September was a whirlwind month for the B4SI team! As part of our global Social Impact in Action event series, we hosted three in-person events across EMEA and North America, building on our recent sessions in APAC. With a diverse crowd of attendees from across the globe, four major themes stood out from all the conversations.
- Inequality as a systemic risk
Inequalities around the globe continue to rise and there is growing awareness of the role – both positive and negative – that businesses play in impacting these, as well as the systemic risk these inequalities present. At our event in New York, we were delighted to welcome representatives of the newly launched Taskforce for Inequality and Social related Financial Disclosures (the TISFD). They highlighted the importance of going beyond tick-box reporting and how working with both NGOs and the private sector, including financial institutions themselves, will be crucial to developing a meaningful and realistic disclosure framework over the course of the next two years.
. - A shifting focus towards impact
Businesses are increasingly moving beyond the inputs and ‘big numbers’ reached, to measure the all-important positive change they are generating – the impact. There was consensus that it remains the hardest, albeit most rewarding, part to get right. And it’s an area that non-profits themselves often struggle with articulating back to their partners. Panellists highlighted the importance of setting out a defined theory of change, choosing the right partners who share this vision and building in clear metrics from the outset that enable robust measurement of the impact achieved together. Businesses that get this right will be well positioned to respond to the rise of mandatory reporting requirements and higher expectations from stakeholders of credible, transparent data that articulates change in the ‘S’ space.
. - Shared value and stakeholder buy-in
The most impactful businesses have integrated social impact programmes into the heart of the business. They work with society to understand the needs of the community, they innovate products and services that aim to address societal problems, they are ambitious but also pragmatic, leveraging their assets in the pursuit of impact. Taking this approach yields positive returns to the business as well as increased social impact, which in turn supports the business case and leads to greater internal buy-in.
. - Mobilising employees
Most of our panellists touched on the benefits of effectively mobilising employees. Though some were still experiencing challenges in capturing the social impact of employee volunteering, there were lots of examples of businesses integrating volunteering into the ‘learning journey’ of the workforce and capturing the rewards for doing so. In these examples, the skills acquired through social impact activities had the additional benefit of providing a boost to business performance as well as contributing to talent retention and the development of future leaders.
Looking to the future
If you’re interested in finding out more about our event series, B4SI Members can look out for an exclusive extended report published in the coming weeks which will take a deeper dive into the topics discussed at our global series of Social Impact in Action events. You won’t want to miss out!
We will also share more at our upcoming Global Annual Conference, taking place in two time zones in November – B4SI: Social Impact in an era of Inequality. Please join us to explore the challenges and opportunities for driving social impact amidst growing global inequalities.
- EMEA/Americas: 20th November, 14.00-16.00 GMT / 15.00-17.00 CET / 9.00-11.00 EST. Reserve your place now.
- APAC: 21st November, 12.00 – 14.00 AEST / 10.00-12.00 JST / 9.00-11.00 SGT. Reserve your place now.
And finally, a big thank you to our generous members and partners for making our recent events a success: DHL Group who hosted and spoke at our event in Bonn alongside SAP and Generali; Sage who hosted us in London and joined a panel of speakers from CAF, Sky and Experian; and Ares Management who welcomed us to their New York office, speaking alongside an esteemed panel from Linklaters, Nokia, Manulife IM, and the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, a member of the TISFD Working Group.