Tomorrow the Social Capital Markets conference begins at Fort Mason in San Francisco. This seems to be conference season or at least I have been getting around recently. I recently attended the Online Giving Markets conference put on by SSIR and BarCampAfrica on Google's campus last weekend.
Given all this activity, I thought I would trace how I got here. I was a teacher. Then I was a community technologist. Then I was a nonprofit technologist. Then I got obsessed with effective data management. Then I got obsessed with measuring social impact. Then I got really frustrated. I joined the cult of the quest for the perfect proxy. Then I found social investment.
I have always had a problem with the definition of SROI that attempts to divine a monetary value for a unit of good.
SROI is an approach to understanding and managing the impacts of a project, an organisation or a policy. It is based on stakeholders and puts financial values on the important impacts identified by stakeholders which do not have market values. The aim is to include the values of people that are often excluded from markets in the same terms as used in markets, that is money, in order to give people a voice in resource allocation decisions. -Wikipedia
It is my belief that goodness is inherently valuable and spreading, exacerbating or otherwise increase good is, well, good, or valuable. Recently I heard Randy Komizar talk (at the SSIR Online Giving Markets) and he was asked what the social sector can teach the for profit world. His very thoughtful answer, run through my filters, went something like this. Solving the world's problems is valuable. He invoked that ever popular Prius as an example. There is a deep truth here. Ending poverty means more people with money to spend. Ending hunger needs investment in better supply chain and better manufacturing. Creating shelter and curing disease needs entrepreneurs. All of this is true and all of this is very, very difficult.
So, why am I here. As a member of the cult of the quest for the perfect proxy, I have hooked my wagon to social investment in an effort to understand if supporting entrepreneurs in difficult economies will both grow and rationalize those economies so new entrepreneurs can create even more business with far fewer obstacles. And, that new rational economy, and those new jobs will spread wealth and ameliorate disease and hunger and increase education and opportunity. Nice thing is, if we all agree on what are apples and what are oranges, we can actually measure if this happens.
That's why I'm here. That and the opportunity to be around some of
the most briliant, dedicated people I have ever met. I love perople
who are attracted to Big Hairy Audacious Goals.
Steve - hope to see you here at SoCap08. I liked your discussion here about metrics and the BHAG search...
Posted by: Rob | October 13, 2008 at 02:16 PM
Rob, we have been conference hoping together. Many Thanks for the comment.
Posted by: Conches | October 28, 2008 at 11:46 AM