Investing in Social Change

With an innovative perspective towards society, change is beginning to emerge at the intersection of smart investments and philanthropic ventures. Investors are thought to look solely at the bottom line when seeking an answer to the golden question; ‘how much money will I make?’ While a positive fiscal return on an investment is still a necessary goal to reach, more and more investors are seeking to have their actions lead to a positive social impact. The bottom line can now include the thought of how many people will be helped and how can society benefit from the success of the venture. Time and time again we have seen that investing money into a venture with a strategic action plan, rather than a charity with an ambigous message, can more effectively and efficiently produce real results and solve pressing problems. This idea was also echoed throughout this weeks readings.

              I believe that this new overlap between social impact and creative capitalism can allow many developing countries to quickly catch up to the more developed countries. The ability to make money while helping others is a great and guilt-free incentive that allows innovative entrepreneurs to chase their dreams and change the world by addressing the issues that matter the most to them. By working towards solving an issue that they are passionate about, entrepreneurs will be more likely to produce better results with a sense of pride and ownership over their work. 

            This would positively impact not only the direct population that is being helped, but also, all the investors that believed in the cause as well. However, this is not to say that innovators have an easy road ahead. Usually, the bigger and more globally significant the problem, the greater the amount of work and time it requires. I have seen this concept come to life when working on a political campaign, when the volunteers truly believed in the candidate they worked harder to get the word out. They were even able to convert more voters due to the passion they showed when speaking about how important the election was to them. When the results have the ability to change someone’s life, the effort that the passionate people are willing to put in is significantly higher.

Today, we are able to see many social ventures pop up, and consumers seem to be drawn to the idea that their dollar can actually make an impact in a life or a cause that actually matters. Though this concept has been around for a while, these companies usually run on a buy-one-give-one system. This system can be beneficial, but I feel that the effects are only felt so far. To truly change someone’s life, the product or service should be brought directly to them, where they themselves can decide whether this is something that they need and if it is up to their standard. Instead of entrepreneurs and investors asking themselves ‘how much money will I make?’ They should ask ‘will people want this?’  ‘How many people can this service help?’ ‘Will they even accept our product as good enough?’