The Movement
The first ever conference on Social Capital Markets took place in San Francisco last week. The conference titled “The intersection of money and meaning” brought together more than 600 leading social entrepreneurs and investors from around the world. Speakers included Premal Shah of Kiva.com, Katherine Fulton of Monitor Institute, and representatives from Acumen Fund, Stanford Social Innovation Review and Ashoka. While sessions covered a range of topics, the common thread was how social enterprises can create both social impact and financial profits.
I highly recommend reading the conference blog to learn more about what’s happening at the forefront of the social entrepreneurship movement.
From reading the blog and talking to attendees it is clear that the whole social capital arena is growing fast- really fast. New organizations, networking websites and investment funds are popping up all the time, each with its own model of how best to raise capital for social entrepreneurs. While the investment models range from social enterprise funds like Good Capital to VC firm New Cycle Capital to Bamboo Capital, a microfinance investments fund- what is clear is that those passionate about creating social change through a market-driven approach are putting their ideas to work. The success of the conference is evidence of the momentum that is building in this space.
Caution
With such fast growth in this market, there is a lot of uncoordinated innovation. Efforts should be made to ensure that new marketplaces and capital raising structures are thought out and sustainable. Funders must also develop metrics to evaluate both financial and social returns. The momentum and rapid growth of this movement will only be sustainable if metrics reinforce that social and financial returns can be attained through philanthropic capital.
-Aneesa Arshad
