A new frontline role for the Impact Economy

With today’s Cabinet Office announcement on the creation of an Office for the Impact Economy, there is now a clear opportunity for companies and funders to help scale positive impact. By working alongside communities and partners, business can help address major social challenges and support long-term change where it is most needed.

Resolute Purpose welcomes this move as a positive step, but much work needs to happen ahead of a next round of elections as voters begin the fatigue and public perception on 'progress' led by Government is under threat from shifting sands in the political sentiment of the nation.

The Context
The UK Government's recently convened Social Impact Investment Advisory Group from HM Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport highlights the move towards unlocking greater regional and place based impact. The group, chaired by Dame Elizabeth Corley, recently published it's recommendations report supported by the Impact Investing Institute.

Key opportunities have been identified and include:

• Integration of corporate giving (donations, staff fundraising, volunteering) into wider social investment systems and creation of a mobilisation mindset to unlock this quickly. We are already seeing this approach emerging in cities such as London, Manchester and Sheffield which is good but can other cities unlock this?
• Explore place-based match funding to increase giving in underserved areas. This could be attractive to sets of donors and models approaches taken with community foundations. Match funding is a great model to unlock big and small investments and donations. Universities already know this from a scheme introduced in the mid-2000's to encourage alumni to give more.
• Align procurement led social value with wider philanthropic goals - these need to be wrapped together more around corporate purpose and impact rather than standalone. We argue there is more work to unpack this in big public sector organisations.
• Establish central governmental infrastructure to oversee these strands of work. This work will commence in earnest following today's announcement.

Better reporting and benchmarking for businesses would encourage greater participation, and many companies still underestimate the value of partnership with charities. It is important to celebrate impact more visually - tell the story to your audiences and stakeholders.

Capacity building to be able to scale up this impact investment will be critical. Funders must work together to support ideas and strengthen community capability in the partnership space. Volunteer led charities are ready and willing. Universities can mobilise their resources effectively but they, along with the wider public sector, cannot do this alone. There is a need to begin to reimagine what social impact, investment and philanthropy can look like if it is coordinated, targeted. Focus will give agility.

In Summary

There is now supportive national infrastructure in place: a shared sense of purpose and the ability to convene activity where it is most needed. This direction signals a shift away from working in isolation and towards a shared language for collaboration. Organisations that take philanthropy seriously will need to explore new ways of working across sectors and beyond traditional institutional boundaries.

Ultimately, the technical detail right now matters less than the principle. Creating more social good is a shared objective, one that underpins how we help communities to flourish and build long-term prosperity.

To find out more about how you can position your organisations in this space, please book a an initial conversation with us to discuss further.