SOCAP is proud to partner with CSRwire on a monthly newsletter: Impact Investing Monthly. Impact Investing Monthly will bring you insight from global leaders on the spectrum of investing for social impact, including socially responsible investing, corporate social responsibility and more.

Our 1st issue has launched and includes the following:

• Creating a Sea Change in Impact Investing
• Solving the Ben & Jerry’s Problem, One More Time
• Spotlight: Brian Trelstad, Acumen Fund’s Chief Investment Officer
• CSR and Socially Responsible Investing: 5 Trends for 2012
• Recommended News from Social Capital Markets and CSRwire

>>> View the Full February Newsletter

Aleem Walji, Manager of the Innovation Practice at World Bank, attended SOCAP11 in San Francisco this past September. Based on his experience, he’s written a thought – provoking piece on the challenges of the ‘Missing Middle’ in growing the social enterprise industry.

Every fall at Social Capital Markets (SOCAP), the who’s who of impact investing and social enterprise convene in San Francisco to network and share stories about topics like market-based solutions to poverty, social stock exchanges, and just how much capital is waiting to be deployed to solve the world’s toughest problems. It’s inspiring to be sure, especially the growth in the number and diversity of participation. It’s no longer the sole domain of Ashoka, Skoll, and Schwab who have paved the way for so many others. Today, mainstream Banks from Europe to Asia, fund managers, and wealth advisors are sending a signal that doing good and doing well is a more enlightened form of capitalism. >>>Read Full Article

I am from Kansas City. We are very serious barbeque people. If you have ever visited “The City”, you are familiar with Gates Bar- B- Q. Gates is known for their signature line, as you enter the restaurant the staff yells, “Hi, how may I help you?”

Gates has built their reputation solely by asking what they can give, not receive. KC as a whole embodies this reputation—and has had great leaders emerge as a result. Former resident Harry Truman, had a sign on his desk stating “The Bucks Stops Here”.  Takers don’t say things like that. Takers think of themselves. Givers think of others, their customers, and building relationships around that sense of shared value.

Although I live in Chicago now, the KC legacy lives on. Desiree Vargas, another KC transplant who founded Give Forward, speaks regularly about how her idea really grew after she looked at how she could serve individuals who previously did fundraising through donation jars at gas stations. The point is, if you ask what you can do for others, the innovation follows.

SOCAP will be really exciting for me to volunteer at, because I get to help. It is my element. I get to bring Gates BBQ mentality to those interested in social good, and those looking to serve our communities better.

“Hi, I’m Erin Little, how may I help you?”

Stay tuned for Path to Plant Part III…..

*This guest blog post is by Peter Dietz. Peter is the former founder and director of Social Actions and Managing Editor of SocialFinance.ca. He has participated in SOCAP since it’s inception in 2008, coordinating social media efforts.

In just over a week, more than 1,000 professionals helping to build the social capital marketplace will converge on the Fort Mason Center for the 4th annual Social Capital Markets conference.

This year, attendees have a robust online network to use as they select sessions to attend and identify people they want to meet. Pathable is one of the industry’s leading online tools for connecting the participants of offline events.

In addition to the typical features of a social network (profiles, contacts, discussions),  the SOCAP11 Online Network powered by Pathable has some extra bells and whistles.

Below are a few of the unique features built into the platform…

1. Indicate which sessions you’ll be attending - As a registered user, you can RSVP for specific sessions, and filter the sessions you plan to attend by color-coded track names.
2. Request meetings with other attendees - As a registered user, you can request a meeting and receive meeting requests without giving out your contact information prior to confirming a meeting.
3. Identify SOCAP11 attendees who you are already connected with on Twitter and LinkedIn -By providing the SOCAP11 Online Network with your Twitter and LinkedIn usernames, you can automatically identify people within your network who are also attending SOCAP11.
4. Find other attendees based on their interests - The SOCAP11 Online Network crunches stats on who’s attending and allows anyone (registered or not) to browse the full list of attendees who have created profiles by interest area, profession, location, and conference goals.

These are just a few of the features available to registered users of the SOCAP11 Online Network. Make sure to create a profile, and get a head start on making the most of your SOCAP11 experience.

Enjoy!

As if in a distant dream, Chicagoans able to make the SOCAP pilgrimage would return to our middle lands with their eyes widened to the world of social imagination. They would regale me with tales of wondrous caverns of collective SOCAP conference knowledge such as capital being used for “good”,  denizens  packing themselves like sardines into Mission street coffeeshops to “work”, and how before any successful launch innovation is dictated by a Delores Park oracle dressed as a “hipster,” only identified by his crystal necklace made from recycled Bi-Rite waste.  You can imagine my intrigue from those three elements alone, I’m sure.

A wise book once said, “ When you want something, the universe conspires in helping you achieve it”.  And now, over a year later, I am making my own journey to volunteer with SOCAP.  Sidenote: I asked around:  the Bi-Rite crystal is merely old wives tale to scare people from waiting in that god-awful line.  Thank God!

One of my favorite questions to ask awesome people I met is how they ended up on the path they did.  Several months ago I asked Ron Grzywinski, one of the founders of Shorebank here in Chicago, and his response was something along the lines of “I don’t know, accident really. I was walking on Michigan Avenue after work, and I saw all businessmen all looking the same, dressing the same, walking the same direction. I was faced the other direction– and I knew I was different”.

As SOCAP’s  newest volunteer, I’m already on my way to this magical place where  money meets meaning. Interestingly enough, the word volunteer has a meaning we don’t often associate with it: a cultivated plant growing from self-sown or accidentally dropped seed.  What are you looking to cultivate during your time at SOCAP? Yourself? Others?  Is it intentional? Or more accidental? Remember these wise words: the intrinsic value is about the path, not the result.

More of my path to plant next week!