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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02.19.08

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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12.05.07

More on Social Market Infrastructure: B Lab and Fast Company

Posted in exchanges, rating agencies, transparency at 12:54 am by Andrea McGrath

Fast Company magazine has just announced this year’s winners (45) of its annual FAST COMPANY/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Awards. OF NOTE this year is the inclusion of 10 for-profit social capitalists, and the introductory article presents a good opening/overview of the thoughts behind the addition of the for-profit category and emerging developments in this ‘social capital markets’ (recommend a quick read-through all the articles in this edition)
There’s much to discuss from the articles in this edition, but one comment that caught my eye was a quick quote from Andrew Kassoy from B Lab, who notes that “Traditional capital markets have a massive amount of infrastructure built up over the years. Capital, laws, tax codes, research, ratings. This sector needs that sort of infrastructure.”

To that end, the B Lab team has been actively working on developing that infrastructure through its innovative efforts in developing the survey, methodology and tools to identify “B corporations” - companies who demonstrate transparent, comprehensive reporting on social and environmental performance and also restate their articles of incorporation to reflect nonfinancial stakeholders’ interests. The co-founders - Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan, and Andrew Kassoy - and some partners are now thinking through how to possibly create a dedicated stock exchange for B companies and lobbying for changes in state laws that would make it easier for hybrid for-profits to incorporate. (if you haven’t yet - check out www.bcorporation.net)
 

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10.21.07

Social Marketplace: What Could This Be?

Posted in exchanges, rating agencies, Story Index, information hubs at 3:17 pm by Samantha Beinhacker

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is engaged in a fact-finding investigation to assess the most effective tools and models to assist decision-making in philanthropic investment. Calling it a “social marketplace” of information for the philanthropic community, the tool (or tools) would probably be some kind of technology-based application, according to Susan Bell, director of Hewlett’s philanthropy program. You can read the full interview here.

I suggest there is an important role these emergent social stock exchanges can play in the development of this information tool. Perhaps the Story Index might help? We’ve defined the Story Index as an attempt to create a Rosetta Stone between all the nascent exchanges, rating agencies and analyst groups that are arising, trying to determine common denominators of the value of “businesses doing good” that are best encapsulated in narratives.

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