Shifting the conversation towards impact investing
We had a wonderful week and want to share a few great moments we had with IVEY Business School and on Newstalk 1290 here in London, Ontario.
First, the Social Impact Club at Ivey Business School, which is run by MBA students, organizes an annual Impact Day. This is our second year leading a case study for their impact investing stream and were glad to have 30 students take on our challenge: build a place-based social venture fund.
The result of this one-day session was 6 groups presenting to our panel of VERGE advisors on their version of how to build and implement a social venture fund for the London region.
Highlights from their presentations include: Focus the fund on certain impact areas, ex: health and wellness, and target foundations that are active in that area to invest; Find and approach high net worth individuals who are active volunteers and donors to get involved as impact investors; Add covenants to contracts with investees to ensure impact metrics are embedded in order to track outcomes.
Shifting gears, we had the opportunity to join radio host, Nick Chevosky on his weekly chat with Quinn Lawson on the state of entrepeneurship in Southwestern Ontario.
The conversation was lively and immediately brought light to how social enterprise and social finance are moving from an emerging trend to taking root in the region. With the recent opening of Innovation Works, to VERGE’s Social Enterprise Loan Fund, and the Government of Ontario renewing their Social Enterprise Strategy until 2021 — there is lots of momentum.
Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/newstalk1290/quinn-lawson-and-andre-vashist-on-social-enterprise
We are continuing to collaborate with great organizations and people to shift thinking and blend values — if you want to connect with us please email info@vergecapital.ca
