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.  

Access the SOCAP24 Session Playlist

Featuring more than 200 incredible speakers at more than 100 sessions, SOCAP24 offered a platform for powerful conversations on a range of topics — from empowering marginalized communities to regenerating food systems to AI’s role in impact. These speakers shared invaluable lessons in impact and examples of systemic change taking place around the world. Explore this playlist of video and audio recordings and learn how the impact community is catalyzing systems change through impact investing. Sign up here to access the SOCAP24 playlist!

Report — The Crisis in Homeownership: Barriers and New Solutions

Solving the homeownership crisis requires a coordinated effort among diverse stakeholders and significant capital to bridge the gap between affordability and accessibility. This report, presented by SOCAP in partnership with Ownify, provides a deep dive into the declining accessibility of homeownership; tangible ways innovation, capital, and policy can align to build a more inclusive and sustainable framework for homeownership; and examples of these alignments that are helping make homeownership accessible for a broader range of Americans. Access the report here!

Meet 88 Impact Entrepreneurs: The SOCAP23 Entrepreneur Cohort

Entrepreneurs are at the forefront of creating the social and environmental impact needed to achieve a more just and sustainable economy. Since its inception in 2015, SOCAP’s Entrepreneur Program has built on the strength of the SOCAP community to uplift social entrepreneurs from around the world whose innovative ideas are accelerating progress on the world’s toughest challenges.

SOCAP23 introduced a new wave of social entrepreneurs who are leading the charge, bringing new energy and ideas that drive positive impact and present promising investment opportunities for funders. Meet the 88 entrepreneurs who pitched on stage at SOCAP23 and get inspired by their incredible stories and innovative ideas as they strive for a more promising future. Sign up to learn more and watch their pitches at SOCAP23.

Lessons in Impact: Explore 15 Dialogues From SOCAP23

At SOCAP23, global impact leaders, practitioners, investors, and entrepreneurs gathered to look deeper and take action on the world’s biggest social and environmental challenges. Conversations on stage and on the ground brought together funders and founders, plus people from philanthropy, creatives, nonprofits, community leaders, and others working together to break down barriers and collaborate for impact.

This exclusive collection of 15 conversations from SOCAP23 represents each of the 12 content tracks that made up the SOCAP23 agenda and amplifies the event’s theme, Facing Urgency: Impact at the Speed of Trust. These insightful dialogues cover a range of topics, from a look at regional markets around the globe to new strategies for impact measurement to investing with a gender lens. Together, they share a common thread: How we can accelerate innovation and collaboration to help shape a more just and inclusive world economy. Sign up here to explore these conversations!

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

Nature’s Blueprint: Biodiversity & Sustainability Through Innovative Land Strategies

A collaborative agroforestry project in Costa Rica provides a case study for using capital to drive climate action and community impact. With the La Cabaña project, financial and environmental organizations are coming together to shape nature-based solutions for global challenges. Leaders from the organizations discussed the project and its ripples of impact during this webinar co-hosted by World Tree and SOCAP.

The Power of the Longevity Economy

What is the next great idea and who is it for? During this webinar, Justin Ladner of AARP and Demetric Duckett of Known discuss how the Longevity Economy (economic activity generated by people age 50-plus) will be a key driver for entrepreneurs and innovators going forward.

Feeling the Heat: Climate Change’s Impact on Worker Financial Security

In this conversation, our friends at Commonwealth bring together experts for a first look at their original, new research about the realities of how climate change is currently and will continue to affect workers’ financial security, well-being, and living situations. They host a robust discussion on what actions employers, policymakers, and financial institutions can take to mitigate this impact. 

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:

• SOCAP23 Takeaways and Highlights: Innovations and Collaborations Shaping the Future of Impact (recorded at SOCAP23!)
• Closing the Disability Wealth Gap (recorded at SOCAP23!)
• Connecting Indigenous Communities with Capital for Impact (recorded at SOCAP23!)
• 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!