(Past event)
SOCAP19 convened innovators in finance, entrepreneurship, business, government, and philanthropy to accelerate market ventures that support people, planet, and profit. This annual impact investing conference in San Francisco featured a number of contributions from MIE, including six dynamic sessions on catalytic capital and a special Member Appreciation Gathering, both co-presented with the Catalytic Capital Consortium (MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, and Rockefeller Foundation). MIE also curated its signature Investment Forum, focused on how foundations and intermediaries partner to advance racial equity in asset management. (MIE members were required to log in to RSVP for the MIE Member Appreciation Gathering here. Attendance at SOCAP19 was not required to RSVP for this Gathering.)
Below, we've highlighted our top picks for session recordings from SOCAP19, including brief event takeaways. You can also find an overview of sessions and additional recordings on the following tabs. Visit MIE's Racial Equity Library for related resources, and stay tuned for a new Catalytic Capital Library in the coming months.
Catalytic Capital
Takeaways
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Catalytic capital is an important tool for mission-driven investors, such as foundations, to provide more flexible, risk-tolerant, and patient capital than other types of investors. Read this essay for more.
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Catalytic capital investors orient around impact and use the tools of investing to attract additional capital to impactful deals and markets. A powerful example of a catalytic capital in action is Terra Silva, a $90 million collaborative by Packard and MacArthur foundations that is designed to respond to the challenges of climate change. The project was announced in "Fighting Climate Change While Growing Markets," recorded here.
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SunFunder presents a classic case study of catalytic capital and blended capital, in growing the overall market of clean off-grid energy. The company has unlocked over $62 million as of 2017 through a series of aggregated debt funds with support from Packard Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and others.
Recordings
Fighting Climate Change While Growing Markets (Click for Recording)
With the consequences of climate change already taking effect, investment partners are finding new ways to blend their capital to preserve and protect the world’s most critical tropical forests and the communities that depend on them. In this session, a panel of mission investors will explore how new investment collaborations can be catalytic – and how patient capital, at scale, can deliver financial returns while accelerating climate-smart forestry and agricultural practices worldwide. This session was co-presented by Mission Investors Exchange and the Catalytic Capital Consortium (MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, and Rockefeller Foundation). John Balbach, MacArthur Foundation; Sarah Kearney, Prime Coalition; Shilpa Patel, ClimateWorks Foundation; Susan Phinney Silver, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Embracing the Tradeoff: Using Low Cost Capital to Drive Deeper Impact (Click for Recording)
While most of the impact investing sector seeks to embrace the idea of double-bottom line investments that demand limited financial sacrifice, significant market gaps persist in sectors and geographies that require lower costs of capital to succeed. This panel highlighted impact-first investors that have relaxed their own constraints to achieve market-rate returns that are filling these global gaps, and how funds and enterprises in these markets are delivering impact in regions where commercial investors cannot venture. Rick Beckett, Global Partnerships; Richard Greenberg, OPIC; Lynne Hoey, Candide Group; Diane Isenberg, Ceniarth; Greg Neichin, Ceniarth.
Racial Equity
Takeaways
- A multitude of studies have identified the economic and social benefits of diversity. Yet the asset management industry continues to struggle with a lack of diversity — despite evidence demonstrating that there is no significant difference in the performance of firms owned by women and minorities when compared to their peers. “People think of diversity as an add-on or tangential part” of their practice, notes Robert J. Manilla of The Kresge Foundation during MIE's Investment Forum. But in reality, “if you put more diverse people in a room, they make better decisions.” See this essay for more background on this topic.
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Extensive evidence proves that unconscious biases prevent capital from reaching investees of color and underserved communities — without regard to the value or promise of the investments themselves. How can we work to improve the quality and fairness of decision-making in the existing industry? This resource provides a growing list of ideas to reduce the effects of racial bias, through tools, training, and more.
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Achieving change requires intentionality and going the extra miles to meet fund managers, investees, and consultants beyond your default networks and geographies. The importance of proactiveness, hard work, and patience was emphasized in several sessions.
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How do we "make the case" for racial equity when faced with lack of willpower or skepticism among decision-makers? In response to a dialogue during the MIE Investment Forum on this topic, speakers discussed the benefits and disadvantages of making a "business case" or "moral case" for racial equity. Our take-away: understand the perceptions, motives, and biases of your audience to offer a perspective that they can most relate to.
Recordings
Implicit Bias in Asset Management (Click for recording)
Jennifer Eberhardt, Stanford Sparq; Ashby Monk, Stanford Global Projects Center; Daryn Dodoson, Illumen Capital; Miljana Vujosevic, Prudential
Smart Investing: A Call for Diversity in Foundation Asset Management (Click for recording)
Rip Rapson, Kresge Foundation; Susan Taylor-Batten, ABFE
