PLY: Question for the day – given the Volkswagen scandal, is it time to reconsider the Corporate Social Responsibility movement and where does that leave SIBs? It’s a valid point to ponder methinks…
Is Social Investment Really About Financing The Third Sector?
Pauline Hinchion – Pioneers Post
Since the establishment of the Social Impact Investment Taskforce in 2000, the UK has witnessed the rapid development of a social investment market driven by successive centre left and centre right governments. In the intervening period, we have seen the creation of a plurality of different financial initiatives including social impact bonds (SIBs) and Social Investment Tax Relief (SITF); the raising of new social investment funds via models adapted from the venture capital world, and the creation of Big Society Capital, which lends to Social Investment Financial Intermediaries (SIFIs), and Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs).
There is little doubt that social investment is altering the third sector, in particular the two complementary forces of investor returns and increasing focus on profitability, with some maintaining that social investment is bringing the third sector into the 21st Century. But to what extent are social investment developments also seeding new types of hybrid business models such as ‘Profit with Purpose’ models or ‘B Corp’ models? And what, if anything, do these hybrid business models actually have in common with the traditional third sector other than perhaps as competitors for the delivery of public and other services and also for finance?
Social Investment: Is It Going To Thrive?
Third Sector
The Conservative Party made much of its plans for social investment in its election manifesto – so how is that coming along? Sam Burne James and Stephen Cook examine the state of play.