The European Center for Social Finance was created to help establish best practices and distribute knowledge in financing the provision of social services and social innovations. It works at the intersection of theory, practice and policy and views social finance as a process which encompasses among others selection criteria, financing structures and impact assessment. The Center is based at the Munich Business School and works with a network of partner organizations across Europe.
We publish on a regular basis articles on current developments, deep dives and deals of the week. Take a look below.
Some predictions for the impact space
2021 is certainly a year which makes predictions challenging. I still try to come up with four predictions for the coming year: Shifting Narratives: Poverty and unemployment won’t be seen as personal failures anymore The Reckoning: Good and bad [...]
Social bond: an instrument to raise capital for social objectives
In the wake of COVID 19 crisis, the markets have observed a surge in social bonds emissions. As of September 30, prior to the up to €100bn first social bond of the European Union (SURE employment scheme), the volume [...]
Social Bridging Finance – a few first thoughts
The Robertson Trust Foundation in Scotland recently published the results of an initial evaluation of their Social Bridging Finance scheme (SBF) pilot. Supporting a highly demanding social services’ transformation in Scotland, SBF is a finance and operational partnership between [...]
Deals of the Week – November 27, 2020
Frischepost has raised a seven-figure amount in an investment round led by BonVenture. Hamburg-based Frischepost is linking farmers to consumers and is delivering more than 2.500 different products with electric vehicles. This investment should not be confused with Flaschenpost [...]
Deals of the Week – November 20, 2020
Not much happened in the last week. Jeff Bezos has committed $10 billion to fund scientists, activists, NGO and others. On Monday, he said that he is giving the first $791 million to 16 groups. Grantees of the Bezos [...]
Semantic creativity for a purpose: catalytic capital
Impact finance, like any other structuring sector, is seeing the blossoming of a number of terms aimed at better defining it. With the objective of increasing the capital available by spreading rapidly to all strata of conventional finance, the [...]