Giving Compass' Take:

• Richard Norman discusses the potential of impact investment and how the OurCrowd Impact Fund is supporting social entrepreneurship. 

• How can funders support the infrastructure social entrepreneurs need in order to be successful?

• Read more at the Giving Compass Impact Investing Magazine.

The heart of social entrepreneurship is developing ideas that can solve problems and turn a profit.

Investment can help solve problems facing communities, regions and the world. Impact investing is a way for investors to use their capital to bring about positive social and/or environmental change, coupled with a financial return – and it is a type of investment that OurCrowd embraces and promotes. With impact investing, we hope to use the power of investing to bring about positive change for many of the issues facing humanity.

Read the full article about impact investing and the OurCrowd Impact Fund by Richard Norman at OurCrowd.

Where governments fall short, philanthropy is supposed to step in to fill the gaps, but that hasn’t solved our problems either. In 2017, charitable giving in the US reached a record $410 billion, but even that has had a minimal impact on solving the problems we face.

There is a “third way”. Problems can be solved beyond governments and charitable donations through social entrepreneurship, where people who run or work for companies consider making positive change at least as important as making money.

The heart of social entrepreneurship is developing ideas that can solve problems and turn a profit. That’s what will attract impact investments thus leveraging the power of investing to change the world.

There are already examples of this system at work. Since its inception OurCrowd has invested in many impact-driven businesses, backing social entrepreneurs with bold visions. Entrepreneurs like Tomer Tzach (CropX), Dor Skuler (Intuition Robotics) and Yossi Pollak (Sight Diagnostics) embody what it means to make measurable positive change in the world.

We recently surveyed 82 Israeli startups to better understand their relationship with mission- driven impact. We were excited to see that 83% of companies reported that their product/ service can reach underserved populations — again underscoring phenomenal impact potential. That said, 46% of CEOs cited lack of expertise and/or lack of appropriate partnership as the reason for not reaching more underserved populations.

Impact measurement, market expertise and strategic partnerships are all solvable problems. At OurCrowd, we have decided we want to be at the forefront of helping startups find those solutions. We are uniquely blessed to be in a position to do this, to provide help to some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs in the world today, and at the 2019 Global Investor Summit we are embracing this idea and showing our support for a rapidly growing industry