Hooray! Nordic SIBs get going with a meeting in Stockholm, and more on the exciting appointment of former Governor (and PFS / SIB visionary) Deval Patrick at Bain Capital. A truly upbeat read in todays SIB News:
Forum For Social Innovation Initiates Nordic Social Impact Bond Development Network
GLE
On March 30th the first meeting of the Nordic Social Impact Bond (SIB) Development Network took place at The Impact Hub in Stockholm. Representatives from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark convened to share experiences and insights from specific SIB initiatives in each market. There is great interest from stakeholders to collaborate around SIB development and to understand how this fits into a Nordic context, according to Camilla Backström from Forum for Social Innovation Sweden.
Forum for Social Innovation Sweden has put special focus on social impact investment during the past year and reached out to key stakeholders in the different Nordic countries. Today there are initiatives up and running in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland building on the social impact bond concept. During discussions with stakeholders of these initiatives a need was expressed to collaborate on a Nordic level. This makes sense as the cultures are closely related, the welfare systems similar and the common view on social service delivery is comparable.
A Guide On The Evolving Trend Of Impact Investing
Sacha Pfeiffer – Boston Globe
Investing was for doing well. Charity was for doing good.
That was the traditional view of making money: that financial returns and personal values were incompatible. But that wall has crumbled as a new field of investments evolves, aimed not just at generating profits but producing social benefits.
That will be former governor Deval Patrick’s mission at Bain Capital, where he revealed this week he will be starting a new line of business centered on finding investments that can produce profits and address social needs.
The practice goes by many names — socially responsible investing, sustainable investing, impact investing — and good luck getting a uniform definition or widely agreed-on terminology.
“It shakes up what you and I grew up with, which is that you use your for-profit activities to maximize your financial returns, and you use your charity lever to make the world a better place by giving away money,” said Tracy Palandjian, co-founder and CEO of Boston-based Social Finance, a nonprofit that uses investment capital to try to solve social problems such as crime and poverty.