Its always interesting when an idea you had a long time ago finally starts to take shape and then becomes reality. A sense the timing is finally right, an investor (Halloran Philanthropies) willing to take a risk, and a team of people that could carry the whole thing off...
Amidst the market turmoil enthusiastic investors and entrepreneurs are increasingly turning toward a new form of capitalism and philanthropy that recognizes both the power and efficiency of market systems and the opportunity to direct them toward the sustainable exchange of human, social and natural resources and a balanced set of social and financial “returns.” Early efforts by social entrepreneurs and enlightened investors over the past 30 years has given rise to what can be called the “Social Capital Markets” that include affordable housing, renewable energy, microfinance, fair trade, base of the pyramid and others. Particularly in the last few years these markets and the philosophies embedded in them are being accepted by a growing and diverse set of market participants and just may transform our existing system in a way that addresses the massive demographic, social, environmental, technological and cultural changes unfolding around the globe.
Social Capital Markets 2008 is an intervention intended to increase the flow of money and attention toward microfinance, fair trade, renewable energy, base of the pyramid, and much more. Just as importantly it is a place where market participants and new players can reflect on the overall field's successes and challenges and construct the future through personal people to people connections. It is the latter that will ultimately be the difference.
The rise in power of corporations with a mandate to maximize financial return for their shareholders in the shortest possible time, often at the expense of human and environmental conditions, has lead to greater acknowledgement of the limits of capitalism in its current form. The recent collapse of Wall Street now makes that clear.
Amidst the market turmoil enthusiastic investors and entrepreneurs are increasingly turning toward a new form of capitalism and philanthropy that recognizes both the power and efficiency of market systems and the opportunity to direct them toward the sustainable exchange of human, social and natural resources and a balanced set of social and financial “returns.” Early efforts by social entrepreneurs and enlightened investors over the past 30 years has given rise to what can be called the “Social Capital Markets” that include affordable housing, renewable energy, microfinance, fair trade, base of the pyramid and others. Particularly in the last few years these markets and the philosophies embedded in them are being accepted by a growing and diverse set of market participants and just may transform our existing system in a way that addresses the massive demographic, social, environmental, technological and cultural changes unfolding around the globe.
This is not just an emerging market, it is a model for reforming our capital market system. All the component parts that make up a financial system are being re-imagined - from the way entrepreneurs approach an opportunity to the way investors choose where to put their money. It is grass-roots and mainstream. It is the woman in Latin America borrowing money to buy a sewing machine and it is the Wall Street firm creating a local currency product to offset volatility in international exchange rates that makes the loan doable. It is the MBA building technology to allow online "face to face transactions" so individuals around the world can work together and it is the long-time energy entrepreneur who now sets his sights on bringing electricity to a rural village in northern India.
Its all occurring on a global sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.
paz
mark