AccelerateHER ’s Post

We need to unlock the invisible barrier between mission-driven institutional capital and social impact investment opportunities 🔑 This letter from a highly esteemed group of authors sets out 4 suggestion of how that can be achieved through policy/governmental improvements and incentives For many institutions, the first steps can be taken today… 1. FRAME - Translating your mission into the context of an investment framework 📊 connecting return need, risk budget and impact focus 2. ASSESS - Understanding the current investable landscape including social (and environmental) impact investment opportunities 💫 3. ALLOCATE - Begin deploying capital in a mission-aligned way 📈 across the spectrum of capital Our institutional clients are allocating to opportunities that achieve that intersection of return and impact… from social housing, to private impact lending to nature and biodiversity I’m excited to see this investable universe expand and support initiatives that help continue to unlock the barriers Letter: Four steps to unlock UK social capital potential

📢Our 2023 activity and impact english version report is available ! It confirmes our positioning as a social impact investor 7 companies refinanced in 2023 👉Phitrust has reinvested in the development of the following companies already in its portfolio: Ecodair (France - inclusion/disability), Swiss Fresh Water (Switzerland - access to water), BeCode.org (Belgium - training), Groupe ENVIE Rhône-Alpes (France - inclusion and circular economy), KOIKI (Spain - inclusion/disability), Responsage (France - social support), Les Alchimistes (France- Circular Economy) 👉4 new structures financed in 2023: Télémaque (France - Social Impact Contract, Training), GoSense (France - Disability), Homes4All Srl Società Benefit B Corp (Italy - Social Real Estate), Tête Haute (France - Integration) And a new investment in 2024: La Conciergerie Solidaire (France - Social integration) 🚀Olivier de Guerre, Chairman of Phitrust: ‘We launched our first fund in 2006, a true pioneer in private social impact investment. Today, we manage four investment vehicles, including a final one to be launched in 2023, Phitrust Partenaires Inclusion. We've learned a lot over the years: the importance of patient capital, the need to measure impact as a management tool, the need for support from managers or former managers. Entrepreneurs have decided to respond to social challenges - let's fund them! Let's work together to open up a new space between philanthropy and private equity, with the efficiency of the entrepreneurial model combined with a strong ambition for social impact’. 👉The 2023 report is available here: https://lnkd.in/dHstFhmC

UK indeed holds the top spot and the centre for excellence in Impact Investing. Focusing in affordable housing, social lending, Better Society Capital reported growth of 22% invested in Impact Ventures @£828M. Remarkably, high networth and family offices now account for 13% of capital with Pension Funds still leading the way. What’s Next? We are sounding like a broken record but the field of Impact Entrepreneurship is just going to keep pace with increased interest of investors on funding impact. Data, real world impact evidence can help support investment decisions while providing impact entrepreneurship enablement and data tools to SMEs. https://lnkd.in/g2k5RV9V

Sharing some reflections on last week’s inspiring panel debate on impact investing and growing the representation of women in the financial sector in Latin-America and Africa. Moderated by my great colleague Aimee Apel, we had three amazing experts join our panel. A huge thank you to our panelists:   • Luisa Ribeiro: co-founder of Regenative, Founder and CEO at Gema ventures and Papaya Ventures. • Lakshmi Viswanathan: worked as MD and COO for Yunus Social Business funds and investment specialist and consultant at McKinsey and UNCDP Build fund. • Carey Bohjanen: founder of The Rallying Cry and Managing Director of Sustainable Finance Advisory. 💡 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: 1.  𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲: Impact investing with a gender lens shouldn’t be a checkbox exercise; it's about mainstreaming diversity and equity to unlock innovation and economic opportunities. 2. 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲: With the overall investing space being male-dominated, available finance products do not always meet the needs of women. Greater representation of women across the entire pipeline is crucial to achieving equitable access to capital. 3. 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲: Women in Sub-Saharan Africa often lack access to land titles, frequently used as collateral for accessing funds. Continuous conversation is needed on disconnecting ownership from access to funding. 4.  𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to funding startups. Region-specific solutions are needed that consider the unique challenges of local entrepreneurs. 5.  𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲𝘀, 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: The increasing focus on large ticket sizes limits the potential of startups. Lower ticket sizes, revenue-based financing, and blended finance solutions can improve access to funding. 6.  𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽: strong networks and mentorship are often under-valued. Building community support systems can catalyze growth 8.  𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: tackling complex issues like climate change requires complex solutions. Combining lenses—like gender, climate, and agriculture—will better serve diverse communities and address root problems. 9.  𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲: only recently the impact investment space in Latin-America and Africa have opened up for climate and DEI as important lenses, supporting ventures. Renewable energy, agriculture and fin-tech are amongst the themes that are getting more attention. Thanks to everyone who joined this rich discussion. This event is part of Climate-KIC’s work supported by Salesforce. If you are interested to learn more about our work and this project don’t hesitate to shoot me a message!

It was great to see dozens of organisations attend our Social Investment workshop today as part of the Enterprise Development Programme financed by Access - The Foundation for Social Investment and thanks to the fantastic pre-work put in by colleagues Tanishtha SenGupta Murphy Hopkins-Hubbard and James Hoare at Groundwork. We were really lucky to have speakers Ishita Ranjan-Churchill from Good Finance UK and David Floyd from Social Spider CIC who provided an overview the different forms of of social investment available to organisations, key considerations before starting one's social investment journey, relevant case studies and research, and current social investment funds available for applications. Social investment is *one* of the tools available for charities, social enterprises, and CICs to create impact, support their communities, and become sustainable. Like most tools in the enterprise and innovation sector, social investment isn't always right for an organisation or a specific programme or product - but learning about social investment is crucial in order to know if it is right for you.

Are you a family office, a foundation, an impact fund, and an investor curious about and/or involved in Catalytic Capital and Innovative Finance? 👉 If so, contact me in direct message. I'd love to hear your story, and know what you wished to have known beforehand, and what are the problems you are facing that may prevent you from moving the needle in that field. - Are you a foundation who used guarantees to unlock capital? - Have you explored ways beyond plain grant-making? Using repayable grants and else? - Have you explored partnerships between foundations and impact funds? - Have you explored ways to use PRIs and MRIs to support other types of companies? I want to show that it can happen! We need to find ways to get the impact-driven startups/projects off the ground, validate their proof of concept and get them to scale-up their solution with sound business models, especially in emerging markets. 🗯 5 years ago, I dreamed of connecting philanthropists and impact investors to bridge the capital continuum gap for the SDGs (see the LinkedIn article below). Now, I'm on a mission to make this a reality, and it's called fostering Catalytic Capital. Republishing this article here, because this utopian vision makes sense more than ever today. 🔎 What are the 5 SDGs am I more drawn to? - SDG 13 "Climate Action" because it is so crucial for the Caribbean and the V20 - SDG 12 "Responsible Consumption and Production" (think #CircularEconomy) because it is a lever towards systemic sustainability. - SDG 17 "Partnerships for the Goals" because we are all parts of a moving system and we cannot achieve scalable impact without collaboration. - SDG 3 "Good Health and Well Being" because everything starts with health, if we're not well, the world stops. - SDG 4 "Quality Education" because that's the best way to lift the power of 10 and the best way to self-sufficiency. Remember: "Give a [man] a fish, and you feed him for a day; **teach** a [man] to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” #CatalyticCapital #SDG #impactInvesting

NEW: UK social impact investments reach £10bn in 2023 but growth slows – Better Society Capital Better Society Capital, the UK’s social investment wholesaler, reveals 7% growth in the market since 2022 plus a new analysis of the most prolific types of investor. Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/gscWQc4d Better Society Capital | Stephen Muers #impact #socialinvestment

Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI) Grants help social enterprises, including trading Indigenous owned or controlled organisations with a defined social benefit, grow their business, scale their impact and further their missions of creating positive social change. The grants, valued at up to $120,000 each, are targeted towards supporting social enterprises to be more effective and efficient in demonstrating and increasing social impact for the people and communities they exist to support. #socialprocurement #socialimpactinvesting

What are the odds of a foundation investing in your new, earth-shattering enterprise? 🌍💥 In a recent eye-opening article, Laura Callanan, a seasoned impact investor with a rock-star background from the Rockefeller Foundation, exposes the challenges faced by outsiders trying to secure funding for their groundbreaking projects. 💡 Despite her golden pedigree and platinum connections, Callanan's journey to launch Upstart Co-Lab's Inclusive Creative Economy strategy was no cakewalk. 🍰❌ She reached out to a staggering 140+ foundations, starting in summer 2021, and it took nearly three years to secure her first close in spring 2024. 📆😲 If someone with Callanan's impressive resume struggles to gain traction, what hope do lesser-known fund managers and entrepreneurs have? 🤔 The real question may not be their odds of raising investment capital from foundations. Callanan's efforts speak for themselves. The question may better be: where should entrepreneurs go to seek capital? 🔍 The truth that few of us want to hear is that despite the alignment between an entrepreneur's values and the values of a given foundation, it is an incredibly competitive marketplace. 🏆 And the hard truth is that the closer investments are to market rate, no matter what the positive social externalities, the better their odds of raising capital in the short term. 💰📈 Of course, it's always worth keeping in touch with foundations. But be measured. They are more likely to come in and support your efforts once you have already taken some risk out of your service/product. 🚀💪 https://lnkd.in/g-e4JQrN

*The Extraordinary Power of #Philanthropy* As Chair of Impact Europe, I’ve been thinking a lot about how foundations are underutilizing the many tools they have to create #impact. For example: 🚀 We can make non-grant #investments. Depending on the jurisdiction, we can use grant funding for #equity or #debt investments. This is what we at Laudes Foundation did when setting up Fashion for Good and its related funds (a seed fund for #innovators as well as Good Fashion Fund). For us, this has been incredibly catalytic, unlocking over $2 billion in commercial funding for these innovators. 🚀 We can build the #ecosystem for impact investing. Foundations’ secret sauce is in how they #enable change, working through partners to influence the rules of the system (such as the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation or #SFDR), tackle the incentives in the system, or even shape the ideas and assumptions behind it (as we have done with UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), Earth4All, Council on Economic Policies, Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), and many more). 🚀 We can tap the relatively untapped tool in our toolbox: #endowments. As Kieron Boyle, in a recent Financial Times report with Impact Europe, says "Trying to achieve impact through grant-making alone is like playing a football match with one star player rather than two whole teams.” I’m proud that Impact Europe and Philea - Philanthropy Europe Association have teamed up to help their members further explore this opportunity. Confluence Philanthropy is also an excellent resource for best practice here. 🚀 And we can help bring other actors – like #corporates – along with us. A few years back, we helped to set up what is now called the Business of Impact, which helps corporates leverage various tools such as #corporatefoundations, corporate #venture funds, #impactinvesting funds. Stanford Social Innovation Review highlighted this here: https://lnkd.in/dWx_NKtj. And a new report by Impact Europe (https://lnkd.in/de649sf6) helps corporates get started. In short, philanthropy won’t save the world. It's miniscule vis-a-vis the trillions needed to accelerate the just transition we need in this time of climate crisis. But it IS powerful enabler – with multiple levers – that help make business, industry and finance be a force for good. Dana Lanza, Delphine Moralis, Roberta Bosurgi, Amol Mehra, Katy Hartley, Clare Hierons, Katrin Ley, Bob Assenberg, Chris West, Saskia Bruysten, Silke Horakova, pascal vinarnic, María Ángeles León López, Dr. Markus Freiburg, Antonio Miguel, Maha Keramane, Marco Gerevini, Douglas Miller, Naina Subberwal Batra, Allie Hollowell, Johanna B., Jelena Stamenkova van Rumpt, Aleksander Weiler, CFA Adriaan Floor, CFA, CAIA Niels Levitus