Jed Emerson, who first coined the term “Blended Value” and is Chief Impact Strategist with ImpactAssets, talked about remaining grounded, focusing less on the how and more on the why of impact investing at SOCAP16 event in September.
Main Takeaway
Impact investing is not a “fuzzy concept of charitable good” but instead “a more integrated approach to value creation through capital, communities and our companies.”
Emerson reflected on these views in an accompanying article SOCAP16 and Beyond. In it, he passionately advocated our need to avoid the selling points of “cheap impact” and to work hard instead at really transforming the purpose of capital.
His opening talk at this year’s SOCAP and thoughtful article, we felt, really struck the right tone and his call for urgent need for action is inspiring.
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“I firmly believe if many of our members spent more time connecting with the “why,” with cultivating a deeper understanding of the fundamental purpose of capital, we would find questions regarding the “how” of impact investing easier to navigate.
This question of why, of the purpose of capital is a much deeper, historic conversation than we have time to explore today—and is the focus of much of my current work—but the answer to this question of purpose is itself embedded within how we understand the place and structure of our current—and evolving—community.
As I have reflected upon SOCAP15 over these past months and have then also observed some of the subsequent discussions taking place in the broader impact community with regard to justice, equity and impact, I’ve come to realize what I know many of you see as well, and that is this:
As we move to scale our impact and continue to embrace the ongoing mainstreaming of our vision and practices, we need to create a truly big tent that may simultaneously hold all our various parts while also ensuring we’re all a part of the same gathering and overall movement committed to impact, equity and the effective deployment of diverse types of capital in pursuit of multiple returns.
Let me be clear—what stands before us is not a challenge of accommodation, compromise and mediocrity. We, as individuals, each need one another if we are to achieve our specific goals. It is the diverse perspectives and slightly differing goals of our constituent parts that will make for the creation of a more fully diverse and rich impact ecosystem within which we may all thrive and grow as we pursue our own understanding of what that vision of impact and value creation should look like.
It is in this way we are simultaneously a community of parts and Whole.”
