SocialFinance.ca produces a weekly round up featuring social finance related news, insights, job openings, and events. We source the content for these round ups from Twitter, an RSS reader, and directly from our community of social finance practitioners. Below is our round up for the week of May 14, 2012.

Last Week on SocialFinance.ca

Nabeel Ahmed posted SOCAP: Designing the Future on SocialFinance.ca on May 9, 2012.

Tina Crouse posted Community Bonds and Social Enterprise: Where No One Loses on May 9, 2012.

Ryan MacLean posted Reporting from the NYU Series on Impact Investing on May 10, 2012.

Canadian and International News

Last week, SOCAP went to Europe, with Designing the Future in Malmo, Sweden. Watch the main stage sessions from the conference or view photos and sketches from the event here.

The Obama administration opens the door on Program Related Investments - allowing more foundations to put more of their resources to work to advance their charitable mission through means such as equity investments.

The Intellecap Impact Investment Network ('I3N'), India's first network of angel investors focused on investments with high social impact announced the signing of a new partnership agreement with global impact investor network Toniic.

Accion International launches $10 million investment vehicle, Venture Lab

Low interest in U.S bond program backing green energy - as of May 3, only about 20 percent of the bonds had been issued.

The World Bank and the MasterCard Foundation commit US $37.4 million to boosting small loans in Africa over 5 years.

As the UK government announces green bank legislation, investors and environmentalists call for clarity around how it will be funded.

Environmental Finance reports that a new Brazilian environmental exchange has opened its doors to potential buyers and sellers of ‘Forest Reserve Credits’.

MicroRate, with the support of LuxFLAG and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, has announced the launch of Luminis(TM) the first web-based, analytical platform on microfinance funds.

Social Finance Learning and Best Practices

Paula Goldman investigates the Distortion Risk in Impact Investing - making sure that grants and investments are distributed appropriately to support instead of stifle market growth.

Ben Thornley of Pacific Community Ventures weighs in on the truly transformative potential of impact investing.

"Poverty impact is not what this new financial inclusion agenda is all about. Instead, there are at least three core ideologically driven reasons why financial inclusion has been artificially hatched and given huge publicity..." - Milford Bateman criticizes microfinance in the Poverty Matters Blog by the Guardian.

Jacqueline Urquizo posts on the Centre for Financial Inclusion blog about understanding the financial lives of rural communities and exploring product innovations to meet their needs.

Accion’s Michael Schlein, David Roodman and more at Friday’s Chicago Microfinance Conference discuss the evolution of the sector and, more controversially, the reasons why group lending is destined to fail.

How much interest is too much - the first of a three part series by CGAP looking at Russia's microfinance industry.

A healthy debate about the value of social entrepreneurs was sparked on April 12 by NYT columnist David Books - Echoing Green recently responded with the reasons why social entrepreneurs will succeeed - and fail.

Addressing the roles, responsibilities, and limitations for both government agencies and external organizations in Social Impact Bond arrangements.

The 'Financing Social Impact' report, released by Social Innovation Europe, lays a path for the social innovation field in the next 10 years to overcome key barriers: "The field combines commitment, experience and energy. But it lacks the systematic and sophisticated infrastructures of support available to other fields – in particular, access to appropriate finance and funding.”

Back to the basics in exploring what exactly is crowdfunding?

Decoding the myriad of tools available for measuring social investment impact.

Spring is exploring the state of tech-enabled philanthropy in the UK and providing practical insight into how digital technology can support giving through a new report. Download report [pdf].

Publish What You Fund and aidinfo have released a new study on aid transparency and climate finance. Download study [PDF].

Will Oulton, editor of Investment Opportunities for a Low-Carbon World, reflects on opportunities for investors in environmental businesses and the need for more ‘patient capital’.

Job Opportunities

Samasource is seeking an Accounting/Finance Manager.

NeighborWorks America is hiring a Social Enterprise Manager - Success Measures

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)is hiring a Program Manager.

FINCA is hiring for a number of Africa-based program and operations roles.

Upcoming Events

2012 BALLE Business Conference: Real Prosperity Starts Here
May 15-19, Grand Rapids, MI

Let's Talk About Risk. Conversations for Investing with our Values
May 22, Rogue Kitchen, Vancouver

Environmental Bonds Conference
May 23, New York

DC Net Impact (DCNI) Impact Investing Series: Building an "Impact Investing" Career - Advice From the Trenches
Thursday, May 24, Washington, DC

BALLE Accelerating Community Capital Webinar Series
June 12, Online (Webinar)

Canada’s Socially Responsible Investment Conference
June 18 - 20, Montreal, Quebec

Igniting Capital Markets for Social Good
June 25-26, Singapore

Cracking the Nut 2012 Conference
June 25-26, 2012, Enrique V. Iglesias Conference Center, Washington, DC

Charities' Next Top Model: Can Social Franchising work?
June 26, 2012, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, UK

Partnering for Global Impact
July 9-10, Lugano, Switzerland

PRI-CBERN Academic Conference 2012
October 1-3, York University, Toronto, Canada

The Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) - Fórum Mundial de Negócios Sociais 2012
October 16-18, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Seattle's Social Innovation Fast Pitch (SIFP) 2012
October 18, 2012, Seattle, WA

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/603815615/

The NYU School of Law organized a Series on Impact Investing during the Spring Semester 2012. This Series offered "a forum for students, scholars and practitioners interested in the field of impact investing to exchange perspectives, develop ideas, and dialogue with thought leaders and experts in the field."

The Series was a student initiative, led by Nyasha Pasipanodya (NYU Law 2011 graduate and 2011-2012 NYU Law Kauffman Fellow) and joined by student members of the Law and Social Entrepreneurship Association (School of Law), the Society of International Business and Development (Center for Global Affairs) and the African Law Association (School of Law), as well as students from the Stern School of Business.

The first event was moderated by Kevin Davis, Beller Family Professor of Business Law, and brought together a group of leading practitioners including: Zoravar Dhaliwal, director at Osaka Capital; Amy Bell, vice president in J.P. Morgan's social finance unit; Laurie Lane-Zucker, CEO and co-founder of Hotfrog LLC; and Birju Pandya, managing director at Armonia LLC.

The first panelists of the series shared everyday examples of impact investing, as well as descriptions about the distinctiveness of impact investing compared with traditional investing. The discussion expanded to the panelists' thoughts on the philosophical aspects of the emergence of impact investing, which appears to be part of a new paradigm whereby it is increasingly believed that social good can be pursued through the market, and public and private value creation can be concomitant.

The second event in the series was about Measuring Impact. Moderated by Steven Godeke, Adjunct Professor of Finance at NYU Stern School of Business, the panel was focused on the participant's experiences with the unique challenges for establishing consistent definitions, criteria, metrics, and reporting that is necessary in order to develop impact investments. The panelists included Mark Berryman, Senior Member with Deutsche Bank's Global Social Investment Group; Flory Wilson, Director of International Standards for GIIRS, B Lab; Justina Lai, Associate, Impact Investing and PRIs at the Rockefeller Foundation; and Kelly McCarthy, Manager for IRIS, Global Impact Investing Network.

Moderator Steven Godeke explained that measurement is complex, as it involves pulling ideas about 'impact' from the social sciences into the realm of 'risk and return' from investment. From the outset, using consistent definitions is important for developing the field of impact investing. The panelists spoke about how their organizations define impact, and measure and report it. Generally organizations use GIIRS or IRIS, or some combination of the two, while some organizations develop their own systems. All participants agreed that it is important for the field to arrive at commonly agreed definitions at this early stage of development. Systems like Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) attempt to resolve the difficulties of inconsistent definitions. IRIS incorporates multiple existing standards, involving well over 100 metrics, and can be used by organizations to develop their own metric. It is customizable to your needs, for example, by sector or issue. IRIS is intended to be used as common language for the field of impact investing.

For those organizations taking the more ad-hoc approach, they created a report card. Their report card consists of indicators and ratios for investments, for which certain benchmarks are established at due diligence, as well as certain "reach targets" which are tracked regularly. This information is collected and monitored, and reported to investors as often as possible, typically annually. Quarterly reporting is more difficult due to the geographical remoteness of many projects and the longer period it usually takes for social investments to appreciate in value.

A panelist shared their experience with a fairly standard CDO fixed-income product designed with social and development goals. The results were actually better rates of return than comparable non-social products, even though investors are generally willing to accept lower rates of return for the goal of social impact. Many investors are wary about impact investing because it is fairly new and unfamiliar. There was agreement among the panelists that addressing investors' wariness will be a matter of time and education.

The overall sentiment of the panel was best expressed by several of the concluding remarks. The field of impact investing is quite young, so, in order to convert hype to reality, it is very important to develop track records, data, measures, rating systems, and connectivity systems. A panelist commented, to everyone's agreement, that there are exciting prospects for the tracking and development that can be done with all of the data that will be available in a few years.

The series finished with the third and fourth panels held in April. The third panel was about Legal and Policy Issues that affect impact investments. The fourth (and final) panel was on Lessons in Collaboration, about partnering across sectors and featuring panelists from diverse institutions. The panelists for the 3rd and 4th (final) panels are listed below, along with several resources from the series.

Panel 3: Legal and Policy Issues

Moderated by Jonathan Ng. Global Legal Director, Ashoka.

Panelists

• Deborah Burand. Professor of Impact Investment Lawyering at University of Michigan Law School, Director and Co-founder of the International Transactions Clinic, and former General Counsel to Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
• Lynn Roland. Deputy General Counsel at Acumen Fund, overseeing portfolio investments, grants and license arrangements, and monitoring compliance matters and other day to day legal matters.
• Howard Finkelstein. Law Offices of Howard J. Finkelstein, a private practice that focuses on the structuring of capital markets instruments to bring Western capital to microfinance institutions worldwide.
• Donald Crane. Vice President and General Counsel of FINCA International, a microfinance institution that provides financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs.

This link from Panel 3 has an audio recording of the event, as well as many documents referred to throughout the discussion.

Panel 4: Lessons in Collaboration

Moderated by Timothy Ogden Interim Director, Financial Access Initiative

Panelists

• Mitchell Strauss, Special Advisor to SRI Finance at Overseas Private Investment Corporation
• Lubna Maria Elia, Director of Legal Resources and Compliance at Root Capital
• Brinda Ganguly, Associate Director of the Rockefeller Foundation
• Mark Berryman, Senior Member, Global Social Investments Group at Deutsche Bank
• Jason Spindler, Managing Director and Founding Partner of I-DEV International

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/7174312982/

There is an increasing interest in the use of community bonds to help nonprofits achieve their financial goals. Community bonds can be used to finance a range of projects, from program development to capital expansion projects where the 'first-in' dollars are hard to find. For people in the nonprofit sector, they are a form of investment that clearly shows what the investor is interested in - you.

The history of community bonds shows they are not a recent invention, but rather one that is being used more broadly than before. Perhaps it is the donor fatigue that nonprofits are experiencing or just the fact that there is less 'free money' around for donations. Whatever the case, community bonds offer an alternative that moderate income donors favour and this has captured the attention of nonprofits and social enterprises looking for funds.

The construction of community bonds can be as individual as the organization itself, but creating a bond requires careful financial analysis. A nonprofit must understand itself and its 'business' in order to be successful. To help with that, the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) - a recent community bond success story - will be holding a ‘How-to’ workshop on community bonds in Toronto on Friday, May 11th. If you’re interested, you can register at the ONN website.

Smaller groups, such as co-ops, also have long histories and rich stories of achieving their organizational goals through community bonds. As 2012 is the UN International Year of Cooperatives, you can find great information from all over the world. Closer to home, we have the West End Food Coop. West End Food Coop sold out their first issue in 2009 and have created a new bond which is also selling well in the west end of Toronto. Their local community support has created the opportunity to start new programs, expand their farmer's market, and, more importantly, open a community store.

Considering the resources available and the success stories to date, all nonprofits should give themselves and their 'investors' the chance to expand and succeed with no loss to anyone. A community bond brings together ‘community’ and ‘dollars’ to make the world we want to see - a fine example of the new world of social finance.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gammaman/6242457085/

Today, SOCAP returned to Europe - this time with no less ambitious a goal than designing the future itself. The speaker list and schedule have been out for several weeks now, and over 400 people will be thronging Malmo University, Sweden, enjoying the event live. Here at SocialFinance.ca, we'll be covering the event both online and in person through Jonathan Sundqvist, whose expertise lies in covering CSR issues. Watch out for his posts over the next few days.

SOCAP has been around for several years now, playing a critical role in connecting players in emerging social impact markets - as well as those who have been espousing and practicing related values for many years, but were isolated from one another.

However, the organizers are clearly not resting on their laurels - they've taken the event to another level. While there is the usual mix of debates, sharing research and hands-on practical sessions, this is 'a high concept SOCAP' as convenor Kevin Jones puts it, tackling systemic issues that require deep thought and analysis.

With austerity settling in everywhere, public-private partnerships are a natural theme to explore, as are inclusion and social cohesiveness - often the greatest victim of spending cuts. At the same time, the climate remains one of the greatest challenges of the current era. We don't, and may never, have all the answers to these problems. But we do know that scaling social enterprises will be a part of the solution.

The focus on the biosphere economy is especially intriguing for us, as Canada increases its reliance on exploiting natural resources to drive the economy. It's important to understand how we can reach a 'safe operating space' for humanity and learn how to invest with the whole planet in mind.

Many of our readers are probably not in Malmo today - but never fear, you can follow events through the hashtag #SOCAPdtf on Twitter.

Don't like following lots of small text updates and prefer video? Never fear - SOCAP has set up a livestream as well - all sessions in the main plenary hall (D138 on the schedule) will be streamed live and made available on the SOCAP channel. While you're watching SOCAP from your desk across the world, you can flip through the program book as well.

Excited? So are we. So here's a nice little video to get you started:

SOCAP - SST12 from OurCommonGoal on Vimeo.

Photo credit: SOCAPMarkets on Twitter.

SocialFinance.ca produces a weekly round up featuring social finance related news, insights, job openings, and events. We source the content for these round ups from Twitter, an RSS reader, and directly from our community of social finance practitioners. Below is our round up for the week of May 7, 2012.

Last Week on SocialFinance.ca

Colleen Ebinger posted Risk vs. Risk on May 1, 2012.

Jo Reynolds posted Update from the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing - May 2012 on May 2, 2012.

Sara Lyons posted Video: A Hope That Saves in Rwanda on May 4, 2012.

Canadian and International News

Omidyar Network has announced that it will fund Social Finance in the UK and its sister organization in the US with over £1.3 million of grant support for the expansion of social impact bonds in the United States, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Canada and Israel, as well as in the international development sector.

Canada has committed $250 million to create the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in the Americas. Managed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the fund will finance private sector climate mitigation and adaptation projects in Latin America and the Caribbean that require concessional financing to become viable.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has secured a special drawing right of $12.4 billion for the next four-year phase of its concessional development fund, providing critical financial support to fight poverty in Asia and the Pacific region.

Citi's Environmental Products Trading and Origination team, working with Citi Microfinance, has agreed to purchase 1.17 million metric tonnes of carbon credits. These credits will be generated by capturing reductions of greenhouse gas emissions following the installation of more efficient household insulation and heating fixtures in Mongolia's “gers,” the traditional and ubiquitous tent-like structures that house more than a quarter of those living in the country’s capital.

Drawing on novel and useful insights from its work, Dalberg has released a compendium of ideas on improving investments in global development: Fund This, Not That [PDF].

The Carsey Institute and the CDFI Fund have published a Summary Report [PDF] exploring the issues of capitalization, liquidity, and portfolio and risk management by Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, launched its first green bond in the US market, raising $500 million for climate-friendly investments in emerging markets.

Along with three other African countries, Ghana has been selected to benefit from Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) to secure national forests. The CIFs are unique financing instruments designed to initiate transformational change towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channeled through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

Microfinance platform Wokai announced that it is beginning the process of winding down the nonprofit company and concluding operations. Over its five years of operations, Wokai helped thousands of people across rural China build businesses and raise themselves out of poverty.

Social Finance Learning and Best Practices

The latest issue of The Philanthropist is out, focusing largely on nonprofit accountability and risk management.

The Canadian Social Economy Hub has produced three final publications building on the results of the national, six-year research program. PDF versions of the e-books are available for download.

Thea Garon offers a review of the literature on microinsurance. The papers and posts selected, pulled from the archives of Financial Access Initiative (FAI), offer a valuable sampling of some of the current ideas and debates within the nascent field of microinsurance.

Carol Goar of The Star offers a simple primer on social enterprise for Torontonians who want to understand what’s going on in the sector and why it matters.

Check out Episode 10 of Unreasonables featuring Saba Gul, a social entrepreneur in Pakistan looking to scale her handbag business, as she debates an all-too-common issue: Should her company be structured as a for-profit or nonprofit?

Oikocredit reflects on the potential for ethical consumers to also be ethical investors.

The Centre for American Progress describes an important challenge tied to social impact bonds and government contracting that is often overlooked: choosing the best external organization to achieve the desired outcomes.

Together with the IMF’s Financial Access Survey, the Findex project is helping to correct a long-standing imbalance in the evidence on global finance. Recent Findex data shows the broad shape of financial access for the first time using a unified approach.

Felix Salmon writes on the promise of B-corps, which he believes have more promise than the mainstream gives them credit for.

The fourth edition of J.P. Morgan and CGAP’s annual Global Microfinance Equity Valuation Survey Report has been released. The responses to this year’s survey reveal that private equity markets experienced an important increase in deal activity from the slower pace recorded in 2010.

David Ferrell profiles Ron D. Cordes, a successful 52-year-old entrepreneur, who set out several years ago to achieve equal success in a new, entirely different career mission: giving money away.

Roland Dominice, co-founder and CEO of a Geneva-based microfinance investment services company, writes about Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIVs) and the role they play in sourcing capital to fund microfinance institutions globally.

Dom Potter highlights the distinctions between social impact and social value, which are critical to note and understand, particularly after the recent passing of the Public Services (Social Value) Act in the UK.

The Muslim Strategic Initiative has released a white paper on leveraging social enterprise to create new revenue streams for mosques. The objective of the note is to illustrate the need for Islamic organizations to transition from relying on donations and charitable gifts as the primary source of revenue and to encourage the shift towards social enterprise as a way to generate much-needed dollars.

Havona Madama, a New York City lawyer and successful crowdfunder, offers insight around how you can more effectively crowdfund for your next book, album, app, or community project, such as choosing a short time limit and knowing how to use social media.

John Fullerton writes on the case for public banking in America.

Discovery 

Shmoney - matches people who want things done for them with people who can help them.

Job Opportunities

Social Assets Measurement is seeking an SROI Analyst to work with the organization’s clients on developing SROIs.

The Unreasonable Institute is looking for a Program Manager to design and execute the 6-week Summer Institute for entrepreneurs.

Calvert Social Investment Foundation is seeking a Compliance Officer, among several other roles.

Investing4Good in the UK is recruiting: they're looking for a Business Development Manager and a Social Bonds Programme Manager.

Applications for the Kiva fellowship are now open! The deadline to apply is May 13th. For more information on the application process or to see dates for future classes, please click here.

Upcoming Events

SOCAP: Designing the Future
May 8 - 10, Malmo, Sweden

2012 BALLE Business Conference: Real Prosperity Starts Here
May 15-19, Grand Rapids, MI

Let's Talk About Risk. Conversations for Investing with our Values
May 22, Rogue Kitchen, Vancouver

Environmental Bonds Conference
May 23, New York

BALLE Accelerating Community Capital Webinar Series
June 12, Online (Webinar)

Canada’s Socially Responsible Investment Conference
June 18 - 20, Montreal, Quebec

Igniting Capital Markets for Social Good
June 25-26, Singapore

Cracking the Nut 2012 Conference
June 25-26, 2012, Enrique V. Iglesias Conference Center, Washington, DC

Charities' Next Top Model: Can Social Franchising work?
June 26, 2012, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, UK

Partnering for Global Impact
July 9-10, Lugano, Switzerland

PRI-CBERN Academic Conference 2012
October 1-3, York University, Toronto, Canada

The Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) - Fórum Mundial de Negócios Sociais 2012
October 16-18, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/603815615/

Faith. Prosperity. Microfinance. Evangelism. Collective Renewal. How are all these things connected in a virtuous cycle?

Our Video of the Week is from HOPE International, a Canadian international development agency, and tells the story of their small savings circle program which builds communities around spiritual and material sustenance.

One of the many after-effects of the horrific Rwandan genocide was, reportedly, a loss of trust in the Church. However, a partnership between HOPE International and the Church has provided much-needed financial support and helped the community recover from the violence.

Have you seen other examples of religious institutions partnering with external organizations to provide financial support? What do you think of this model?

Opened in late 2011, the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing (the Centre) is designed to increase the awareness and effectiveness of social finance by catalyzing new capital, talent and collaborative initiatives to deliver innovative solutions to Canada’s social and environmental challenges. Now that the Centre has been in operation for three months, we are keen to share with the MaRS community our goals and our progress to date.

The Centre is working toward becoming a national hub of social finance excellence, serving as a neutral collaboration platform for private, community and government sectors to work together to co-create new financial products and services, and to develop talent and forward-looking public policy to grow impact investing in Canada.

Building the foundation:Our team

A key organizational focus of the Centre is to successfully recruit and onboard a new Director as part of the leadership team at MaRS. This process in well underway and we look forward to having a leader in place soon. Our next step will be to secure expert advisors whose guidance will enable the Centre to be an active hub for cross-sector development in the field of impact investing.

We are very happy to have Trish Nixon as the Centre’s first intern. Trish brings a strong background in business journalism and is supporting our print communications and media relations, as well as many other projects!

Highlights from our program areas

Our research and public policy activities are focused around the efforts of the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance, which continues to carry weight in the impact investment ecosystem at a local and global level. The Task Force released its progress report, Mobilizing Private Capital for Public Good: Measuring progress during year one, this past December. The Centre is currently spearheading several initiatives to advance the Task Force’s recommendations, including undertaking mission-related investing research, exploring social impact bonds and working with a diverse cross-section of impact players. Progressive foundations continue to strive toward the 10% mission goal set out in the 2010 report, while several large financial institutions have made inroads in mobilizing new sources of capital for public good (e.g., Vancity’s Resilient Capital Program and RBC’s Impact Fund). In addition, the British Columbia government has adopted hybrid corporation legislation with the passage of community interest company legislation. Adam Jagelewski supports the work of the Task Force within the Centre team.

Our impact measurement activities are currently focused on the development of a B-Corp hub and are led by Joyce Sou, Manager, B Corporations and Social Impact Metrics. These activities celebrate the significant rise of B Corps in Canada. There are now 41 Canadian B Corps, with 29 formed in the last 12 months. They span 25 industries, from Bullfrog Power (renewable energy) to Ethical Bean and Salt Spring Coffee (beverage companies) to Ian Martin Group (job placement) and Renewal2 (impact investing). These companies are diverse and competitive in local markets as well as in the US. For more information, see the Financial Post article, “Canadian B Corps among ‘Best for the World’.”

Market and product development includes the SVX with Adam Spence leading the way. The SVX will be a local, impact-first platform connecting impact ventures, funds, investors and service providers to catalyze new debt and equity investment capital. The SVX is currently seeking appropriate approvals from the local securities regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), and is expected to launch in spring 2012. In addition, there will be another new and robust online platform for the SVX, so stay tuned for that in the weeks and months ahead.

Our education & engagement program pillar is a full team effort led by Joanna Reynolds and Nabeel Ahmed. SocialFinance.ca is pleased to include over 140 writers with 12,000 monthly visits to the site. The site continues to be a place where emerging and established practitioners in the field can convene online. We are pleased to be the social media partners for Partnering for Global Impact (Lugano, Switzerland) and for SOCAP Europe 2012. (Please fill out the current survey for a chance to win Impact Investing by Antony Bugg-Levine and Jed Emerson!)

Over the past three months, we have delivered presentations at more than 15 events to over 1,000 interested attendees and stakeholders. Most recently, we were pleased to participate in the inaugural Prince Edward County Social Enterprise Conference held on March 8. In May, we will launch Social Finance Connects, a monthly interactive web conference for those involved in the field. Contact me for further information (jreynolds@marsdd.com).

We have a two-day workshop coming up for not-for-profits interested in the technical application of social finance through the Innoweave program. You can find us at these upcoming events:

• Queen’s University (May 23rd)
• CCEDNet-Ontario: Connections 2012 (June 7th)
• Canadian Responsible Investment Conference (June 19th)

For regular updates on what we are working toward as well as with Centre events, visit http://impactinvesting.marsdd.com. We also invite you to visit SocialFinance.ca for sector reports and discussions, and to become involved as a contributor to the site.

Note: Originally posted on the MaRS blog.

The Nonprofit Finance Fund, which has been doing the country an incredible service by conducting rigorous research and sharing information on the emerging Pay For Success (PFS) models in the United States, released its latest report (download, PDF) yesterday. [If you're new to the social finance space, don't even try to read through this post without at least a little background. I've written some general summaries previously - find them here and here].

NFF describes each of these financing models as “accelerating the transition of the United States social sector from on output-driven funding model to an outcomes-driven funding model” and acknowledges that, as with any new model for anything, there are competing risk trade-offs for the various stakeholders. Those trade-offs differ among models and they’ve put together a handy little infographic that illustrates those financial risk tradeoffs.

If you go to the report, you can see each of these groups (investors, providers, government) broken out into its own infographic with a list of relevant factors listed below each. For example, under lower risk for providers, we see that no working capital is at risk — but the authors also note there are higher barriers to access, higher provider reputational risk, and higher oversight costs. Similarly, if we look at, say, lower risk for government, we’ll see that there is a higher cost of capital, high reputational risk, and likely higher transaction costs to change procurement and contracting systems.

What this says to me is that there really is no “low risk” category. Almost every model does in fact carry some very real risks for each actor – but it varies by type of risk — financial, reputational, access.

Understandably, NFF has focused on the financial risk but I’d love to see a brilliant infograhic artist create a diagram that can help us visualize the trade-offs among the other types of risk.

As a sidebar, another fascinating insight from the report demonstrates the continuing importance of our country’s federal system – and the unique role it creates for state and local governments when compared to many other countries.

“By comparison to how PFS financing has developed in the United Kingdom and how it is developing in, for example, Australia and Canada, the development of the PFS Financing field in the United States is a “bottom up” phenomenon. Because of this, cities, counties and states will undoubtedly launch the first wave of proof-of-concept PFS Financing pilots. As a result….there will be local differences…”

I am ridiculously curious to see which models get adapted, where, and for what reason.

Note: Originally posted at ISG Impact. Image taken from original report.
See SocialFinance.ca's topic page with FAQs on Social Impact Bonds.

SocialFinance.ca produces a weekly round up featuring social finance related news, insights, job openings, and events. We source the content for these round ups from Twitter, an RSS reader, and directly from our community of social finance practitioners. Below is our round up for the week of April 30, 2012.

Note: Have you taken the SocialFinance.ca Survey yet? Help us improve the quality of the information and services offered to you, and enter a draw to win a copy of Impact Investing by Antony Bugg-Levine and Jed Emerson! 5 copies up for grabs, so fill out the short survey now!

Last Week on SocialFinance.ca

Megan McFadden posted How Are You Designing the Future? on April 25, 2012

Brendan Reimer posted Community Economies and Jobs to Suffer Without Support to Co-operative Development on April 26, 2012

Nabeel Ahmed posted Video: Launch of Big Society Capital on April 27, 2012

Canadian and International News

The BC Social Innovation Council released its final report, Action Plan Recommendations to Maximize Social Innovation in British Columbia, on Friday, April 27th. The eleven recommendations in the report are meant to enhance the work of social innovators and entrepreneurs today as well as creating opportunities for new ideas and new players in the future. Four of the eleven recommendations focus on supporting social enterprises - a social enterprise investment tax credit, the use of social procurement and social impact bonds, and SME support extended to social enterprises. Download full report [PDF].

On April 26-27, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted the Global Impact Economy Forum to 'accelerate practices and thinking around the impact economy'.A few days before the Forum, Kris Balderston (Special Representative for Global Partnerships) and Kirsty Jenkinson (Director of Markets and Enterprise Program of the World Resources Institute, were interviewed by Cheryl Benton, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Public Affairs, speaking about the evolution of impact investing.

Morgan Stanley launched a new 'investing with impact' platform to offer both financial as well as social and environmental returns. Audrey Choi, head of global sustainable finance at Morgan Stanley, explained the new approach in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The Skoll Foundation and USAID launched a new $44.5 million Global Development Alliance to 'identify and co-invest in high-impact social entrepreneurs, supporting them in scaling up business models'.

An Australian Community Sector Banking consortium has released a financial product that it says will donate 50 per cent of account profits towards social projects; investors can also elect to donate a proportion of their interest to the fund. The Bendigo Bank and Community 21 joint venture called Community Sector Banking (a consortium of 20 nonprofit organisations including Oxfam Australia, Scope and ACOSS) has launched the product called the Social Investment Deposit Account.

Incofin Investment Management, Fairtrade International and Grameen Foundation announced they are establishing the first fund to focus on the unmet demand of smallholder farmers for long-term loans. Starbucks Coffee Company SBUX +1.01% joins as the Fund's first anchor private investor with a $1.3m (1m euros) commitment.

RSF Social Finance (RSF) is proud to announce a new loan to Viva Farms, a farm incubator program in Washington state’s Skagit Valley. Viva Farms’ mission is to train and support Washington’s next generation of farmers.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) released its first-ever report, entitled Towards Sustainable Investment: Taking Responsibility, chronicling the pension fund’s efforts on sustainable investing at the CERES innovation and sustainability conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Download report [PDF].

Ceres and Sustainalytics released a new report, The Road to 2020: Corporate Progress on The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability, which assesses how U.S. businesses are progressing on sustainability. As a framework, it uses The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability, a guide for integrating sustainability across a company’s entire enterprise. Specifically, it evaluates where 600 large publicly traded companies stand on sustainability issues in terms of governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure and performance. Download report [PDF].

There is a £1bn gap in funding for social investment, says the UK Cabinet Office, which last week held a roundtable meeting to discuss barriers to social investment.

Sistema B became the first B Corp (or rather, Empresa B) to be registered in Latin America, reports Alex Goldmark.

Impact Investment Exchange Asia, a social enterprise stock exchange in Singapore, is set to be officially launched in June at the Igniting Capital Markets conference.

Social Finance Learning and Best Practices

The Nonprofit Finance Fund released a 'risk trade continuum', displaying different structural approaches for pay-for-success/outcomes-based financing. They organize five different models on the basis of perceived risk for investors, providers and commissioners (government). Download the infographics here [PDF].

CGAP and the Microcredit Summit Campaign invite you to participate in a virtual conference on reaching the poorest. Last November, the Campaign hosted more than 2,000 people from around the world for the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit in Valladolid, Spain. It was an intense 3 days of learning, sharing, and networking about emerging and more mature best practices for reaching the poorest. This goal of this virtual conference is to continue the conversation and capture any new developments since the Summit.

Social bonds offer charity investors possibilities, but there will need to be developments before they will fit into a traditional portfolio, says John Hildebrand of Investec Wealth & Investment.

The Mackenzie Charitable Giving Fund released a Guide to Charitable Giving and Estate Planning, with two especially interesting articles. The first, by Brad Offman, defends charities and nonprofits against the relentless and somewhat needless focus on administrative costs; later in the publication, Malcolm Burrows talks about spending down by foundations. Read publication here [PDF].

Philanthropy Management, a new quarterly magazine focusing on the financial, operational and strategic services that underpin sustainable giving, published its first issue. It included an article on the dangers of the profit motive for microfinance. Download full issue [PDF].

Alexander Friedman and Patty Stonesifer make the case that finance, despite all its critics, can play an important role in helping tackle social problems. They also make three recommendations regarding social finance and impact investing.

John Tizard dissects the false dichotomy between impact investing and charitable grants, arguing that they are all different forms of social finance and pointing out that grants and development funds remain essential. "All of the social and charity can benefit from investment - it just has to be the right type of investment for each organization."

In late March, Symbiotics published its first book: Microfinance Investments: An investor's guide to financing the growth and wealth creation of small enterprises and low income households in emerging economies. It aims to give its readers an overview of the industry dating back to the beginning of its commercialization up to our post-financial crisis era. Download table of contents [PDF].

Discoveries

Development Innovation Ventures - USAID grant program that funds social-purpose projects.

Jobs

The ACCESS Community Capital Fund is looking for a Program Coordinator to help expand the ACCESS micro-lending program.

Investing4Good in the UK is recruiting: they're looking for a Business Development Manager and a Social Bonds Programme Manager.

Social Asset Measurements is hiring; seeking an SROI Analyst [description, PDF] to work with clients on developing SROIs. The deadline for applications is May 7th at 5pm EDT. Candidates should submit their resume and cover letter as a single .pdf attachment via e-mail to hr@socialassets.org.

Applications for the Kiva fellowship are now open! The deadline to apply is May 13th. For more information on the application process or to see dates for future classes, please click here.

The Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL) is seeking an entrepreneurial undergrad or recent graduate to join the team this summer. Email a cover letter and resume to Emily Silberstein at careers@efinlab.com. See more detailsat NextBillion.net.

Events

Enterprising Non-Profits Alberta: Building Your Social Enterprise Workshop (Edmonton)
April 30, 2012 at the Business Link, Edmonton, Alberta

3rd Annual Impact Conference
22-25 April, 2012, Miami, Florida

Extending the Conversation on Reaching the Poorest: Another look at the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit
May 2 - 4, 2012, Online

SOCAP: Designing the Future
May 8 - 10, Malmo, Sweden

Let's Talk About Risk. Conversations for Investing with our Values
May 22, Rogue Kitchen, Vancouver

Environmental Bonds Conference
May 23, New York

Canada’s Socially Responsible Investment Conference
June 18 - 20, Montreal, Quebec

Igniting Capital Markets for Social Good
June 25-26, Singapore

Cracking the Nut 2012 Conference
June 25-26, 2012, Enrique V. Iglesias Conference Center, Washington, DC

Partnering for Global Impact
July 9-10, Lugano, Switzerland

PRI-CBERN Academic Conference 2012
October 1-3, York University, Toronto, Canada

The Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) - Fórum Mundial de Negócios Sociais 2012
October 16-18, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/603815615/