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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Tim Draimin

Tim Draimin

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

  • 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.
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  • 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.
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    Sir Ronald Cohen's overview of the emergence of the impact investing space, including references to Canada the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance.
Tim Draimin

White paper on Opening up Public Services - Evolution not revolution | 2020 PSH - 0 views

  • White paper on Opening up Public Services – Evolution not revolution
  • After months of waiting, the White Paper on Opening up Public Services has finally been published. In its advance billing it had been variously referred to as the Big Society strategy, the next leap forward on public services, and the missing narrative on public service reform.  Clearly the Big Society radicals lost the argument about what this should be about, because revolutionary it is not.  This is less about chaos and more about cohesion.
  • There is a noticeable switch in tone in this White Paper from earlier Coalition policy announcements. Out has gone the hyperbole to be replaced with a more considered, and reasonable argument. So evolutionary is this that it explicitly builds on New Labour policy developments, such as academies, foundation trusts and individual budgets. Even the narrative now has distinct echoes of New Labour circa 2005, with the emphasis on modernisation, choice, commissioning reform and competition. Its primary purpose is to establish a policy framework, based on a set of guiding principles, within which public service reform will develop. Much of the focus is therefore on seeking to retrofit existing policy and reforms into these principles.
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  • Some specific observations:  No such thing as the Big Society? – considering that at one stage this was supposed to give policy substance to the Big Society, it is striking how absent the Big Society is from the White Paper. That’s one cut it didn’t make.  I did a control search and only came across one Big Society reference in the whole report, and this was not to the idea but to the Big Society bank. So this leaves an obvious question about how central the Big Society now will be to the Government? One practical effect of there being no Big Society strand is that the tenor of the White Paper is much more consumerist, gone appears to be the emphasis on social citizenship and responsibility.  This leaves a big gap because, as our Commission on 2020 Public Services argued, the big challenges of the future will need to be met through citizens and the state working together to create better social outcomes.  Very few concrete proposals – This is about direction of travel, rather than specific proposals. In fact, there are very few concrete proposals. Instead this is much more like a Green Paper in which general propositions are put out for consultation, with the question being what specific policy changes would these require? This is clearly a long way from what some of the Big Society evangelists had originally wanted to see.  No short term wins for the voluntary sector – Earlier in the year there had been speculation that the White Paper might contain some specific guarantees for the voluntary sector to help offset the consequences of Council grant cuts.  But, whilst there are warm words for the role of the voluntary sector, and some new development money and support to help develop social social enterprises, there is no specific commitment to, for example, a quota of Council services to be subject to voluntary sector right to bid.   Diversity of provision – the boldest statement in the White Paper is that there is no case for monopoly state provision of services, except for the special cases of defence, criminal justice and policing.  The case is made for all public services to be run on the basis of autonomous institutions such as Academies and Foundation Trusts, which could be run by businesses, mutuals or social enterprises.  However, there are no specific proposals to apply this to any particular service area.  Local government is the big winner – this is the most pro-local government policy paper to have been published by the Coalition.  Whereas, the distinct impression in previous policy developments on public service reform has been that local government was being sidestepped, now it is much more central to the Coalition’s plans for decentralisation.  The principle of decentralisation which is set out in the white paper bears some similarity with the subsidiarity principle developed in the 1990s by the European Union, under which decisions should be devolved to the lowest possible level of government.  The new twist to this is the emphasis in the white paper on establishing neighbourhood councils in urban areas to mirror parishes and to be responsible for the same types of very local, community and public space services.  But the White Paper also makes the case for more powers and greater financial autonomy for local authorities and, in one of its few specific proposals, also recommends that skills funding should pass to some Councils, something which cities like Manchester have been strongly pushing for.
  • As Nick Timmins noted in the FT today, there are a number of tensions within the White Paper, which are not even acknowledged, let alone resolved.  He cited the principle of promoting diversity whilst at the same time needing to guard against failure, a weakness of successive health reforms and a particularly current concern given the collapse of Southern Cross.   But this isn’t the half of it. Other questions which the White Paper doesn’t confront, but which a credible reform plan would have to resolve, include:  Service integration vs institutional autonomy – how can local government integrate services in the way that the white paper suggests, whilst at the same time vertical service silos are being strengthened through the promotion of institutional autonomy in schools, hospitals, and now in every other service?  Consumerism vs social citizenship – how can a consumerist approach to public services help strengthen the co-productive relationship which there will need to be between citizens and services to meet the social challenges of 2020 and beyond?  Ideas vs practice – how can the Coalition move from exhortation to implementation? The White Paper may contain a framework of principles but it does not set out a convincing strategy as to how reforms based on these could be implemented.  Over the coming weeks we at 2020 will be analysing the Coalition’s reform agenda in more detail and looking to see where the opportunities exist for developing better social productivity practice.  Please let us have your comments and ideas.  Ben Lucas
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    New proposals on mutualizing public services in the UK
Tim Draimin

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

  • 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!
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  • 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
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    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

Nesta proposes new regulatory framework for social finance - Third Sector - 0 views

  • Nesta proposes new regulatory framework for social finance
  • By David Ainsworth, Third Sector Online, 23 June 2011
  • With the law firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite, it wants to get rid of 'onerous' restrictions and make it easier to lend money to charities and social enterprises
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  • They would be overseen by a social finance regulator that would operate within the proposed Financial Conduct Authority, the successor to the Financial Services Authority.
  • The framework would create new legal categories of 'social investment' and 'social investor'. The two organisations hope to persuade the government to make it into law.
  • The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts and the law firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite have proposed a new regulatory framework for social finance aimed at making it easier to invest in voluntary sector organisations.
  • "At the moment, it's easier to give £100 to charity than to lend £100 to charity," said Luke Fletcher, an associate at Bates Wells & Braithwaite and author of the report.
  • The new framework, he said, would make it easy for charities and social enterprises to create a financial prospectus for a bond or share offer, without the need to offer the tight protections for investors that are currently required.
  • "The main target for this would be the mass affluent, who are not currently considered sophisticated investors," Fletcher said. "Charities would like to create offers targeting these people, but they find the legal restrictions too onerous."
  • Fletcher said there were already exemptions for community benefit societies, formerly known as industrial and provident societies, and he wanted to extend these to all third sector organisations. "I think there's a chance of getting this into law now," he said. "There's a real window of opportunity. The reform of the Financial Services Authority is already under way, there's big interest from government in social investment and there's a drive to reduce red tape for the sector." The Cabinet Office has expressed support for the idea of a new regulatory framework in its strategy paper Growing the Social Investment Market, in which it said it would "seek further evidence on the impact of the regulatory framework on social and community investment to assess whether it is proportionate". One of the six key recommendations in Lord Hodgson's report on red tape in the third sector, Unshackling Good Neighbours, was the creation of a class of "social investors" who could invest under less strict guidelines because they understood they were receiving both a social and financial return.
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    NESTA report on new initiative to simplify how charities and public benefit organizations put together a prospectus for raising money through a bond. The proposal also ties into a previous report on reducing red tape for charities (Lord Hodgson's "Unshackling Good Neighbours") that recommended the creation of a class of "social investors" who could invest under less strict guidelines because they understood they were receiving both a social and a financial return.
Tim Draimin

Showing social investment works - Civil Society - Finance - In-depth - Interviews - pro... - 0 views

  • Showing social investment works
  • Finance | Vibeka Mair | 20 Jun 201
  • In August, Jonathan Lewis leaves social lender Social Investment Business to become chief executive of NHS spin-out Bromley Healthcare. Vibeka Mair interviews Lewis on his time with the UK’s largest social investor.
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  • It’s getting off to a slow start, but the Big Society Bank looks set to mark a new dawn for social investment, bringing a potential £400m into the market. But before this, in 2007, a new-style social lender entered the market with a relatively modest £15m, before growing into one of the largest social investors in the country.
  • The organisation started off as the Adventure Capital Fund, which then became known as Futurebuilders – generating the organisation's biggest fund to date, finally settling on Social Investment Business – a clear catchall to describe the organisation, and a nod to its ambitions to run the Big Society Bank, a concept known as the social investment wholesale bank under the Labour government.
  • Despite its positive effect in financing the charity world, some have criticised it for growing so large so quickly – it has managed a number of funds on behalf of the government and is worth around £400m. Lewis makes no apology:
  • “With Futurebuilders (the £215m fund managed by Social Investment Business on behalf of the Office for Civil Society) we were supposed to help charities win something like 300 contracts. In fact they won over 800, which shows that if you give them a bit of appropriate help they can win lots of contracts by providing innovative and transformative services.”
  • Lewis is also proud that the write-off rate of loans with Futurebuilders was so low, especially since it funds organisations which can’t access traditional finance.
  • “Through Futurebuilders, we lent £120m to organisations which couldn’t get bank finance, and the culminative write-off rate on that money over six years is less than 4 per cent. I’m extremely proud of this fact.”
  • Its outgoing and first chief executive, Jonathan Lewis, says he is most proud that Social Investment Business has shown that social investment works:
  • “Though it was slightly unpopular to grow this quickly, I think creating a large social investor moves the market on a little bit, and the market is going to be moved on again by the Big Society Bank.”
  • Lewis’ time at Social Investment Business could be viewed as the frontier of social investment. His new role follows a similar pattern. Lewis leaves to head the staff-run NHS social enterprise spin-off Bromley Healthcare, one of many public service providers deciding to become a mutual under minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude’s new "right to provide" agenda. Maude is leading a drive to support employees of public services to set up mutuals.  Bromley Healthcare is a staff-run healthcare provider organisation rather than a commissioning one. Lewis joins it as chief executive in August.
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    Retrospective observations on the role of Futurebuilders, the 215 million pound fund run by Social Investment Business on behalf of the Office for Civil Society
Tim Draimin

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

  • 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.
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  • 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.
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    Bloomberg simplifies non-profit access to financing with new entity to help orgs gain access to low-cost, tax-exempt financing.
Tim Draimin

The Conservative Party | News | News | Charities benefit from Big Society Fund - 0 views

  • Charities benefit from Big Society Fund
  • Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, and Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, have announced that charities across England have been awarded a total of £77.5million in the third wave of payouts from the £107million Transition Fund to help them prepare for new Big Society opportunities.
  • Around 900 charities have received support from the Transition Fund so far.
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  • Charities like the Beat Bullying, which has helped countless children and young people deeply affected by bullying, and ICENI, which treats and tackles addiction in Ipswich and Suffolk, are using the money to modernise. This will help them make the most of more opportunities for them to deliver public services and new sources of finance, such as capital investment from the Big Society Bank, which the Government is developing as part of its drive to support a Big Society.
  • Francis Maude said: "We all want a bigger, stronger society where people get involved and do their bit.
  • "This isn't new - there are already loads of people right across Britain taking responsibility and making our communities better places to live.
  • "What is new is that this Government is making it easier for people to do more: giving people power to improve public service, putting communities in control, and supporting people to help others."
  • Nick Hurd said: "The Transition Fund is part of a much wider package of support for charities and voluntary groups and social enterprises. "The Cabinet Office will invest around £470million in direct support over four years. "We are opening up new opportunities for charities to deliver public services, cutting red tape and developing new sources of finance such as the Big Society Bank." The Transition Fund was announced in the Spending Review, October 2010. The Fund closed to applications on 21 January 2011. £94million has now been committed and final awards will be announced later this summer.
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    Report from Conservative Party News (UK) on the transition fund for charities, part of a wider package of support over 4 years totally 470 million pounds sterling.
Tim Draimin

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

  • 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.
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  • “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.
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    Financial Times reporting on pressure building on banks post crisis
Tim Draimin

Big Society Bank Bank Delayed - 1 views

  • Big Society Bank delayed until 2012
  • Big Lottery has had to step in and start funding some social enterprise projects as Big Society Bank will not be open for business in July
  • In a twist of irony for a government that has set itself targets for ‘thickets’ of bureaucracy, dealings with European regulators over the state aid rules, along with ongoing talks with British high-street banks have pushed back the launch of Big Society Bank. This emerged from remarks made by Sir Ron Cohen, the Cabinet Office’s adviser on funding social projects, at the Public Administration Committee’s (PASC) meeting, ‘Smaller government, bigger society’ which met on Tuesday, 14 June 2011.
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  • The full transcript of the proceedings can be viewed online and provides a very helpful update on all the key issues surrounding Social Impact Bonds and Big Society Bank.[i]
  • Background to Big Society bank
  • Stephen Bubb’s comprehensive article ‘A new financial landscape’ in Caritas, March 2011  sets out the gestation and remit of what has been a long-awaited social investment bank and a useful summary can be found in the chapter 5 (page 37) of the Cabinet Office’s report, Growing the Social Investment market: A vision and strategy.[ii]
  • State aid legislation and other hold-ups
  • Cohen told the PASC that the Big Society Bank’s opening target of July 2011 would be missed “by a matter of some months” because of delays from the Cabinet Office in steering it through the complexities of EU state aid in financing public service provision legislation (in place to prevent the warping of the rules of competition between member countries). He said he encountered exactly the same thing with Bridges Ventures, his own organisation, and that he was confident that not only would the necessary permissions be given but that “the EU will turn out to be a big proponent of social investment.”
  • He also explained that the other complications was that the government had no agreement with UK banks the £200m of funding they had agreed on as part of the Project Merlin settlement, and that these details were still being sorted out.
  • In the meantime and agreement has been signed with Big Lottery so that it could fund some of the projects that Big Society Bank would eventually take over.
  • Long-term delivery  
  • When he was reminded that nine out of ten new enterprises end in failure, he countered with the response that everything ‘involves a risk’ and that failure in social enterprise was a form of philanthropy anyway. However, Cohen is a seasoned venture financier who does not set out to lose money. He added: “we see our objective as getting the social sector going. We have to preserve the value of our capital in doing it but we don’t have to maximise its value – we would like to be proactive.”   Cohen was confident of the Social Enterprise Bank’s long-term viability, explaining that real success could take ten or 20 years to materialise with cash positivity projected in seven years’ time.
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    Update on the status of the Big Society Bank, reviewing challenges it faces leading to Big Lottery stepping in...
Tim Draimin

DeHavilland - 0 views

  • Public Administration Committee hears from Independent advisor to the Cabinet Office on the Big Society Bank, Social Enterprise Coalition, Association of British Credit Unions and Community Development Finance Association
  • The Big Society Bank should become the “financial pump” of the social sector, MPs heard today
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    The Big Society Bank should become the "financial pump" of the social sector, MPs heard today.
Tim Draimin

Big Society Bank could be delayed until next year - Civil Society - Finance - News - pr... - 0 views

  • Big Society Bank could be delayed until next year
  • During the meeting, Sir Ronald also addressed the ongoing negotiations between the big four high street banks and the government on the proposed  £200m investment in the Big Society Bank, after Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke said a discussion with the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Sandy Crombie had revealed he had reservations.
  • Sir Ronald (pictured) revealed the delay at this morning’s Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) meeting on the subject.
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  • He told MPs that the matter could take “some months before it is completed”, but added that there was an agreement with the Big Lottery Fund to make investments in its place in the meantime.
  • Chair of the PASC, Bernard Jenkin MP, asked if the situation was frustrating. Sir Ronald said he had gone through the same issue when he set up the social investment company Bridges Ventures. He added: I am confident that we will get state aid exemption for the Big Society Bank from the EU and that, in fact, the EU will turn out to be a big proponent of social investment.”
  • The creation of the Big Society Bank could be delayed until next year as the government is still trying to secure state aid exemption from the EU, according to Sir Ronald Cohen, independent adviser to the Cabinet Office.
  • Sir Ronald said there was more room for agreement between the banks and government and stated that an announcement was expected in the next few weeks.
  • He added that the £200m investment, which will be on commercial terms, would not be at normal market rates and would not necessarily be a typical loan.
  • At the meeting, Sir Ronald also said it was projected that the Big Society Bank would be cash-positive in seven years. After Jenkins asked if there would be enough deal-flow, he said he was confident that the supply of money would create demand.
  • However, Sir Ronald admitted it was a challenge to galvanise local engagement after MPs asked whether smaller charities would find it difficult to engage with the Bank.
  • Sir Ronald also said the Big Society Bank may have to change its name as it wasn’t a bank.
Tim Draimin

Government gives out £81m to charities from Transition Fund - Civil Society -... - 0 views

  • Government gives out £81m to charities from Transition Fund
  • Finance | Vibeka Mair | 13 Jun 2011
  • The government has paid out a further £81m from the £107m Transition Fund to around 727 charities which are most vulnerable to reductions in public spending.
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  • To date £97.5m has been committed from the Transition Fund to more than 900 charities. Final awards will be announced later this summer.
  • The Transition Fund aims to help charities make the most of more opportunities to deliver public services and new sources of finance, such as capital investment from the Big Society Bank
  • Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, said: “All the charities receiving transition funds have a plan to overcome current challenges and emerge stronger. We recognise the hugely important contribution charities make to our society and we are committed to supporting them."
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    "The Transition Fund aims to help charities make the most of more opportunities to deliver public services and new sources of finance, such as capital investment from the Big Society Bank."
Tim Draimin

Stories That Matter | Axiom News - 0 views

  • Finance Learn How Social Finance Can Work in Communities Newly-released guide to increase understanding of finance tools that generate social and monetary impact
  • There is a new resource available for people interested in learning about social finance in Canada, and beyond.
  • Aptly named Your Guide to Social Finance, the online publication spearheaded by Social Innovation Generation (Sig) offers people both quick and in-depth answers for how social finance works, who’s involved and who’s eligible.
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  • Joanna Reynolds, project lead and program director of the SiG division Causeway, says the guide is targeting social entrepreneurs and anyone interested in social ventures to explain how social finance can support the opening, operation and expansion of organizations pursuing social and environmental outcomes. According to Reynolds, it’s the first guide of its kind to provide these tools in a convenient format.  “There isn’t anything like it in the world, as far as we know, in terms of an accessible and hopefully easy-to-understand resource for people to learn about social finance,” Reynolds tells Axiom News. The project took nearly a year and a half to complete and involved a number of collaborators like SocialFinance.ca, Ashoka Canada and the B.C. Centre for Social Enterprise.  Bruce Mau Design was engaged in the creative process, and Reynolds credits the internationally-recognized design firm along with volunteer Helen Yeung for challenging the group to keep the content accessible to diverse readers. Reynolds says a major asset of the guide is the section featuring social finance stories, in video and article format, which can build greater awareness of the possibilities for social finance. “The purpose of the guide is to really tell stories of social finance at work. We feel that a great way to understand social finance is through examples and illustrations so people can see this is what it is, and it applies in these kinds of ways,” says Reynolds, who adds most people would be unaware of the organizations listed in the guide. Since launching the resource, Reynolds says they’re receiving great feedback, and people are excited the content is available. She’s encouraging people involved in social finance to submit their comments and any new projects they’re working on, as the guide will be updated. SiG is also planning to promote the resource to community organizations and networks that could benefit from the information. Reynolds adds this is part of SiG’s vision to move social finance from an innate and mostly uncoordinated sector to its next stage of growth — a co-ordinated and accessible system. To read Your Guide to Social Finance, click here. If you have feedback on this article please contact the newsroom at 800-294-0051 or e-mail camille(at)axiomnews.ca. Login or register to post comments Axiom News: Change is our product. News is our process. Click here to learn how. Front Page NewsStrengths Movement Cincinnati Summit Who We Are Our Services Our Clients Resources Contact
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    Axiom article explaining the new guide to social finance...
Tim Draimin

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

  • 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.
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  • 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."
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    Commencement address on the expanding
Tim Draimin

Hamilton: Green, RRSP-eligible community bonds coming soon - thestar.com - 0 views

  • Last October a young entrepreneur named Daniel Bida got together with a group of like-minded individuals and approached the management of the Toronto Zoo with an innovative idea.
  • They knew the zoo was interested in building a biogas facility that could turn manure from elephants, giraffes and other animals into renewable electricity and heat. They also knew that after several years of trying the zoo, despite its good intentions, couldn’t make it happen. The project it envisioned was simply too complex and risky for commercial investors.
  • Bida proposed a new approach: build a smaller, more manageable facility and open up investment to the broader community through the issuance of bonds.
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  • He was inspired after watching Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) purchase and retrofit a building using $2 million it had raised selling community bonds at $10,000 apiece. The bonds, which could be purchased by anyone, offered a 4 per cent annual rate of return over five years and were RRSP-eligible.
  • If the banks wouldn’t lend the money to a not-for-profit organization like CSI, then individuals who support the organization’s mandate just might. Tapping into CSI’s “social asset” proved a good gamble, as the community was quick to scoop up the bonds.
  • “This told me that the whole community bond thing was for real,” say Bida, convinced he could adapt the approach to support renewable-energy projects.
  • Their approach represents a low-risk investment for people who want to support “green” community projects and make some money, but who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars putting solar PV systems on their own rooftops.
  • Electricity from the plant will be sold into the grid under the province’s feed-in-tariff program, while waste heat could end up being pumped into a nearby greenhouse, potentially used to grow bamboo for the new pandas expected to arrive in 2014.
  • About 70 per cent of the project, or roughly $3.5 million, will be funded through the sale of community bonds that, like the CSI bonds, could be purchased through a self-directed RRSP. ZooShare hopes to offer bonds with a seven-year term and up to a 7 per cent annual return on investment.
  • For existing zoo members and those living within one kilometre of the zoo, the bonds will be sold in $500 units. Everyone else can pick them up for $5,000 each, unless they want to purchase a zoo membership. “We’re hoping this will sell more memberships for the zoo as a result,” says Bida, whose company ReGenerate Biogas is managing the project.
  • ZooShare is just one of several co-op ventures going the community bond route to raise capital for renewably-energy projects. Others include Options for Green Energy, SolarShare and WaterShare.
  • The zoo executives liked the idea and several months later Bida helped form the ZooShare Biogas Co-operative, a not-for-profit community co-op that plans to build a 500-kilowatt biogas plant at the zoo for about $5 million
  • t also offers a way for those without property, such as renters, or without the proper land or rooftop exposure, to participate in the feed-in-tariff program. Community bonds, in essence, make the FIT program more inclusive and get the broader population directly invested in their energy future, be it solar, wind, biogas or hydro.
  • “This idea of massive public involvement in the ownership and economic benefit of these projects is what we’ve all been working towards for the past 15 years,” says Deb Doncaster, executive director of the Community Power Fund, which supports community co-op projects with grants and low-interest bridge financing.
  • “All it will take is for one or two of these projects to be successful and the approach will take off.” Social media will certainly play a role. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking applications make it much easier for community co-ops to reach out to supporters. Spreading the word to the right people has become almost effortless. Still, a couple of barriers need to be overcome before you or I can purchase such bonds. For one, RRSP-eligible community bonds must be approved and registered with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario before they can be sold. Some say the commission is dragging it feet. SolarShare, for example, wants to issue community bonds in $1,000 increments that would offer a 5-per-cent return annually and be redeemable after five years. The funds raised from the bond issue will support construction of solar PV projects across southern Ontario. It’s all new territory for the financial services commission, which has proved a major bottleneck. “They’re tight on the resources needed to deal with this new landscape,” says Matt Zipchen, who as project manager for the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative is overseeing development of SolarShare. Zipchen says another roadblock is the banks. “These community bonds may be RRSP-eligible, but whether or not your bank will let you hold them is another question,” he says. “Banks are finicky about them. We’re just starting the process with the banks to see which ones will hold these bonds and which won’t.” It will all get sorted out over time. Indeed, all it will likely take is for one big bank to break from the pack before others start to follow. If demand for community bonds is high enough, that will likely happen. That’s what SolarShare, ZooShare and others are counting on. Tyler Hamilton, author of the upcoming book Mad Like Tesla, writes weekly about green energy and clean technologies. Reach him at tyler@cleanbreak.ca
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    Toronto Star shows how the idea of community bonds is taking off!
Tim Draimin

Proposal weds investors and charities - 0 views

  • 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’.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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  • 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

Banking on the 'big society' | Social enterprise network | Guardian Professional - 0 views

  • With the plans for the development of a "big society bank" endorsed on Monday, government has never put social enterprises so squarely at the heart of its policy-making. This year alone, the big society bank will receive an unprecedented £260m to invest in intermediary organisations, compared to the £360m that was injected into the social investment market by the Labour government over 13 years. Despite this, growing a social enterprise that covers its costs and genuinely helps vulnerable people remains an almighty challenge.
  • The Big Society Bank is clearly good news but obstacles still remain and social enterprises will need to pick fights judiciously if they are to respond to the tough problems facing society. The bank will enable intermediaries to offer cash as capital investment not revenue.
  • While the Big Society Bank offers investment for growing larger social enterprises, it does not help those organisations become investable. Other investors looking to scale social enterprises have already struggled to find organisations that are ready for investment. Ethical bank Triodos had to close a large fund for social enterprises last year after only being able to make one investment. Investors report that only 16% of the social enterprises that approach them are investable.
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  • While the Big Society Bank will offer capital to help social enterprises scale, it may not provide the right kind of capital for new, potentially ground breaking, ideas. Ambitious start-up ventures require investment to test their models and start paying their way. The Big Society Bank will not be issuing grants so it looks unlikely that intermediaries will, in turn, be able to offer the kind of "soft capital" required to new social enterprises. Largely avoiding the world of social investment, the successful graduate teaching programme, Teach First, secured its founding investments from businesses, government agencies and charitable foundations. This diverse range of sympathetic supporters sacrificed financial return to give the untested vision of Teach First a chance. Other successful start-ups continue to cobble together the finance they need rather than waiting for social investors to meet their needs.
  • To attract investment to scale, an enterprise needs a clear strategy, a robust model for generating revenue, and economics that scale (or, as the enterprise grows it will simply become bigger, and not better). This is tough; entrepreneurs often need support from some of the 100-plus organisations – identified in the NESTA-commissioned report, Growing Social Ventures – that are dedicated to supporting Britain's 65,000 social enterprises improve, expand or become more resilient. For example, Scottish social enterprise Working Rite was supported by the Young Foundation to develop a financially sustainable business model before it could attract capital to its apprenticeship-style work preparation programme, even though it had achieved better results for youngsters from tough backgrounds than its larger, commercial competitors.
  • While we welcome the Big Society Bank, the government needs to level the playing field in the ever-tighter fight for government contacts. Shrewd social entrepreneurs – like those behind Enabling Enterprise, Teach First and Working Rite – will need to continue to scrape around for risk capital, and scramble to build robust business models under innovative services. From on high the government declares that social enterprise is critical to the success of the big society, yet on the ground it can feel like "soft privatisation".
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    Article places new Big Society Bank finance offering in context of the range of support new ventures need...
Tim Draimin

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

  • 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.  
Tim Draimin

HP 2010 Sustainability Performance Report - a mixed bag | ZDNet - 0 views

  • HP sustainability reports are always a meaty read which provide an interesting insight on the performance and impact of one of the world’s largest tech companies. 2010 marks HP’s 10th annual report and while it doesn’t disappoint as an interesting read it does cause pause for both admiration and concern in almost equal measure.
  • First the good news: HP delivers 2.5% reduction in energy consumption and 9% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from direct operations. The improvements were driven by efficiencies associated with the EDS integration, other corporate initiatives and the purchase of green credits. Frustratingly though, HP is unable to report 2010 supplier manufacturing energy and greenhouse gas data and existing estimates for this and transportation appear to be just this - estimates.  HP have had really stellar results in their operating performance but we really have no idea if the carbon & energy savings have just been merely displaced elsewhere on the value chain. HP also reported that the Carbon Disclosure Project had marked down its score in the CDP leader index to 66% from 89% the prior year.
  • Now the not so hot news: Investment in social innovation does not seem to be keeping pace with the rest of the business which reduces HP’s ability to showcase its technology and inspire on how technology can change the world. For instance, technology donations collapsed by a whopping 50% in 2010 and yet cash donations increased by 23%. Finding the ways and means to distribute technology, provide after donation support and monitoring is more challenging than writing a fat check but its the most relevant and appropriate social intervention HP can make. Rate of supplier ethics audit has declined 29% since 2008 but HP reports that excessive working hours at supplier facilities remains a high concern. With the intensification of supplier engagement and the additional publicity associated with key HP supplier Foxconn one might expect supplier ethical audit activity to increase rather than shrink.  At a rate of just 92 audits a year it will be difficult for HP to stay abreast of manufacturing labor issues let alone start to get to grips with the emerging issue of conflict resources. Supplier transparency - as previously posted here HP is to be applauded for publishing a list of suppliers. But prioritizing transparency by spend volume rather than risk rather missed the point for the needed transparency. For example, HP publishes a case study on its remedial work to help Foxconn improve its performance yet Foxconn does not appear on the list of strategic suppliers published. This picture has become more muddied over time. When HP first started publishing its supplier details in 2007 it said that its list represented 95% of spend but just 25% of suppliers. We are no longer told what percentage of suppliers are declared and whether they are high risk or not but somehow I doubt if listed Intel, Microsoft, Seagate or Sony are deemed high risk on social responsibility.
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    A critical analysis of the HP Report...
Tim Draimin

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

  • 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.
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    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
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