Earlier this week, Liquidnet, the sponsor of the Tactical Philanthropy track at the Social Capital Markets conference, offered a free conference ticket to the Tactical Philanthropy reader who offered the best idea for mainstreaming the Social Capital Markets concept.
The deadline was last night and Liquidnet has just informed me that they’ve selected the following comment from reader Sarah Sullivant:
“Besides Oprah? Two ways:
First, we need to find ways to gear the message of social capital and impact investing towards young investors whose outlook and identity were forged in the financial crisis. These are the investors who are sensitive to the notion that pursuing ever-higher financial returns to the exclusion of all else is not only unsustainable in the long run, but crowds out otherwise attractive opportunities to achieve both financial and social/environmental return. They (we) will become the generation of millionaires receptive to the idea of giving half their wealth and achieving total returns on the rest, and we will be the ones to align policy and practice with a new understanding of social and financial responsibility.
Second, I believe the social capital industry needs to be intentional about measuring and evaluating non-financial impact, and to communicate that the inherent challenges in measuring social and environmental performance are no excuse for failing to innovate and advance in the area of impact measurement. As investors become increasingly interested in directing capital towards total impact, there will be a growing need for impact metrics that satisfy people’s preferences for blending social and financial return, and a candid conversation about the opportunities and barriers to measurement is an important step towards unlocking capital that is critical to scale.
And apart from that, it would give Oprah something to talk about.”
You can read all the submissions suggesting ways to mainstream the Social Capital Market concept here.