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The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) defines "impact investment" concept as "an investment made with the intention to make a positive measurable social or environmental impact and obtain a financial return." In practice today there is no common understanding of impact investment term. It allows for many interpretations. However, the venture investor Ksenia Frank, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Elena and Ge
It’s not news that impact investing is near to other forms of socially responsible business development. Jioulnar Asfari, director of the SOLj Center for the Promotion of I
At the same time, experts have no consentience regarding the equivalence of the two parts of the definition – «transformative» and «repayable» ones. In fact, financial dividends are not a fundamental point for the majority: the main thing is that investments work for a stable social effect. Zero return on social bonds is permissible, says Elena Feoktistova, Deputy Chairman, Managing Director for Corporate Responsibility, Sustainable Development and Social Entrepreneurship of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. "An investor can invest money as a social investments – in fact, as a grant, supporting social entrepreneurs, and that money, even if it doesn’t generate income, can be seen as an impact investment because it helps to solve specific problems," she said.
Jioulnar Asfari
MY FAVORITE IMPACT CASE
Ksenia Frank: Olga Barabanova and KINESIS. While still working as a volunteer, Olga finds out that wheelchairs for children are very heavy and do not provide sufficient mobility and are not individualized. Having set up the production of children's bicycles (Lisoped), Olga realized that the technology of making wheelchairs is not very much different from bicycles. Today Olga is producing light active wheelchairs in Moscow (the company is included in the register of social entrepreneurs): Kinesis is the first in Russia (and so far the only one) that makes personalized wheelchairs for children from 2 years old, adults and for Paralympians.
"A person who has created a successful business understands how to get what he wants with the help of investments. In business, this desire is measured in money. In impact investments – in social changes," Ekaterina Rybakova, President and co-founder of the Rybakov Foundation, supports the idea.
Summarizing, we can say: the definition scope can be wide – would be it useful. Thus, the founder of the Seven Suns Development Group of Companies, entrepreneur and social investor Alexey Ryzhkov believes that impact investing in principle should be understood as the activities of any companies that are somehow related to the positive impact arising. "I see ‘impact’ as a format that sooner or later everyone has to transit to," he says. Perhaps, different versions of the definition will again converge into a single picture at this ‘transition point’. "Impact Managing is the ability to see these aspects all as a whole. And there is an art to do it and now I see it more in terms of governments, that is, building a system of governance," Jioulnar Asfari says.
In fact, all market participants, which concerned the topic development, agree on one thing: investments should ‘work’, producing a clear and, if possible, measurable positive impact. It is still the second question – whether it will be possible to return funds invested and even more so to make a profit. The main thing is to achieve a measurable social effect… and be able to evaluate it.
"We decided for ourselves that since we want positive changes, they should affect the quality of people’s lives. And we will rely on feedback, on how people themselves evaluate these changes. Tens of thousands of people participate in our activities. We interview them. And we evaluate our impacts by the way they evaluate the impact of our programs, our projects on their lives," Ekaterina Rybakova says.
Venture investor Ksenia Frank is also confident that quantitative assessment when measuring impact raises many questions and is insufficient by itself. "In the work of the Timchenko Foundation, we do not tie grants only to the achievement of pla
Jioulnar Asfari agrees with the existence of an internal conflict between the known metrics of performance evaluation and, in fact, the impact evaluation. "The impact is such a semantic aspect, and its ‘birth place’ is the heart, and all the evidence is in the head. Therefore, it is important not to overdo it: the control and measurement system itself should not become a goal in itself. When we talk about impact, it is important to be able to see the effect of all indicators at the strategic level together." At the same time, Jioulnar Asfari notes, today the world market is begi
Ksenia Frank
Ekaterina Rybakova
MY FAVORITE IMPACT CASE
Ekaterina Rybakova: If we talk about the Rybakov Foundation's projects, it's difficult for me to choose. They include the University of Childhood and our course, which we developed together with The Higher School of Economics university as an evaluation and self-diagnostic tool for schools, as well as the school community «The School is the center of society». The course that we are now introducing into the curriculum of pedagogical universities is aimed at giving future teachers skills in community management, community building so that they can use them immediately in school.