The Austin Mission Investing Institute, hosted three weeks ago by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, was as good a chance for me to learn about how foundations are approaching the field as it was for attendees to learn about core issues in mission investing. Attendees came from a variety of foundation types (private, community, family); sizes (relatively small to very large); experience with mission investing; and interest areas. The curriculum balanced general discussion on topics such as strategic development, deal analysis, and legal requirements with extended focus on three mission investing issue areas: health, education, and place-based investing.
As too much valuable information was shared at the Institute to be succinctly presented here, I’ll just mention three things among the many that struck me:
- No matter the type or size or focus of foundations, process issues in mission investing overlap considerably. Building board support and consensus, developing a practicable strategy, learning how to integrate mission investing into existing financial practices or to develop new ones: foundations of all sizes have to engage in these discussions. Their decision trees lead, obviously, to very different outcomes, but at least at the level of process, this is recognizably a distinct field for philanthropic investors of different types. [read more...]
by Admin on April 29, 2013
This week, we’re pleased to announce the launch of Breaking the Binary: Policy Guide to Scaling Social Innovation, co-authored with the Schwab Foundation for Social Enterpreneurship, InSight at Pacific Community Ventures, and SK Group.
The report focuses on policies that support the development of social enterprises globally, with the first half providing a framework for government policy action, supported by case studies, and the second profiling leading social enterprises as a way to illustrate models of social innovation.
The framework for policy action, which builds off our previous impact investing and public policy work, highlights six “drivers” of policy action that support social enterprises from the idea stage through implementation.
Twelve case studies—from the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the US to the Venture Capital Trust Fund in Ghana—help to illustrate these policy drivers, and add to our growing list of cases highlighting policy to support impact investing globally. Read more about our work on the Impact Investing Policy Collaborative website.
The report was launched yesterday at the inaugural Social Innovation Summit in Peru, co-hosted by the World Economic Forum, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion of Peru. Read more about the event here.
The Austin Mission Investing Institute, hosted three weeks ago by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, was as good a chance for me to learn about how foundations are approaching the field as it was for attendees to learn about core issues in mission investing. Attendees came from a variety of foundation types (private, community, family); sizes (relatively small to very large); experience with mission investing; and interest areas. The curriculum balanced general discussion on topics such as strategic development, deal analysis, and legal requirements with extended focus on three mission investing issue areas: health, education, and place-based investing.
