Innovative Funding Mechanisms for Social Change

The citizen sector is rising worldwide, social initiatives and enterprises have provided much needed products and services to improve poor people’s quality of life. In many countries the citizen sector has grown faster than the public sector and the world of business and created millions of new jobs. To meet the challenges of upscaling and replicating successful operations, social pioneers have begun to adopt business models and management strategies from the market economy; they have become “social entrepreneurs”. They are restless and busy people, they have no time and in most cases no money. The development of their social enterprises is often severely compromised by the lack of adequate financial resources, and the search for innovative funding mechanisms for social change has become a top priority of both philanthropic organizations and social entrepreneurs.
The book explores the potential of structured social investment products and asset management strategies to give venture philanthropy a broader range of options in providing equity and debt to social enterprises. The authors inquire into their preconditions, relevance and outreach to society at large, and ask how innovative approaches can be scaled to improve their impact.