GIIN in the news Press releases

  • Innovation Agents - Sasha Dichter, Director of Business Development, Acumen Fund

    via Fast Companyby Lydia Dishman

    August 25, 2011

    Summary

    Fast Company profiles Acumen Fund's Director of Business Development, Sasha Dichter, who talks honestly about the challenges facing impact investing today: finding the right talent, communicating the cause, and rigorously applying impact analysis and metrics.

    From original article:

    "'We as a sector have a responsibility to not be apologetic about what the [investment] story is. There is no tradeoff,' he explains, the way there was a generation ago with the screened investment funds of the 1990s that peddled various 'vice-free' stocks. 'A certain amount of results have to be proven,' Dichter adds."

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  • 2011 Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP)

    via Forbesby Rahim Kanani

    August 23, 2011

    Summary

    Forbes interviews Kevin Jones, Co-founder and Convener of SOCAP, a multi-platform organization dedicated to the flow of capital towards social good.

    From original article:

    "Conceptually, we’ve come a long way; the idea that you can make money investing in for profit companies focused on solving social and environmental problems is no longer regarded as kind of a crazy idea, something heretical and out on the fringe. The demand, just within the U.S. has been sized at more than $100 billion, while other reports talk about a global demand for impact investing in five years that's an order of magnitude larger."

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  • GIIRS Will Make More Money Flow to Good

    via The Huffington Postby Kevin Jones

    August 12, 2011

    Summary

    The Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS), which utilizes the Impact Investment and Reporting Standards, was launched to the public. GIIRS is a ratings system for mission-driven organizations and funds.

    From original article:

    "[GIIRS] is expected to open the way for the already clearly identified pent up demand of high net worth investors, family offices and institutional wealth managers. It will let these new-style investors compare and measure the kind of social and environmental impact they can expect from their investments and donations. GIIRS will be a bridge that should accelerate the flow of capital to good."

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  • Microcredit could be safer than a Treasury. Commentary

    via MarketWatchby Thomas Kostigen

    August 07, 2011

    Summary

    The author postulates that in these tumultuous markets, microcredit is a good bet for financial returns and for social good.

    From original article:

    "As stock markets around the world are turned into trampolines, there is solid and stable ground on which to stand and make steady returns in the credit markets - the microcredit markets."

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  • Big Society Capital Names Board

    via Financial Timesby Nicholas Timmins

    July 28, 2011

    Summary

    This article in the Financial Times announces the capitalization and official launch of Big Society Capital, a financing organization established by the U.K. government to support the social sector.

    From original article:

    "The Big Society Bank - now renamed Big Society Capital at the insistence of the Financial Services Authority, which has ruled it is not a bank - took another step forward on Thursday with the announcement of a heavyweight board and a trust to oversee it, and with news of its first investment.

    "The investment company has also reached a settlement in principle with the big four UK high street banks over the GBP 200m that they have been cajoled into putting into the fund. They were demanding that the money be loaned on 'commercial terms.'"

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  • UK's "Big Society" Bank Gets 600 Million Staging Capital

    via Reuters

    July 28, 2011

    Summary

    The Big Society Bank, a project of the U.K. government, is established to provide financing to the social sector in Great Britain.

    From original article:

    "The 'Big Society Bank,' established by British Prime Minister David Cameron to help disadvantaged youths back into employment and fund social enterprise, officially launched on Friday with 600 million pounds ($980 million) of capital.

    "The Big Society Bank said it would get 400 million pounds from dormant bank accounts and a further 200 million from Britain's "Big Four" banks - Lloyds , Barclays , HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland."

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  • A Big Day as Big Society gets the funds

    via London Evening Standardby Anthony Hilton

    July 28, 2011

    Summary

    London Evening Standard columnist Anthony Hilton applauds the official establishment of England's Big Society Capital, a social bank set up to finance the social sector.

    From original article:

    "The banks were sitting on several hundred million pounds of orphan assets - money in accounts that had not been touched for 15 years or more. The plan was to mobilise this capital and use it to fund an organisation that would provide financial muscle for the social sector, which means charities and voluntary associations. These do a huge amount of work but lack the financial expertise and access to capital markets. If they had such access, they could expand and do so much more.

    "That is the heart of the concept behind Big Society Capital. It is an organisation that for the first time will give the social sector access to the capital markets and will marry social expertise with financial expertise."

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  • What Tomorrow's Leaders Are Learning in Africa Right Now

    via Harvard Business Review blogby Tony Elumelu

    July 18, 2011

    Summary

    Tony Elumelu discusses a new program, the African Markets Internship Programme (AMIP), recently established by his self-named Nigeria-based foundation.

    From original article:

    "At this moment, the AMIP is placing students from top African, European, and American business schools in highly structured programs with African companies. AMIP matches the unique skills of each intern with the particular needs of each host business to tackle their most pressing business problems. These include forging new business strategies, marketing new products, and developing African growth strategies. In this way, the interns will build practical knowledge while making a significant contribution to the firms' success."

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  • Investment Driven by Guilt, and That's Good

    via MarketWatchby Thomas Kostigen

    July 14, 2011

    Summary

    The author postulates that people are investing in socially responsible funds and impact investments out of guilt. And that's not a bad thing.

    From original article:

    "More money is flowing into 'good' investments than ever. Take the low-hanging fruit - mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. There are about 500 socially conscious funds, according to the SIF. There are hedge funds, debt instruments and now even private equity vehicles that are aimed at investing in companies with a social conscience."

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  • Making Social Investment More Appealing to Institutional Investors

    via The Guardianby Michael Bear

    July 12, 2011

    Summary

    There is a growing interest in social investment across a broad spectrum of potential institutional investors, from pension fund managers, banks, and private equity firms to independent financial advisers and charitable foundations.

    From original article:

    "However, while modern investors often want to achieve tangible social benefits as well as financial returns, the products on offer within the marketplace are not fully matching investor demands. Until this gap has been bridged, the social investment market will not be able to grow sufficiently to provide the requisite support for social enterprises across the UK."

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  • Root Capital Makes Money By Investing Where Wall Street Won't

    via Fast Companyby Michael J. Coren

    July 11, 2011

    Summary

    Fast Company profiles Root Capital, discussing its strategy to make impact investments in businesses that mainstream investors find too risky.

    From original article:

    "Small money, big change. That, in essence, is what William Foote was banking on when he ditched Harvard Business School to start what is now Root Capital, a "nonprofit social investment fund" that lends to small and medium rural businesses in developing countries.

    "Root Capital's business model is to go where other banks will not - the agricultural sector of poor countries - and loan rural businesses as much as $500,000 to expand or improve their operations. The strategy is posting enviable numbers: Borrowers repaid 99 percent of the $300 million lent to them across Latin America and Africa since 2000 (investors reportedly enjoyed a 100 percent repayment rate)."

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  • The Private Sector Must Assume a Central Role in Global Development

    via The Guardianby Peter Davis

    June 29, 2011

    Summary

    A leader from the Overseas Development Institute writes in The Guardian that companies can help reduce poverty, strengthen governance and improve education.

    From original article:

    "Companies are not social-development organisations, nor should we expect or even want them to be. The donor community needs to overcome its distaste for the profit motive and realise that this is what drives the innovation and dynamism of the private sector. It can present benefits as well as costs, opportunities as well as threats and advantages as well as disadvantages. In development terms, the private sector is neither a good thing nor a bad thing; it is a necessary thing."

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