The Social Innovation Finance Series Part 2

Dear Reader,

We are proud to bring you the second edition of the Social Innovations Journal’s new monthly edition on financing social impact -- “The Social Innovation Finance Series.” Across the globe there has been a rapid rise in the number of social sector innovators and entrepreneurs who want to find out-of-the-box ways to solve or “move the needle,” on society’s problems, and they are increasingly deploying the methods of business and private capital to do so. Today’s social entrepreneurs are now tapping markets for finance, in addition to seeking grants from donors and philanthropists willing to fund innovative ideas and businesses that offer a greater promise of delivering social impact. The power of finance supporting social innovation has the potential to spark a social sector revolution by harnessing the energy of the social innovations, enterprises, and partnerships that drive innovation, entrepreneurship, and capital to bring social impact to life. 

Our special series will continue to uncover breakthrough initiatives within Social Mobility, Health, and Human Services while exploring new funding opportunities through philanthropy, impact investing, policy as investment, raising capital, and new financial instruments. Through this series we will delve into evolving social innovation fiscal models including: Funding Systems Change; Health Care Bonds; Philanthropic Roundtable; Raising Capital; Regional Focus; Philanthropic Equity; Program Related Investments; and Social Impact Bonds.

The focus of the second installment of the Social Innovations Journal is innovative funding and finance within ophthalmology. Today, there are more than 4.24 million people living with vision impairment in the U.S. alone, and more than 10 million Americans facing loss of their vision due to retinal disease. Helen Keller famously said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” This edition highlights the innovative financing concept of Eye Bonds envisioned by Karen Shaw Petrou, a leading banking analyst featured in The Wall Street Journal. Shaw Petrou, the Managing Director of Federal Financial Analytics, Inc., takes listeners and readers alike, into the her innovative fiscal model that marries cutting edge medical researchers in the field with financial institutions and investors who can provide much needed funding. In an exciting audio interview with our organization president, Mike Clark, Shaw Petro offers a ray of hope to those living with impaired vision and blindness by sharing her formula that pushes fiscal institutions further into the social impact space with support of research that offers the promise of eradicating blindness worldwide within the next decade. Shaw Petrou demonstrates how the concept of Eye Bonds can lead to the potential development of a wider Bio Bonds market; a market that would address the financing of a variety of unprecedented medical advances.

We hope that this edition helps you to see the bright future social innovation finance holds, and the pathway forward we are hoping to carve out with “The Social Innovation Finance Series.” Together, we can better respond to some of the largest issues facing our communities through smart, sustainable solutions that can change the trajectory of our lives and world, for generations to come.

 

Yours in innovation,

Nicholas Torres and Tine Hansen-Turton, Co-founders

Mike Clark, President and Alescia M. Dingle, Managing Editor

Finance 2