SOCAP Resources for the Impact Economy

This collection of SOCAP resources aims to inform and inspire our community and the impact economy, sparking new ideas and motivation to accelerate impact. Offered in a variety of mediums — from digital guides to downloadable lookbooks to email — these resources highlight the challenges our world faces, introduce social impact innovators who are leading change and outline opportunities to join the movement. Explore the resources below and get inspired to take action!

Content Guides

What Is Impact Investing?

“All investing has an impact that is largely opaque to the investor, and I think that the work of our field, in part, is to make that impact, positive and negative … transparent to the investor so that the investor can choose.” — Fran Seegull, Executive Director of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance

This helpful guide provides an in-depth introduction to impact investing: what it is, why the incredible growth, and what it looks like in practice. While the field is still evolving, we leaned into our community to provide the resources and overview shared here. Explore the radical frontiers and innovative impact investing examples at work. Read it here.  

Next Generation of Impact Investing: Meet the Social Entrepreneurs Leading the Way

Through their solutions to address the world’s most pressing problems, social entrepreneurs bring new energy and ideas that drive positive impact — and present promising investment opportunities for funders. This lookbook highlights the 2022 SOCAP Entrepreneur Cohort and their solutions poised for high impact and high returns. Find inspiration in the stories and the innovative, scalable ideas from social entrepreneurs representing the next generation of impact. Sign up for the lookbook here.

10 Exclusive Conversations from SOCAP22

SOCAP22 convened at a critical time in history. After a two-year in-person hiatus following the COVID-19 pandemic, the SOCAP community gathered with urgency and a focus on radical collaboration. The event’s “Moments to Movements” theme aimed to collectively turn the pivotal moments of the last three years into sustained, resilient, impactful movements.

This content collection includes 10 conversations from SOCAP22. Focused on taking action with examples of innovative solutions in climate, health care, education, technology, housing, and more, these sessions feature leaders in the impact space who share new ways of thinking to inspire sustained, systemic change and offer replicable examples of working together to transform intersecting systems. Sign up here to listen on demand!

Top 25 Conversations of 2021

Delivered via email, this resource shares a collection of content from our 2021 event series, featuring conversations on inclusion, climate justice, and how the impact investing community can make meaningful progress. This content remains relevant as these events focused on global, cross-sector, and generational issues with long-term, resilient, and innovative solutions. The content includes:

• Equitable Recovery: 5 Ways to Invest in BIPOC-Owned Companies
• Radical Social Enterprise: Healthy Food Access, Racial Equity, and Economic Justice
• The Economic Imperative to Support Marginalized Entrepreneurs
• The Business of Building a Better World
• Busting Myths About the ‘S’ Dimension in ESG: What’s Needed for Broad and Impactful Integration
• Scaling Responsible Innovation in Lending
• Financing Climate Justice
• Radical Social Enterprise: Healthy Food Access, Racial Equity, and Economic Justice
• What Makes a Healthcare Investor an Impact Investor?
• Inclusivity in Supply Chains Post-COVID — and How Impact Investing Fits In
• and 15 more!

 Sign up for the Top 25 Conversations of 2021 here.

Webinars

Retooling the Relationship Between Workers & Employers: Transformative Models in the Future of Work

In this webinar, hosted in partnership with Tyton Partners, we explore the issues around labor market dysfunction and the challenges facing employers and workers.  The future of work is upon us as new industries grow, labor market needs shift, and employers are chronically “deficient” in talent. At the same time, workers — both with and without a college degree — lack the opportunities, skills, and training needed in today’s economy. Transformative models have emerged — often initiated and run by nonprofits — that are rewriting the relationship between workers and employers, uncovering skills that workers do have, and bringing together employers and alternative education providers to develop new pathways to train America’s workforce and create opportunity for all. Panelists:

• Andrea Mainelli, Senior Advisor at Tyton Partners (moderator)
• Yigal Kerszenbaum, Founder & Managing Director, ETF@JFF
• Beth Colbert, Chief Operating Officer, Markle Foundation
• Leila Makarechi, Chief Business Officer, Merit America

Watch the webinar here. Explore other past events, including webinars here.

Money + Meaning Podcast

SOCAP’s Money + Meaning podcast highlights the stories of innovators in our community who are leveraging the power of capital markets to create a more just and sustainable economy. We expand the conversation around impact investing and explore strategies to finance and support social change.  Listen to a few of our recent episodes:

• HBCUs and Equity in Education: A Student-Centric and Data-Driven Approach (recorded at SOCAP22!)
• Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: In Conversation with Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellows (recorded at SOCAP22!)
• State of the Field and Practice of Impact Investing

Explore all of the Money + Meaning podcast episodes here.  

Calendar of Impact Events

Click here to view this as a calendar. Are you hosting an upcoming event? Tell us about it here!