Business School

In this session, delegates discussed their biggest hopes and fears for social investment – in the form of potential headlines in Pioneers Post. Working in groups, they used collage to create a series of imaginary headlines, and then voted on their favourites.

There has been much talk about ‘place-based investment’ – what is happening on the ground? With Bristol as the central case study, this session explored how a collaborative approach to investment in places can promote systemic change, and the conditions needed to make this happen.

Four housing association ‘giants’ have launched a new social investment fund that will provide support for enterprises that create positive social impact within their communities. But other housing associations have not been so proactive. Are housing associations really sleeping or just not well understood?

2019 is the year when the rules of the road for impact finance are set out on a global scale – the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has proposed “principles”, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has “characteristics”. From the point of view of UK social investment, what would we want to see in the rules of the road? What are the principles that give impact real integrity and the opportunity to achieve for both our mission and our sustainability and growth?

How do we improve public messaging on social investment? To become mainstream, maybe we also need to speak to those who will only invest because there will be serious consequences for their own self-interest if they don’t. Evita Zanuso of Big Society Capital chaired this ‘Conversation for Change’ – a more informal discussion – at the Gathering with Amir Rizwan of Comic Relief and Rod Schwartz of ClearlySo

Social investment is so often led by the market and the needs of the investor, rarely the needs of the entrepreneur. So how do we establish a more supportive and inclusive market for social entrepreneurs wishing to access investment? 

Both internationally and in the UK pension funds are starting to think about allocating capital to impact but based on money actually commited, the UK is lagging behind its European counterparts. At the first Gathering in Dartington in 2017, investors and advisers came up with an idea to promote impact investment to pension funds. At this year’s Gathering, delegates heard about what progress had been made.

How do we make social investment work better? Who’s doing what to build the infrastructure, how does it fit together, and how do we know it’s really helping? Who should be involved, who pays for it, and how do we build a collective sense of what’s most important?

The ‘Dan Show’, with hosts Daniel Brewer (Resonance) and Danyal Sattar (Big Issue Invest) aimed to challenge the audience to leave Leicester with a different way of thinking or even concrete plans to start doing something differently. As Brewer said: “It’s not just about what The Gathering can do for you – it’s about what you decide to do as a result.”