Social Currency

Last week, we announced that Antony Bugg-Levine would take over as CEO here at NFF starting October 24th.  This week we’re thrilled to bring you his newest article from the latest issue of the journal Innovations (available here in its entirety as an Amazon Kindle eBook).  The special issue is focused on the Social Capital Markets conference (SOCAP11) starting Tuesday in San Francisco.  Bugg-Levine’s contribution, “Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference,” co-authored with Jed Emerson, looks at the emergence of the terms “impact investing” and “blended value” and offers provisional definitions as practical guidance.  But it is also a broader call--not to say warning--to rethink the “bifurcated world” of investment and philanthropy: 

Impact investors will not long be content to force-fit their aspirations into a set of systems created to support the bifurcated vision. Therefore, these systems will inevitably change under the collective weight of a new generation of investors, entrepreneurs, and government officials coming together in the pursuit of blended value...

You can download the article as a pdf by clicking here, or read it embedded below.  The article is adapted from the first chapter of Bugg-Levine and Emerson’s forthcoming book of the same name, available in print and for Kindle at Amazon.  

NFF staff and Antony Bugg-Levine will be in attendance at SoCap11, and we’ll be covering the conference over at our Social Impact Bond Learning Hub and via our @nff_news Twitter feed.    

Links:
SoCap11/Impact Investing special edition of Innovations at Amazon
Innovations journal homepage at MIT Press
NFF’s Social Impact Bond Learning Hub 
On Twitter:
Innovations Journal @innovationsjrnl
Antony Bugg-Levine: @ABLImpact
Jed Emerson: @BlendedValue

Innovations Journal -- Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference (Bugg-Lev...