Measuring Social Impact at Stern's 6th Annual Conference of Social Entrepreneurs

This was the focus of the 6th Annual Conference of Social Entrepreneurs, organized by Jill Kickul, PhD, the Director of the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and taking place on November 4 - 6th. The conference featured over 70 white papers from leading academics globally, signaling Stern's rising presence in the social entrepreneurship space. Yet the highlight for students and working professionals in attendance was the "practitioner" day on November 6th, in which groundbreaking tools were showcased on how the industry could measure value.

The day began and ended with social entrepreneurship industry versions of celebrities: Jed Emerson, Managing Director at Uhuru Capital; and Brian Trelstad, Chief Investment Officer of Acumen Fund. A veteran in the young industry, Jed Emerson kicked off with his presentation titled "Celebrating the Journey" in which he explained the valuable lessons he has learnt during his years in the space. Afterwards, he engaged the leading academics and practitioners in the audience in an energetic dialogue on the social enterprise landscape in the current environment. The conversation centered on the question "are social entrepreneurs maximizing total performance while generating real impact for the investments?", which led to a discussion on pressing issues such as incentive alignment and impact measurement.

Brian Trelstad ended the conference by discussing metrics in the field of patient capital, an industry term for investing without expectations of a quick high return. Then he introduced the audience to Acumen's Impact Reporting and Investing Standards (IRIS) which he states is poised to be a standard for the measurement of impact investment performance. Although his main focus was on Acumen's measurement standards, he emphasized the fact that behind every data point there's a human story that brings a dimension of dignity and justice that cannot be quantified.

Durreen Shahnaz of the National University of Singapore discussed a different measurement of valuing socially-minded companies. The Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) in Asia will provide non-profit and for-profit organizations with a market to raise growth capital through investors with double-bottom line goals. While this concept has been pioneered in other geographic regions, it is the first of its kind in Asia.

The issue of double-bottom line returns was a recurrent theme in a panel titled "Impact Investing Across the Social Capital Market," with Josh Cohen of City Light Capital, Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy Advisers, Lisa Hall of the Calvert Foundation, Georgette F. Wong of Correlation Consulting, and Tris Lumley of New Philanthropy Capital. Each panelist represented a different component of the social capital market, from social venture capital to philanthropy, as well as advisory and consulting services targeting the areas. The Foundation Center, in collaboration with McKinsey and Professor Kickul, demonstrated TRASI, its new tool for social enterprises and nonprofits to assess social impact using 150 metrics in its database. The product is currently in its Beta testing stage, working with industry professionals on improvements.

Students will be able to access replays of the high-quality conversations through a webcast or podcast which will be made available within the next couple of weeks through the Berkeley Center. In this way, the Berkeley Center will continue to serve as inspiration to the Stern student body and as an international reference on the current state of the social enterprise landscape.