Skip to main content

Home/ Social Finance/ Group items tagged private

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
adamspence

CapLinked | The Future of Private Investment - 0 views

secure.caplinked.com

online market private investment

shared by adamspence on 10 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • adamspence on 10 Jun 11
     
    Online private investment market based in the US
Peter Deitz

iiSummit : 2011 Impact Investing Summit - 0 views

www.iisummit.com

impact investing chicago conference

shared by Peter Deitz on 26 May 11 - No Cached
  • 2011 Impact Investing Summit The Impact Investing Summit (iiSummit) aims to mobilize the power of private capital in the Midwest for social and financial return. Impact investing is an emerging asset class that is gaining increased recognition from institutional investors, high net worth individuals, and private foundations. In this nascent industry, there is a range of options around financial returns, type and location of investment, and potential exits. The iiSummit will bring together national experts in this field—including members and advisors to private foundations; State Department and SBA representatives; and institutional, venture capital, and individual investors—to explore impact investment options for the Midwest.
  • Invited Keynote Speakers Dave Kirkpatrick, SJF Ventures Sasha Dichter, Acumen Fund Dave Chen, Equilibrium Capital Wes Selke, Good Capital & Hub Ventures Tom Balderston, Investors' Circle & Patient Capital Collaborative Patrick Fisher, Creation Ventures Deb Quazzo, NeXtAdvisors Karen Lehman, Fresh Taste Initiative Keith Crandell, ARCH Venture Partners and Clean Energy Trust
Tim Draimin

Social Impact Bonds: A New Vehicle to Drive Health Care Reform? : Spencer Healthcare St... - 0 views

www.shstrategists.com/...le-to-drive-health-care-reform

social impact bonds social finance health care

shared by Tim Draimin on 31 May 11 - No Cached
  • social impact bonds hold promise, especially in health care. Right now, all eyes are focused on accountable care organizations and the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Probably the biggest obstacle to the program's success is the high cost of forming ACOs, with many organizations dismissing ACOs out of hand due to the lack of available capital. If, however, we inserted another party into the equation - the private investor to whom the government would agree to share cost savings - that investor would become the source of much-needed capital. The chance of success improves dramatically, but at absolutely no cost or increased risk to the government.
  • As proposed, the Medicare Shared Savings Program permits non-providers to hold up to a 25 percent interest in an ACO, thus allowing private investors in on the game. The shared savings payments, if any, still would go to the ACO, and it would be up to the ACO's governing body to determine allocation among participants, including investors. Under the social impact bond model, however, the full payment would go to the investor, creating a greater incentive for the investor to provide necessary capital.
  • Social impact bonds could help drive health reform by lining up incentives and providing necessary resources while reducing government spending care and improving overall health. While the concept is new and relatively untested in health care (but has demonstrated success in other areas), we need to explore whether there are investors who would value an opportunity to drive health care reform. With CMS soliciting comments on the proposed Advanced Payment Initiative - under which CMS would make advances on shared savings payments to ACOs to cover development costs - it makes sense to consider private investors as the source of such funding at the same time.  
adamspence

Sarona Asset Management commits $3.5 million in new impact investments - 0 views

www.newswire.ca/...c5936.html

impact investing deal sarona

shared by adamspence on 19 May 11 - No Cached
  • Sarona Asset Management announced today that its Sarona Frontier Markets Fund I LP has committed US$3,500,000 to two private equity funds: US$2,000,000 to the South Asia Clean Energy Fund and US$1,500,000 to the Fanisi Venture Capital Fund.
  • adamspence on 19 May 11
     
    "Sarona Asset Management announced today that its Sarona Frontier Markets Fund I LP has committed US$3,500,000 to two private equity funds: US$2,000,000 to the South Asia Clean Energy Fund and US$1,500,000 to the Fanisi Venture Capital Fund."
Tim Draimin

Proposal weds investors and charities - 0 views

www.vancouversun.com/...story.html

social impact bonds pay for success social finance

shared by Tim Draimin on 02 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Imagine if charities had to operate like companies in the private sector. They would need to raise capital from investors in order to carry out their work and investors would get returns if the charity produced results. But this isn’t just a hypothetical scenario – it’s exactly what is being proposed under a new type of philanthropy called ‘social impact bonds’ or ‘pay-for-success bonds’.
  • This pay-for-success model certainly sounds promising, but there are some potential issues that may emerge when profit-focused investments are combined with socially-focused charitable activities.
  • One is the tendency to help beneficiaries most likely to achieve a positive outcome. Sticking with the prison reform example, charities might try to maximize their outcomes by helping mostly or only those prisoners who will be the easiest to integrate back into society. The prisoners with the more complex and time-intensive reform challenges will not be helped because the risk to investors is too high. Charities that work with the hardest to help will continue to struggle to find funders who will support their costly and long-term work – important as it may be.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Another potential barrier to this pay-for-success approach is that the funding to pay investors their return ultimately comes from government. These investments are not necessarily creating a new pot of money. Rather, they’re transferring the risk from taxpayers to private investors. In the past, government funding for social projects would pay for everything upfront, regardless of outcomes. Now, under impact bonds, they will only pay for results from non-profits after they have been achieved. So, are pay-for-success bonds a truly revolutionary way to fund charitable work, or is it just government funding repackaged?
  • espite potential shortcomings, these pay-for-success bonds are forcing people to rethink how the not-for-profit sector operates and funds its work. Applying private sector principles to charities is not necessarily a bad thing – many non-profits can benefit from working more efficiently and measuring their results. But whether these new bonds are the mechanism that will transform philanthropy remains to be seen.
Tim Draimin

Social Innovation Europe Initiative Launched in Brussels :: wbc-inco.net - 0 views

wbc-inco.net/...112035.html

social innovation europe innovation socialenterprise

shared by Tim Draimin on 06 May 11 - No Cached
  • On March 16 and 17, 2011, Social Innovation Europe was launched in Brussels. Funded by the European Commission, Social Innovation Europe will create a dynamic, entrepreneurial and innovative new Europe. The time has come for Europe to embrace the broad concept of innovation and set an example globally. By 2014, Social Innovation Europe will have become the meeting place - virtual and real - for social innovators, entrepreneurs, non-profit organisations, policy makers and anyone else who is inspired by social innovation in Europe. Through a series of gatherings, and a new online resource, Social Innovation Europe will: connect projects and people who can share experiences and learn from each other; develop an easily accessible resource bank - so you can find about other projects, organisations and ways of working; develop a resource bank of up to date policies at local and national levels and provide information on funding opportunities; facilitate new relationships between civil society, governments, public sector institutions and relevant private sector bodies develop concrete recommendations in financing and in upscaling/mainstreaming of social innovation in Europe Download the conference report.
  • Tim Draimin on 06 May 11
     
    Social Innovation goes mainstream in Europe as European Union launches SI Europe March 2011 conference with presentations by Geoff Mulgan, Vickie Cammack of Tyze, many others including José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission. His speech included: SPEECH/11/190 José Manuel Durão Barroso President of the European Commission Europe leading social innovation Social Innovation Europe initiative Brussels, 17 March 2011 Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure to be here and see all of you around this very important issue - how to pursue our dialogue on social innovation. I would like to thank Geoff Mulgan and Diogo Vasconcelos for their kind invitation and also to congratulate them together with Louise Pulford for having won the call to set up the pilot initiative "Social innovation Europe". I also would like to thank DG enterprise for having organised this launch event today. As you know the Commission is fully involved. Lázsló Andor was with you yesterday. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn will be with you today, so this idea of innovation is indeed a major issue for the Commission I am proud to lead. Europe has a long and strong tradition of social innovation: from the workplace to hospices, and from the cooperative movement to microfinance. We have always been a continent of creative social entrepreneurs who have designed systems to enhance education, health, social inclusion and the well-being of citizens. By nature social innovation is an ever-evolving field to keep pace with fast-changing challenges in society. But what concretely do we mean by social innovation? I think it is important to recognise that this concept is not yet fully accepted in the political debate. I think social innovation is about meeting the unmet social needs and improving social outcomes. It is about tapping into the creativity of charities, associations and social entrepreneurs to find new ways of meeting pressing social needs, which are not adequately met
Tim Draimin

The Social Business concept | Grameen Creative Lab - passion for social business - 0 views

www.grameencreativelab.com/...the-concept.html

social business social finance social innovation

shared by Tim Draimin on 29 Jun 11 - Cached
  • The Social Business concept "By defining entrepreneurship in a broader way we can change the character of capitalism radically" - Prof. Yunus
  • Within our economic system, there are currently two prevailing approaches to organizations. The first is that of the private sector where companies sell products or services to make money. However, there are important issues in our society which are not addressed by the private sector because they do not offer profit-making opportunities. This usually leads to government interventions to create legal and institutional frameworks to advance the common good and to protect the interests of weaker members of society. Where both governments and the markets reach their limits, charities may fill the gap.
  • The problem is, of course, that the system does not work well enough. We live in a world of terrible injustice and widespread poverty. Governments and charities have the will to improve it, but they lack the efficiency and innovativeness of the private sector. So why not combine the two sides? Let's bring the methods of business to the task of solving social problems such as poverty and create - social businesses!
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Social business - the 3rd way money. Unlike traditional business, social business operates for the benefit of addressing social needs that enable societies to function more efficiently. Social business provides a necessary framework for tackling social issues by combining business know-how with the desire to improve quality of life. Therefore instead of being self-focused social business is all about others. Prof. Yunus has already shown the effectiveness of this new type of business: his clear focus on eradicating extreme poverty combined with his condition of economic sustainability has created numerous models with incredible growth potential.   Social business follows seven principles.
  • It will be an entirely new kind of business. Until now running a business has always been self-focused, founded for the purpose of making
  • Tim Draimin on 29 Jun 11
     
    Courtesy of Shari Austin at RBC, I met with Leonhard Nima at The Grameen Creative Lab, which is promoting Muhammad Yunus' vision of "social business" as a way of transforming capitalism. TGCL is located in Germany. They promote social businesses and operate country programs (e.g. Colombia, India, Haiti). They think of themselves as a "creative lab" since they are experimenting and testing new ideas, planting the seeds for change, always in a pragmatic fashion. They haven't used the "social innovation" language but readily see how social innovation and their approach to social business acceleration overlap. They will run a "social business lab" in NYC September 16-17 just prior to the Clinton Global Initiative. It might be useful for someone from MaRS to attend. Pasted below is information on the CEO Saskia Bruysten and her colleague Leonhard Nima, which whom I spoke. I asked if Saskia could do a webinar on Grameen Creative Lab as part of our socialfinance series. Saskia Bruysten, CEO and Strategic Director Saskia Bruysten CEO and Strategic Director of the Grameen Creative Lab Former management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, Munich and New York Master in International Relations from London School of Economics Master in Business Administration from European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel, Germany Studied abroad in Argentina and the US Was named Generation CEO 2010 member Leonhard Nima Leonhard Nima loves social business Work experience as a management consultant at Accenture and as a financial analyst for the international communication agency Avantgarde Diploma in Economics at the Ruhr University of Bochum Thesis on active labour market policies for the European Commission Loves snowboarding and photography leonhard.nima@grameencl.com
Tim Draimin

Impact Capital is the New Venture Capital | Entrepreneur the Arts - 1 views

blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/...tal-is-the-new-venture-capital

social finance impact investing social enterprise

shared by Tim Draimin on 14 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • Impact Capital is the New Venture Capital
  • By Sir Ronald Cohen
  • Broadly speaking, capitalism does not deal with its social consequences. Even as communities grow richer on average, so the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” increases. For example, since the mid-1970s, both the USA and UK have actually become less equal rather than more equal. In the long post-war boom many governments did make significant headway in ameliorating the consequences of social inequality. This can be seen in levels of investment in areas such as health and in critical performance measures such as life expectancy. Nevertheless, governments, despite their best efforts and even in the best of times, have not been able to resolve all social problems.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Commentators on one side of the political spectrum attribute this failure to the lack of resources available to the state and to the state’s reluctance or inability to act appropriately. Commentators on the other side attribute government’s shortcomings to the inherent inefficiency of the state itself. The truth is that the political process, which focuses on short-term gains, does not favor long-term, preventative investment of the type required to address major social problems.
  • The social sector, which is also called the voluntary, non-profit or third sector, has done its best, with the support of philanthropic donations and government, to address the social problems that fall through the gaps in government provision.
  • Some argue that the social sector’s problem is that it is significantly under-resourced. Others argue that the insufficiency of resources is in part a consequence of the sector’s reliance upon philanthropy — from foundations and from individual donors — that can be unpredictable. Both critiques may be correct: the social sector has a problem in accessing capital, often because of a lack of a reliable revenue stream, and, as a consequence, it is inefficient, especially in respect of building sustainable organizations, securing funding and utilizing assets to support large-scale activity.
  • Recent moves to make the social sector more efficient, by focusing on improvements to the management of both the donors and the recipients of grants, are an important development. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation applies rigorous criteria to the assessment of the performance of organizations in receipt of its grant funding. Michael Dell’s philanthropic work is similarly rigorous. Their goal, according to Harvard professors Robert Kaplan and Allen Grossman, is, essentially, “to find and fund the Microsofts and Dells of the non-profit sector.”
  • In fact, such moves are more necessary than ever, as deficit-ridden governments seek to pass greater responsibility onto the shoulders of the social sector. An example of this is the UK Coalition Government’s strategic objective to foster the “Big Society.” In essence, the Big Society agenda seeks to pass a significant portion of responsibility for social cohesion back to the community via the voluntary sector, and, at the same time, to confer greater legitimacy upon such community work and to provide incentives and support for it. However, the social sector as currently constituted is unlikely to be able to address the scale of the social need; or, to put it another way, to meet the scale of the social challenge.
  • This is where social entrepreneurs come in. We know that entrepreneurs create jobs and foster innovation. In that sense, they already make a substantial social contribution. But entrepreneurs have special qualities that could make a significant beneficial impact were they to be applied to social issues. The entrepreneurial mindset embraces leadership, vision, the ability to attract talented people, drive, focus, perseverance, self-confidence, optimism, competitiveness and ambition. To these one might add an appetite for taking informed risks, an unwavering focus on results, a willingness to take responsibility, a grounded sense of realism, astute judgment of opportunities and people, and a fascination with the field of enterprise in question. The engagement of entrepreneurs in the social sector, bringing in their wake high expectations of performance, accountability and innovation, could lead to significantly increased social impact.
  • Could the social sector be transformed to allow the emergence of entrepreneurs from within its own ranks and attract social entrepreneurs and capital on a large scale? The answer is yes, provided that we can create an effective system to support social entrepreneurship, by linking the social sector to the capital markets and introducing new financial instruments that enable entrepreneurs to make beneficial social impact while also making adequate financial returns for investors. Given these conditions, it is possible that social entrepreneurs and impact investors will significantly fill the gap between social need and current government and social-sector provision. Indeed, were social enterprise to achieve significant scale, it would transform the social sector and lead to a new contract between government, the capital markets and citizens.
  • In this process, charitable, institutional and private investors, attracted by the combination of social as well as financial returns, would bring into being a new asset class: impact investment. In a recent report, JP Morgan came to the conclusion that impact investments already constitute an emerging asset class: “In a world where government resources and charitable donations are insufficient to address the world’s social problems, impact investing offers a new alternative for channeling large-scale private capital for social benefit. With increasing numbers of investors rejecting the notion that they face a binary choice between investing for maximum risk-adjusted returns or donating for social purpose, the impact investment market is now at a significant turning point as it enters the mainstream… We argue that impact investments are emerging as an alternative asset class.”
  • This new asset class requires a specific set of investment and risk-management skills; it demands organizational structures to accommodate these skills; it must be serviced by industry organizations and associations; and it must encourage the development of standardized metrics, benchmarks and even ratings. As has been observed by the impact-investment firm Bridges Ventures in the UK, such an asset class should provide welcome diversification for capital markets: at times of economic stress, price-sensitive business models appropriate to lower income neighborhoods can prove more resilient and also find wider applications in the mainstream market as both margins and consumer spending power are squeezed.
  • Not surprisingly, politicians as well as academics, entrepreneurs and investors are paying increasingly close attention to these developments. In the US and in the UK, and now also in Canada and Australia, steps are being taken to provide social entrepreneurs with access to the same kinds of resources as business entrepreneurs. The USA’s Social Innovation Fund ($173 million) and the Investing in Innovation Fund ($644 million) are notable examples; as is the proposed creation of the UK’s Big Society Bank. In Canada, the Federal Government recently received the report of the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance, whose recommendations include requiring public and private foundations to devote a proportion of their funds to mission-related investments; clarifying fiduciary obligations so that pension funds and others can invest in social programs; introducing new financial instruments for social enterprise; and marshalling government support for social enterprise, directly through seed investment and business support services and indirectly through fiscal engineering.
  • How likely is it that such steps will succeed? In answering this question, we would do well to consider that the global economy faced a similar moment of challenge and opportunity in the 1970s and 1980s, when many of the most familiar names in the post-war corporate world started to decline and shed jobs, among them General Motors, American Motors, Courtaulds, ICI, Smith Corona, Olivetti, US Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Kodak and International Harvester. The question then was: what would take their place?
  • What took their place was a new wave of business enterprise helped by venture investing, mostly focused on high-tech industries. This is the wave that brought us Intel, Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Sun Microsystems and Genentech. The hi-tech wave has since swept the world, taking us into the embrace of Google, Wikipedia and Facebook and ushering in a communications and information revolution based on global access to information from multiple sources. It has thereby profoundly changed global culture.
  • Just as hi-tech business enterprise and venture capital, working in tandem, have attracted increasing numbers of talented risk-takers since the 1970s, so social enterprise and impact investment are now attracting a new generation of talented and committed innovators seeking to combine new approaches to achieving social returns. Social enterprise and impact investing, in short, look like the wave of the future.
  • About Sir Ronald Cohen Sir Ronald Cohen is chairman of Bridges Ventures and The Portland Trust. He chaired the UK’s Social Investment Task Force and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets and he is a founder-director of Social Finance. Until 2005, he was executive chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, which he co-founded in 1972.
  • Tim Draimin on 14 Jul 11
     
    Sir Ronald Cohen's overview of the emergence of the impact investing space, including references to Canada the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance.
adamspence

Socially responsible investments yield dividends - The National - 0 views

www.thenational.ae/...le-investments-yield-dividends

research impact investing asia

shared by adamspence on 19 May 11 - No Cached
  • Investing money to make a difference goes by several names, with "ethical", "impact", "green" and "socially responsible" among the industry favourites. But the definition is generally the same: returns are usually sacrificed in the name of doing good. This view is set to change, according to a report titled Impact Investing in Emerging Markets, by the consultancy Responsible Research.
  • The report has found impact investing in emerging markets is becoming more attractive to fund managers, private equity companies and retail investors worldwide, because the returns are now more compelling. The research cites a survey by the Global Impact Investing Network which found investors anticipate a return of between 20 and 24 per cent this year on their interests in impact companies working in emerging markets.

  • WillowTree is raising cash from investors around the world and has nearly reached its target of US$80 million (Dh293.8m).

    It will use these funds to take equity stakes in companies involved in education, health, food, poverty alleviation and community development, investing between $500,000 and $10m in each project.

    The private equity fund is focusing on the Middle East, North Africa and south Asia.

Tim Draimin

Honor the Stanford mission, be of value to society, urges Reich - 1 views

news.stanford.edu/...lassday-talk-reich-061111.html

social economy hybrid organizations social value

shared by Tim Draimin on 13 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Honor the Stanford mission, be of value to society, urges Reich
  • Rob Reich, associate professor of political science, exhorted members of the Class of 2011 to use their education not just for personal gain but also to better society.
  • Reich is an associate professor of political science, faculty director of the Program in Ethics in Society and co-director of the university's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • The new social economy Segueing into his lecture, "The Promise and Peril of the New Social Economy," Reich promptly informed his audience that his talk would not be about Facebook or Twitter or other social media.
  • "Same name, different guy," he said. "For the political junkies among you, you will know what I mean when I say that while I am lesser in stature, I am greater in height."
  • After a short performance by the a cappella group Everyday People, some welcoming remarks by Howard Wolf, president of the alumni association, and an introduction by Provost John Etchemendy, Reich stepped to the lectern. He prefaced his lecture by offering his apology to anyone who thought they were going to hear a talk by "the other" Robert Reich, the diminutive Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration.
  • "The exciting fact about the world that you graduates are about to enter is that there are many novel and innovative ways for people to do good." Rattling off some of the buzzwords associated with the new approaches, such as "impact investing," "venture capitalism" and "social return on investment," Reich acknowledged the enormous innovation and ferment that has been taking place. "This innovation brings along with it great promise," he said, "but also, I hope to show you, some real peril." Historically, he said, a flourishing democratic society is composed of three distinct sectors: the business or for-profit sector; the government or public sector; and the social or nonprofit and philanthropic sector, this last constituting the social economy.
  • "By 'new social economy,' I mean the broad new landscape of organizations that seek to produce social benefits," he said.
  • Blurring the lines But innovations of the past 20 years have broadened the social economy far beyond the world of nonprofit organizations and foundations, and the new social economy is full of hybrid organizations and philosophies.
  • In the for-profit sector there have been innovations such as "corporate social responsibility," in which corporations assume responsibility for the social impact of their actions.
  • And there is socially responsible investing, in which investment funds avoid industries embroiled in moral controversy, such as tobacco companies, or purposely invest in companies that produce social returns. Such funds barely existed 15 years ago, but now constitute more than 10 percent of professionally managed investment funds. There are nonprofit organizations that seek to create operations that earn revenue in addition to accepting donations, and "philanthrocapitalism," as The Economist dubbed it, in which philanthropists purposely employ business strategies in their grant-making efforts.
  • Government also acting
  • Even government is getting into the act, Reich said, with the creation of the White House Office of Social Innovation, which seeks to create new types of partnerships between government and the private sector, and between government and the public sector. The "Investing in Innovation Fund" of the Department of Education involved 12 foundations, including the Gates and Hewlett foundations, which contributed $500 million to the department to unlock $650 million in federal funds. "Now there's a genuinely novel idea," Reich said. "Foundations making grants to the federal government." Because of this blurring of boundaries between the traditional three sectors, the new social economy offers today's graduates a host of choices in "doing good." "If you aim to do good and pursue a social cause, you can be sector agnostic: It doesn't matter what sector – public, private, civil society – one enters," he said. "That is an amazing new world and quite possibly a brave new world."
  • Will it work? But innovation can also be perilous, as there is no guarantee that all innovations lead to positive social change, Reich pointed out. Hybrid organizations like social enterprises might seem great in theory, but in practice they must cope with a deep tension between the profit impulse and the social mission impulse. "Will profit overwhelm principle?" he asked. Reich said the 20th-century regulatory framework governing the old three-sector society will eventually prove inadequate for the cross-sector collaborations that are increasingly popular in the 21st. So, he queried, what does this brave new social economy mean for those about to graduate from Stanford? Citing the purpose of the university as set forth by Jane and Leland Stanford, "to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization," Reich called it "a beautiful, honorable and worthy mission." "As you commence the next stages of your life, remember this: Your education here has not been frivolous," Reich said. "It has qualified you for personal success, yes. But – not to put too much pressure on you – we adults are counting on you to solve the global financial crisis, to figure out the war on terror and to come up with the governance structure of the new social economy."
  • adamspence on 13 Jun 11
     
    Rob Reich, associate professor of political science, exhorted members of the Class of 2011 to use their education not just for personal gain but also to better society.
  • Tim Draimin on 14 Jun 11
     
    Commencement address on the expanding
Tim Draimin

FT.com / UK / Politics & policy - Plan on staff mutuals found lacking - 0 views

www.ft.com/...b4-11e0-80d5-00144feabdc0.html

socialenterprise uk co-ops social innovation

shared by Tim Draimin on 06 May 11 - No Cached
  • The UK is not equipped for the revolution in public service mutuals that the government seeks, according to a report from an organisation enthusiastic about making the idea a reality.Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, has been vigorously promoting the idea that staff can leave public service employment to sell their services back through various forms of mutual and social enterprise, sometimes through joint ventures with the private sector.
  • A “right to request” to form a mutual has been set up, and a national taskforce along with a string of pilot projects have been created, in the hope of getting perhaps 1m public service employees in to mutuals by 2015.
  • Tim Draimin on 06 May 11
     
    Important Financial Times update on UK's deficient mutualisation process, ie spinning government services out into mutual and social enterprise.
adamspence

Growth: an unalloyed good - Public Service - 0 views

www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp

uk socialenterprise privatization de-mutualization big society

shared by adamspence on 23 May 11 - No Cached
  • The Big Society agenda can and must be one of growth, says Asheem SinghWhen scores of activists converged on Parliament Square to protest against tuition fees, organised through social networks and through parent groups like UK Uncut and the NUS, we were given a glimpse of what the Big Society's vision of autonomous, self-organising communities might look like. It was not a particularly edifying sight, what with the criminal damage and the violence, yet for David Cameron the Big Society remains his mission in politics.
adamspence

UK example a warning sign on privatisation - The West Australian - 0 views

au.news.yahoo.com/...1

uk socialenterprise social big society privatization de-mutualization

shared by adamspence on 23 May 11 - No Cached
  • The Barnett Government's Budget announcement of a big injection of funds for the non-profit sector in WA sounds like a great idea - we all know organisations such as the Salvos are run by nice people who do a great job and who could use some extra money.Before we get too excited, however, there are a few lessons to be learnt from looking at the effects of similar policies elsewhere.
Peter Deitz

ALEX WOOD: Social Finance: a Conservative opportunity? | iPolitics - 0 views

ipolitics.ca/...nce-a-conservative-opportunity

public policy task force

shared by Peter Deitz on 27 May 11 - No Cached
  • For a new Conservative government looking to make a tangible and lasting mark on our society, there would seem to be no better alignment of values and opportunity than that represented by the burgeoning social finance movement. It represents a ready-made opportunity, rooted in values of community-building, support for small scale entrepreneurship, and the role of private investment in delivering public good, that the government would do well to seize.
  • At its core, social finance (or its semantic cousins: “impact investing”, “mission-based investing”, etc.) is about incenting innovation. Let’s face it, we all assume that the large challenges facing our society (things like child poverty, climate change, health care, etc.) can only be solved by government or big corporations.
  • The Task Force, in its report, identified a number of concrete steps that governments could take in this regard, primarily around the tax treatment of such investments. As an example, the report points out that Canadian foundations are specifically prohibited under the Income Tax Act from conducting any “unrelated business activity”, while similar provisions in the U.S. and U.K. tax codes have been removed in recent years. Canadian governments have indicated a growing level of interest in the potential that social finance holds. The federal government made a supportive statement for social finance in its 2010 Speech from the Throne, and provinces like Nova Scotia and Quebec have set up their own social finance funds. Ontario very recently inaugurated a Social Innovation Wiki, through which social entrepreneurs can share lessons on things like access to capital.But governments can and should do more, starting with the federal government. The upcoming Speech from the Throne would seem a perfect opportunity for a government looking to define its vision for the country to re-affirm the potential of social finance, and to lay out a roadmap for how Canada will move forward on this opportunity.
Peter Deitz

MIT TechTV - Legatum Lecture : Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman, The Portland Trust and Bridg... - 0 views

techtv.mit.edu/...res-director-of-social-finance

mit impact investing sir ronald cohen uk video

shared by Peter Deitz on 27 May 11 - No Cached
  • Cohen, Sir Ronald Chairman, The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures Director of Social Finance Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures and a Director of Social Finance. He was the founding partner and former chairman of Apax Partners. Founded in 1972, Apax Partners is one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups, operating in nine countries across Europe, the USA, Israel and Japan. Apax advises and manages funds of over $35 billion. Sir Ronald is member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, on the Board of Dean’s Advisers at Harvard Business School, a Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University and a member of the University of Oxford Investment Committee. He is also a Trustee of the British Museum. He was a founder director and past chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association. He was also a founder and former Vice-Chairman of EASDAQ and former director of NASDAQ Europe. He was Chairman of the Social Investment Taskforce and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets. He has recently published “The Second Bounce of the Ball – Turning Risk into Opportunity” about entrepreneurship. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was president of the Oxford Union, an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship. Recipient of the HBS Alumni Achievement Award.
Peter Deitz

Coming in from the 'Dark Side' - Down to Business Blog - 0 views

www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/...Coming_in_from_the_'Dark_Side'

uk impact investing social enterprise

shared by Peter Deitz on 25 May 11 - No Cached
  • The lazy yet dominant financial market preconception of social entrepreneurs is of fluffy tree-hugging do-gooders who couldn't cut it in the 'real world'. Indeed, my peers from business school and the financial markets in the City still think I am simply going through a 'charity phase' and will eventually return to the fold. But I'm not going to. I have been lucky to come across a pioneering market place and I'm signed up for the duration. Social enterprise is about sustainability, financial viability, commercial solutions to social needs. It is not about inefficiencies of investment, or the black hole of grant donations. The guys at SOCAP in San Francisco name this space the intersection of money and meaning. What are we at UnLtd doing to help increase the awareness of this intersection? For a start we've just launched the Big Venture Challenge to accelerate the entry of business angels into the social investment market place. We are looking to find 25 of the most ambitious social entrepreneurs with scalable ventures - and then 'de-risk' any investments by providing matched funding and some high calibre support from ourselves, Accenture, Deutsche Bank, Coutts, Thomson Reuters, Hogan Lovells and others.
  • This is certainly an international phenomenon, albeit operating at different paces throughout the world, but with clear exporting/importing of talent, knowledge and experience: The UK market place has been swamped with interest in how to replicate our own work with both government-led as well as private delegations from Canada, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Japan, Australia and Continental Europe just in recent months. UnLtd ourselves now have three sister organisations, which operate different business models, but with the same vision of helping social entrepreneurs in India, Thailand and South Africa, with many more in the offing. Similarly, the UK's School for Social Entrepreneurs has expanded to Australia and has many more international partners queuing up. Volans is now operating out of London and Singapore.There is the Global Impact Investing Network and the Global Impact Investing Reporting Standards coming out of the US but with international intentions (it's in the names!)There are (formative) social stock exchanges/trading/donation platforms in the US, Singapore, Italy, Brazil, UK, South Africa, KenyaThere is a well established European Venture Philanthropy Association, with a sister organisation opening in SingaporeWe have SOCAP Europe for the first time bringing a US conference to The NetherlandsThere are also a glut of crowd-funding mechanisms evolving to avoid traditional financial machinery, harnessing the Facebook generation: Kiva, MyC4, CrowdCube, Profunders, Buzzbnk, Ethex, Markets for Good.
Peter Deitz

Jonathan Greenblatt: Social Impact Bonds Bring Social Innovation to the Bay State - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...d-round-the-worl_b_858961.html

social impact bonds U.S.

shared by Peter Deitz on 10 May 11 - No Cached
  • Late last week, Governor Deval Patrick and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts quietly released a Request-for-Information (RFI) on an esoteric new public financing concept. The state cautiously issued its RFI without much fanfare. No trumpets or flags, just an understated press release announcing its interest in the issuance of a Social Impact Bond.
  • Let's be clear: SIBs are not a silver bullet. The very nature of a capped return probably means that SIBs will need to be kick-started by philanthropists and other "impact-first" investors with PRIs before they gain mainstream acceptance. Unlike conventional fiduciaries, philanthropists more easily can square SIBs with their investment priorities. Nonetheless, if this model is proven to work, such experimental philanthropy might be viewed as the venture capital of an era of social innovation.
  • As the field evolves, we should expect to see a flurry of new groups seeking to design such public-private partnerships. Today the field is sparse. Social Finance, a US group launched by Sir Ronald and Mr. Blood, presently appears to be the only significant player in the field. But, many more will come as impact investors, social entrepreneurs and new intermediaries spring up to scale SIBs and launch new innovations.
Tim Draimin

FT.com / UK - Crisis and disasters boost zeal for reform - 1 views

www.ft.com/...4c-11e0-afc5-00144feab49a.html

big society bank social finance UK

shared by Tim Draimin on 15 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Crisis and disasters boost zeal for reformBy Patrick Jenkins, Banking Editor Published: June 15 2011 16:43 | Last updated: June 15 2011 16:43
  • All this has given the concept of sustainable finance momentum over the past year. The values of sustainability – a longer-term horizon and a greater focus on the counterparties with which banks do business – are becoming mainstream.
  • A minority in the banking world has long specialised in “ethical” behaviour, restricting investments to a “whitelist” of companies deemed to act responsibly. But the environmental disasters in particular have been a spur to such institutions, says Joachim Straehle, chief executive of Bank Sarasin, whose predecessors turned the Swiss institution into a “sustainable bank” after a domestic chemical disaster 25 years ago.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • “We have a sustainable matrix system that allows us to invest in high-impact sectors like oil only if the company is exceptionally sustainable,” Mr Straehle says.
  • It remains to be seen how permanent that caution is, but the political shift away from nuclear in Europe, particularly in Germany, could restrain European banks from funding such projects further afield.
  • This may just be current pragmatism, but it reflects homegrown changes in business strategies by banks with international reach.
  • For example, in recent months mainstream British banks have been drawn, sometimes screaming, into doing more to assist the broader society. The so-called Project Merlin agreement between the big UK banks was centred on government lending targets, but it also bound the banks into several other do-good projects that are more ambitious in their scope than standard government-sponsored financing initiatives.
  • The biggest idea is the creation of a £2.5bn ($4.1bn) private equity-style Business Growth Fund to kick-start small business investment, while a further £200m has been committed to the Big Society Bank, a project conceived by David Cameron, UK prime minister, to support regional development ventures.
  • There is a theoretical promise of commercial returns for the banks, but few expect them to be generous.
  • Tim Draimin on 15 Jun 11
     
    Financial Times reporting on pressure building on banks post crisis
Tim Draimin

Mayor rolls out finance options for nonprofits | Crain's New York Business - 0 views

www.crainsnewyork.com/...110619868

social finance bonds nonprofits

shared by Tim Draimin on 21 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Mayor rolls out finance options for nonprofits A new bonding authority would extend low-cost, tax-exempt financing for nonprofits' expansion and facility upgrades.
  • Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has long been considered a patron of nonprofits, took steps on Thursday to unleash the growth potential of that community by announcing the formation of a new entity committed to helping the city's 501(c) organizations gain access to low-cost, tax-exempt financing to expand or upgrade facilities.
  • The New York City Industrial Development Agency, which previously issued tax-exempt bond financing on behalf of nonprofits for various capital projects, has had its hands tied, unable to do that job since its authority was rescinded by the state Legislature in January 2008.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • In the interim, nonprofits seeking to grow their operations have been stuck in a state of arrested development.
  • Elizabeth Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance, which supports economic development in lower Manhattan, welcomed the mayor's announcement as a necessary step in enabling nonprofits to play their part in promoting the city's economic vitality.
  • “New York City is home to tens of thousands of nonprofits that are looking to expand, create jobs or move into new facilities, but for the past few years they have faced more expensive financing costs, while some have had to forgo expansion altogether,” Mr. Bloomberg said, in a statement. “This new entity will make it easier and more inexpensive for our critical nonprofit sector to grow and expand.”
  • While the city's nonprofits don't enjoy quite the same cachet in terms of revenue-generating potential as either financial services or leisure and hospitality, the group exceeds both sectors with respect to employment. While the other sectors employ approximately 434,000 and 320,000, respectively, the more than 42,000 health, human services and cultural nonprofit (HHSC) organizations throughout the five boroughs support approximately 470,000 employees, according to the mayor's office. That sector is the largest private employer in city—employing more than 15% of New York's non-governmental work force.
  • According to the mayor's office, more than 13 organizations have gone to out-of-state funding sources for assistance in financing capital projects totaling more than $337 million since June 2009. The administration also estimates nonprofits have at least 20 shovel-ready capital projects stuck in the development pipeline with a combined price tag of more than $400 million.
  • “At a time when many not-for-profits are struggling to make ends meet amid the nation's fiscal woes, this new issuer will serve to strengthen and support an increasingly important sector in our city's economy,” Ms. Berger said in the mayor's office statement. “In lower Manhattan, not-for-profits represent a vital and growing sector, and this action recognizes their value.”
  • Capital projects and investment in expansion and facilities upgrades have been curtailed as the volatile economy takes a toll on nonprofits struggling to make up for reductions in funding support. “For over three years, nonprofits like ours have faced far too many obstacles in obtaining financing to grow and expand,” Sisi Kamal, chief financial and operating officer at the Friends Seminary School, said in the statement. “The ability to locally access necessary financing in an efficient and cost-effective manner would be a significant investment in the future of our organization and that of many others serving the residents of New York City.”The administration said the new entity, a local development corporation, will open in the next four to six months and that financing requests will be based on board approval. The five borough presidents, in conjunction with the comptroller, will be charged with nominating directors to serve on the board.
  • Tim Draimin on 21 Jun 11
     
    Bloomberg simplifies non-profit access to financing with new entity to help orgs gain access to low-cost, tax-exempt financing.
1 - 20 of 20
Showing 20▼ items per page