This story originally appeared in our March 24, 2011 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Past Beyond Profit interviewee, Morgan Simon, writes about her views on impact evaluation and the importance of community involvement.

“Get off your (ass)ets and do something!” was my creed for many years as the leader of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, working to get colleges and universities to move their US$400bn towards impact investment. Activists are known for impatience—we often want to see change happen and then move on to the next thing. Hence, pausing for impact measurement always seemed to me like a potential waste of time.  Didn’t we have enough work to accomplish just convincing people to do impact investment at all?

I’m proud to say I’ve completely reformed. I have jumped full-force onto the impact measurement bandwagon. I’m excited that the organization I currently work with, Toniic, is serving as a Pioneer Fund for GIIRS. And I’m hopeful that as an industry, we’ll be careful and critical about how we talk about impact over time. » Continue reading “Impact Evaluation”

This story originally appeared in our December 3, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

In the first issue of Beyond Profit, published in April 2009, we wrote about the emergence of the impact investing industry, which facilitates investments that create a positive social impact beyond financial return. Earlier this week, a report by J.P. Morgan and the Rockefeller Foundation declared impact investment a new asset class—a remarkable development in the lifecycle of this industry. What does it mean for social enterprise? Lindsay Clinton analyzes the current landscape.

On November 29, J.P. Morgan and the Rockefeller Foundation released a report that will likely serve as a turning point in the development of impact investing. The report, which assesses expected and realized returns of more than 1,000 impact investments, estimates that the industry presents an investment opportunity between US$400bn and US$1 trillion with profit potential between US$183bn and US$667bn. Importantly, the report declares impact investment an asset class which provides a strong indicator to investors who may have shied away from social investing in the past to reconsider this emerging investment category. » Continue reading “Impact Investing: Challenges and Opportunities”

This story originally appeared in our December 3, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Morgan Simon, Founder of Toniic, a new company that will aggregate angel investments in the social enterprise sector, spoke to Nisha Kumar Kulkarni about the need for such an organization and current challenges that investors face.

Toniic, a new aggregator of angel investments will facilitate global investments in the social enterprise space. The organization will work to increase the amount of early-stage funding for entrepreneurs working in the developing world. Through innovation partnerships, Toniic hopes to make investing easier.

BP: How would you define impact investing? What does that term mean to you?
MS: Impact investment is an important tool for those who seek a more equitable and sustainable society. Unlike philanthropy, which seeks to maximize social impact without a need for financial return, and conventional investment, that seeks to maximize returns without any regard for social impact, impact investment provides an opportunity for individuals and institutions to have their cake and eat it too; achieving the financial returns they require while also seeking to maximize social impact. This might mean providing financing for a school or health clinic that will ultimately, unlike a charitable institution, be a self-sustaining entity. Hence, for many entrepreneurs, impact investment rather than donations can also lead to greater long-term sustainability, as they specifically use funds to ensure that projects will continue in perpetuity without the need for annual donor support. It can also ensure that they can be most responsive to the needs of their communities, as their clients are their patrons rather than external donors. » Continue reading “Interview: Morgan Simon, Founder of Toniic”