The growth and success of green and inclusive business models with high impact potential is central to the challenges many emerging economies are facing. These enterprises not only spur development and market growth, but also ensure the preservation of the very base of our global economy – environmental and social resources. Thus, these small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may just …
A guide for impact investors. Impact investing, which promises both financial returns and intentional, measurable impact, is attracting more and more attention – most of it from private investors. And although foundations, social investors, venture philanthropists, donors and grantmakers are hard-wired for social purpose and would seem to be natural candidates for impact investing, so far in Africa, they are …
Impact due diligence is crucial in impact investing. While the practice of impact measurement and management (IMM) has become increasingly sophisticated and widespread in recent years, most investors focus primarily on what happens after, not before, investments are made. This diminishes the potential value of IMM because the social and environmental performance reported by companies after receiving investments has, in …
Impact management practices that are better going forward, we envision this as well as greater investment effectiveness. “If we want to seize this turbulent moment, we need to be bold, and we need to be big. The time is now, to change our relationship to money, to change what it means to invest truthfully, time to change capitalism, for better …
Neither philanthropic donations nor impact investment will alone solve the world’s problems. We look at the relationship between philanthropy & impact investing
A pandemic is affecting our professional and personal lives. We reimagine the future of impact management, measurement & evaluation (M&I) and impact assessment.
It seems everyone is talking about impact and is looking to achieve and demonstrate impact. Investors talk of ‘impact investing’, social investors talk about social impact, and social purpose organisations are talking about collective impact. The international development community is also increasingly preoccupied with impact. Since the early 2000s, the terms ‘impact’ and ‘impact evaluation’ have skyrocketed in use and …
Over the past 10 years we’ve travelled an extraordinary journey. Regarding the first request from a client in 2008: The mining and resources industry asked us to assist them with measuring the impact of their social and community investments. Because of the infrastructure they’ve provided and the enterprises they have supported as well as the capacity they’ve built—we have come …
In the social development field, one of the most cited questions from investors and participatory stakeholders regarding social/community development and investment projects is: “How will you measure your social impact /outcome / change of the development programme?” In the business field, what still really matters most is: “What is the return on investment of your community/social development programme?” The dilemma is to determine the …
Over the last 20 years (corporate) community involvement (CI) or corporate social investment and development (CSI) has evolved from an add-on activity to a bona fide line function with bottom-line accountabilities. Like any other business function it is expected to add value (returns) to the business. For community involvement adding value means creating a shared and/or blended value proposition — increasing the returns on investments for …
