At the Impact Investing Institute, we connect capital to impact. We believe mainstream capital markets have the power to scale new economic ideas needed to provide solutions to the great challenges of our time. Next Frontiers was chockful of those radical ideas and frameworks.  

There were two key themes that jumped out for me. 

Firstly, systems change is ultimately anchored in deep mindset shift, which itself is influenced by a different type of argument and evidence. There was a lot of talk of needing to engage with the “somatic” (a new word for me!) persuasion rooted in the experiential to change people’s feelings and inspire action. Carolyn Abel from Southampton City Council talked about the “empathetic journey with multi-stakeholders” that the council had taken with its communities to come up with a vision of place that they sought investment for.   

As a non-profit organisation, we often revert to powerpoint presentations, panel discussions and research to bring in stakeholders and initiate action. So for me the question is: How can we work at a deeper level to change hearts and minds on long-held beliefs about finance? 

Secondly, I was drawn to the discussion about the importance of economic democracy. At the Institute, we are reflecting on what we call “community voice” in investment decision-making: it is one of the three core factors we use to define just transition finance. How can we change the financial system so that people effected by investment decisions, have influence over that investment? This is rooted in the community organising dictum – “nothing about us, without us is for us.”   

The central role of our work around community voice was reaffirmed by the discussions at Next Frontiers. An array of models were highlighted, on both the philanthropy and investment side, that enabled affected communities to be decision-makers, as well as recipients of impact investment: for example the Kataly Foundation and their restorative economies fund, which seeks to close the racial wealth gap, and the Design Council’s Design Values Framework, which has “democratic value” as one of its’ four key principles.  

This year, the Impact Investing Institute will publish a community engagement guide for investors and will be sure to profile these new models, and reflect on how they could be applied in mainstream finance.  

Sarah Teacher, Impact Investing Institute