Giving Compass Take:

• Matteo Vidiri at AVPN discusses the importance of finding a common language to build a bridge between the worlds of bankers and philanthropists in order to have successful impact investments.  

• What is the impetus for businesses to adopt philanthropy into their models? 

• This article explores the benefits for individuals in business that prioritize philanthropy.

After a busy week at the AVPN 2019 Conference, I have learnt a hard lesson: while the 1300 who came to Singapore stated a commitment to achieving social impact, the majority of them are not properly measuring it. Let’s be honest: as impact evaluators, we at Mekong Economics were expecting much more from impact investors. At least, we would have liked to see more curiosity to explore the ways to maximize and evaluate impact, rather than just talking about financial returns on investment. On the flip side, we also met many people that didn’t care about financial returns at all – they were committed to change the world at whatever cost, and willing to fund initiatives in ways that looked more like charity-giving than what we would consider a proper ‘investment’.

But why is that the case? We found that the issue lays on the divergence between the people that came to Suntec. In just one day, we shook hands with bankers in suits, more casually-dressed philanthropists and entrepreneurs in jeans. While this diversity aims to break boundaries across sectors and facilitate collaboration, all of these actors were speaking a different language. In one conference hall you could listen to a philanthropist talking about impact in terms of the number of lives he changed in 2018, and in the other room, you had impact investors and asset managers talking about impact in terms of the financial returns achieved by the social enterprises they supported.

Read the full article about speaking a common language by Matteo Vidiri at AVPN.