiatives. Most nonprofits, social enterprises, and co-operatives identify capital as their key constraint, and when it is available, it if often not in the right form to meet the needs of these organizations. These organizations, and the respective sectors that they represent, continue to be undercapitalized related to the needs and pressures being placed on them, particularly in this economic environment.

This issue draws on perspectives from across the country in understanding and addressing the issue of access to finance. The articles range from a mapping of the financial ecosystem of the social economy, the challenges of financing social ventures, the importance of intermediaries, examples of how institutional investors can be engaged in social finance, and lessons from Quebec's experience with developing innovative social finance instruments. Collectively, these articles provide an excellent, multi-dimensional understanding of the key issues and opportunities around delivering more capital to communities.

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In the somewhat fantastical world of social enterprise, social finance, and social innovation, it is easy to get lost in the dazzling newness of the emerging space and the excitement of growing discussion about the possible.

But we cannot forget why we are doing this work.  The why helps to anchor us with a clear purpose and focuses our vision.  It may also help us achieve more than just a few lines in newsprint, a paragraph in a blog, or the full focus of “an interesting magazine article.”  [Note the Bill Young reference.]

So why are we working towards the creation of a social venture exchange?

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It doesn't take too long in London before noticing the emergence of a new math.  Social innovators in England are busy creating new equations to address tough, hard to solve social and environmental challenges.  To start they exposed the fallacies of the 'old' math.

Here is one equation that is no longer useful and which prevents the civil sector from fulfilling one of its key functions: preventing social problems. Costly crisis intervention reduces the resources available to address the root causes resulting in more crises which equals another round of costly crisis interventions.

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