02.29.08

BLAB and the BX Public Stock Exchange for B Corporations

Posted in exchanges, rating agencies, funds at 6:45 pm by Andrea McGrath

Continuing good news in social capital markets developments. The Rockefeller Foundation - through its Impact Investing initiative (which is working to help facilitate the necessary infrastructure to develop more scalable, efficient social capital markets) - recently announced a grant in support of B Lab (B Lab in the nonprofit organization supporting B Corporations - see previous discussions of B Lab below). As Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation describes: “B Corporations are an excellent synthesis of the best innovative thinking of how enterprises can be better organized for both financial return on investment and greater transparency and accountability for social and environmental outcomes.”  Jay Coen Gilbert, one of the founders of B Lab notes that in addition to grant funding, Rockefeller has also introduced them to like-minded partners -such as the UK-based Social Stock Exchange (SSE) team headed by Mark Campanale and Pradeep Jethi - with whom they are working on the development of a public stock exchange of B Corporations (read the full article here).

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02.24.08

Xigi.net Launches First Social Capital Index

Posted in exchanges, funds, information hubs at 2:27 pm by Andrea McGrath

Realizing that the Social Capital Market has reached a point its own index is needed - the folks at xigi.net have just launched the Social Capital Index which will track investments in the social capital market - including social enterprise, (health, education and workforce development) fair trade, digital inclusion, and some of the clean tech and microfinance investments. The index will help investors and entrepreneurs keep up-to-date on what is happening in this market - and it will create a place where both buyers and sellers can access research on competition and comparable investments. As the xigi team states - these emerging markets need a research hub to help people get smarter faster. The SoCap Index has three parts, including an asset class fan that ranges from debt to equity to strategic grants - and a fund matrix which describes some of the funds in the Social Capital Market. Over time the goal is that the SoCap Index will create context so investors can discover potential co-investors - and entrepreneurs can find investors and partners. Another goals is that the SoCap Index will reach enough of a critical mass of investment information that it will become a reliable, objective, third party validator of the social capital market’s growth, trajectory, variety and market size. Kudos to the xigi folks (one of whom is Kevin Jones - our collaborator on the xchangexchange) for this important next step

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02.19.08

Analysis of Online Marketplaces Opens Dialogue on Key Questions

Posted in rating agencies, Story Index, information hubs, meaning as metrics at 1:24 pm by Andrea McGrath

Keystone - a UK based consultancy led by David Bonbright - has just launched a new report entitled: ‘Online Philanthropy Markets: from ‘Feel-Good’ Giving to Effective Social Investing’?  (Iam including here their own description, although have also read it through). This report examines the rapidly expanding phenomenon of online philanthropy markets and includes online platforms like GlobalGiving, Kiva, Network for Good, GiveIndia, HelpArgentina, and many more. The Keystone study finds that online philanthropy markets are relentless innovators, and they believe that some of these innovations are indeed helping to advance longstanding gaps in the performance of nonprofit organizations (such as accountability to beneficiaries and other constituents).

That said - the report also notes that there is still a long way to go - as many of the current online marketplaces still promote a traditional ‘feel-good giving’ approach to philanthropy - while marketplaces that attempt to cultivate a ‘social investment’ mentality among their users still remain a minority. Part of the challenge in cultivating an ‘investment mentality’ is that well-defined criteria for assessing the performance and impact of the organizations listed in the marketplaces remains scarce - and in general the information available in these marketplaces to donors and other social investors falls far short of any acceptable standard of systemization. The December 2007 issue of Alliance magazine actually discussed some of these challenges as well - and David Bonbright of Keystone published an interesting piece on measuring impact “What Do we Need to Know” in that issue.

Overall, through the analysis and recommendations in this study, Keystone hopes to encourage a field-wide dialogue about how to achieve the transformative potential of online philanthropy markets and about how to use innovative online tools to create the informational basis for effective social investments. They welcome feedback and comments on their website where you can download the report!  Good questions and a good read!  

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02.17.08

ESG Indices….and thinking through measurements

Posted in exchanges, rating agencies, India at 5:11 pm by Andrea McGrath

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Crisil and environmental and research firm KLD Research and Analytics have launched a new Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) Index in India (S&P ESG India Index). The new ESG index comprises 50 Indian companies drawn from the largest 500 companies listed on the National Stock exchange - and was a pilot project initiated and sponsored by the International Finance Corp (IFC). As discussion of measurement in the nonprofit sector once again is gaining energy and debate - it’s interesting to think through what we can learn from these new performance indices. As traditional ‘for-profits’ - and those that rate their performance - are beginning to think through how they gain clarity on ‘social, environmental and governance’ metrics - it is interesting to think through how can we build on these and apply them to this emerging “middle space” of enterprises that are pursuing both financial and social returns. What can we learn about what can be comparable in ‘social’ measurement and how (if) it might apply with emergent social capital markets.

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02.05.08

The Kiva Challenge: Great Questions for New Exchanges

Posted in exchanges, funds at 11:32 pm by Andrea McGrath

If you haven’t yet seen this yet, Sean Stannard-Stockton is hosting some thoughtful conversation on his own blog Tactical Philanthropy - sparked in part by the recent NY Times article on the challenges of Kiva.org in having (at least temporarily) more demand from donors than supply of enterprises.  Sean’s recent entry raises some great questions on supply and demand on these new ‘exchanges’ - particulaly the idea of referring excess capital to other ‘exchanges’. In response, Dennis Whittle of Global Giving makes note that they indeed do refer their donors when it “makes sense” to other exchanges with whom they have agreements. Conversation definitely worth following…

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