How can place-based purchasing shift capital at scale into the impact economy?

Institutional and private sector procurement spend is large enough to shift capital at scale into the impact economy, but almost none of it works for the communities it lands in. Local enterprises, cooperatives and social businesses are structurally locked out, not by quality or price, but by rigid RFPs, upfront costs and network barriers. Meanwhile, impact investing tools are slow, expensive and reach only a fraction of enterprises that need them. The frameworks, partnerships and shared language to make impact-led purchasing mainstream simply haven’t caught up. This session bridges that gap by using lessons from two very different contexts; Chicago and Argentina to show that solutions exist and are ready to scale.