Participate in the Capital Provider Experience at SOCAP26, October 12-14, in Chicago!
For more than 19 years, SOCAP has brought together the people and organizations shaping the future of impact investing. As one of the leading convenings for investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and ecosystem builders, SOCAP creates space for meaningful conversations that help move capital toward lasting social and environmental impact. This year marks a historic milestone as the conference heads to Chicago for the first time, creating new opportunities to connect with one of the country’s most vibrant impact ecosystems.
Alongside this new location, SOCAP is introducing the Capital Provider Experience—curated programming within the SOCAP26 agenda designed specifically for the individuals and organizations making decisions about where and how impact capital is deployed. The experience is designed to support participants—including limited partners, general partners, family offices, foundations, endowments, CDFIs, and institutional investors—in deepening peer connections, holding more intentional conversations, and identifying greater opportunities for collaboration.
Across all three days of the event, sessions will be marked on the agenda as part of the Capital Provider Experience, making it easy for allocators to plan their schedules. See those sessions here, and view the full SOCAP26 agenda here.
As Dipti Pratt, Managing Director of Toniic and one of the organizers of the Experience, observed, the impact investing ecosystem is becoming more sophisticated. Having “more individuals around the table” is making the field richer and also more complex. Organizing the conference agenda in this way will help allocators to connect, learn from one another, and access the know-how to drive capital where it’s needed long after the event concludes. View the
A recent webinar offered a closer look at the Capital Provider Experience, featuring Pratt alongside two other organizers: Sarah Sterling, Vice President of Content & Convening at SOCAP, and Pamela Roussos, Founder and CEO of WeavingImpact. Together, they explored why this year’s Capital Provider Experience arrives at a pivotal moment for the impact investing ecosystem and how it will help allocators navigate an increasingly complex landscape.
Ready to participate in the Capital Provider Experience? Join fellow investors, foundations, family offices, and ecosystem leaders at SOCAP26 in Chicago. Register for SOCAP26 now to secure your spot!
A Maturing Market Calls for Stronger Collaboration
“We’re seeing the impact investment ecosystem really maturing… there are more actors coming in… and that’s both an opportunity because there are more individuals around the table, but yet it makes it more complex. With that complexity, it’s a beautiful moment and an opportunity to… ask: What can we do collectively? What can we do together?” — Dipti Pratt, Toniic
The impact investing ecosystem has grown significantly over the past decade, bringing more investors, fund managers, foundations, and institutional players into the space. The Capital Provider Experience was created to help allocators navigate this complexity. By bringing peers together through curated discussions and intentional networking, the experience creates space to step back from day-to-day investing, exchange ideas, and consider broader questions about the market’s future. As Pratt challenged attendees, “What can we do collectively? What can we do together?”
Rather than focusing solely on individual investment opportunities, the experience encourages capital providers to learn from one another, build lasting partnerships, and explore how the ecosystem can move forward together—even amid uncertainty.
Relationships Drive Better Capital Decisions
“You all are doing amazing, interesting, innovative work, and so why should we all be reinventing wheels? Let’s get in rooms and let’s share the goods, the bads, and the uglies, and learn from each other in order… to get to the next level of the work that we all want to be doing.” — Pamela Roussos, WeavingImpact
One of the strongest themes throughout the discussion was that SOCAP isn’t solely built to make deals—it’s designed to create and deepen relationships. While meaningful partnerships and investments often emerge from the conference, the panelists emphasized that lasting impact begins with authentic connections and shared learning.
Roussos noted that, unlike traditional venture capital, the impact investing ecosystem still lacks well-established funding pathways. Bringing investors, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and intermediaries together helps close those gaps by creating greater understanding across the capital landscape. As she put it, “proximity matters” because being in the same room as the people doing the work creates stronger relationships and more informed investment decisions.
For nonprofit leaders and entrepreneurs, Roussos also offered an important reminder: SOCAP is “built on relationship building,” not transactional fundraising. While the conference can spark new opportunities, the real value comes from the conversations that continue long after the event. “You need to continue to set the table after the conference,” she said, underscoring that meaningful partnerships are established over time.
Built by Capital Providers, for Capital Providers
“The capital provider experience at SOCAP has been designed by and for capital providers, to create a trusted peer environment where allocators can explore timely topics through an investor lens and build meaningful relationships.” — Sarah Sterling, SOCAP Global
Designed for individuals and organizations making decisions about where and how to deploy capital for impact, the Capital Provider Experience creates dedicated opportunities for investors to engage with peers, explore timely topics, and build relationships through an investor-focused lens. As Sterling explained, the experience was developed to create a more intentional pathway for capital providers within the broader SOCAP ecosystem.
“This was created for you,” Sterling shared, emphasizing that the Capital Provider Experience was “designed by and for capital providers.” While SOCAP has always brought together a diverse community of investors, entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, and changemakers, this new experience creates a dedicated space for allocators to connect through curated peer discussions, investor-focused programming, facilitated introductions, and invitation-only networking opportunities.
The goal is to complement the organic connections that have long defined SOCAP with more intentional opportunities for collaboration. As Pratt explained, “Organic is beautiful, but intentionality,” highlighting the importance of creating spaces where investors can directly connect with peers and managers who align with their goals. The Capital Provider Experience is designed to help attendees expand their perspectives, discover new opportunities, and build relationships that continue well beyond the conference.
Why Chicago Matters
SOCAP’s move to Chicago isn’t simply a change of venue—it’s an opportunity to highlight one of the country’s most dynamic impact investing ecosystems. During the webinar, Roussos described Chicago as having “a genuinely strong, vibrant impact investing and social enterprise scene,” anchored by foundations, family offices, universities, nonprofits, and community organizations working across the city’s 77 neighborhoods.
By bringing the conference to the Midwest for the first time, SOCAP is creating opportunities for attendees to experience that ecosystem firsthand through offsite, immersive community sessions taking place around Chicago, local partnerships, and place-based learning. Roussos also pointed to Chicago’s collaborative spirit, noting that “everyone really wants to learn from others,” which makes it an ideal setting for a conference focused on relationship-building and shared progress.
“There is a willingness and a desire to learn from others, and so all of that I think brings together just this amazing ability to have this conference here that really is focused on connection and action together.” — Pamela Roussos
Participating in the Capital Provider Experience
As the impact investing ecosystem continues to grow, opportunities for meaningful collaboration become even more important. The Capital Provider Experience reflects SOCAP’s commitment to creating intentional spaces where capital allocators can learn from peers, discover emerging investment opportunities, strengthen relationships, and help shape the future of impact investing together.
Whether you’re attending SOCAP for the first time or returning to reconnect with the community, this new experience is designed to help you maximize your time, expand your perspective, and build partnerships that extend well beyond the conference. Here, preview three of the Capital Provider Experience sessions you can participate in at SOCAP26:
- Broad or Deep? Finding Your Path in Impact Investing | Impact investors often face a choice: go deep on one cause or spread impact across many. This session brings together two speakers with complementary perspectives—one who made employee ownership the cornerstone of their impact investing journey, and another who explores strategies ranging from focused, issue-specific investing to values-aligned portfolio-wide approaches—to examine how these paths can coexist and how investors can find the combination that fits their goals. Attendees will gain frameworks for determining which approaches are best suited to different investment objectives and asset classes, plus a live Q&A with the speakers.
- Closing the Gap: Rebuilding LP-GP Alignment for Impact | Capital deployment depends on alignment, yet mismatched expectations between LPs and GPs remain one of the most persistent barriers to closing deals. This intentional networking session creates space for candid, cross-table dialogue about what both sides need to see, hear, and understand before capital moves. Participants will explore where communication breaks down across the investment relationship, how to set clearer expectations from the first conversation to close, and what a more productive LP-GP dynamic looks like in practice.
- Who Gets to Build the Future & Why Impact Investors Are Missing the Opportunity | Impact investors are funding innovation but often overlooking the systems that produce innovators. While capital flows to startups, many investors continue to source founders from the same limited networks, constraining both deal flow and opportunities. In partnership with Halloran Philanthropies, this interactive panel will explore how investment, philanthropy, mentorship, and strategic networks can work together to broaden founder pipelines, cultivate overlooked talent, and build the infrastructure that helps more entrepreneurs succeed—because investing in innovation means investing in where founders come from, not just the companies they build. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of how strengthening founder ecosystems unlocks new talent, builds more resilient markets, and expands who gets to shape the future.
Register for SOCAP26 today to participate in the Capital Provider Experience to connect with peers, discover new opportunities, and help shape what’s next for impact capital.
Watch the full webinar here to learn more:
