Scaling Impact Capital Podcast Kusisami Hornberger

In this episode, Hunt Allcott, Professor of Global Environmental Policy at Stanford University, shares the learnings from his research on economic approaches to measuring social impact of companies’ business activities. In the episode we explore what motivated him to investigate this topic, his unique approach to measuring impact using positive and negative externalities of enterprise activity in dollar terms as well as the surprising findings from applying this novel approach to 74 firms across 12 industries. We also discuss what Hunt believes might be the implications of his research on monetization of impact and its potential integration into social and financial performance metrics as well as what that could mean for impact investing practitioners moving forward.

A conversation with Rebecca Harrison, CEO and Co-Founder at African Management Institute (AMI). In this episode, Rebecca shares insights on why and how she started a business to provide #capacitybuilding services to African small businesses and #entrepreneurs. She also shares insights on different types of capacity-building services and which ones have proven to be most effective, as well as the role she believes these services can play in supporting more women-led or owned businesses to succeed.

A conversation with Maya Ziswiller, CEO at the UBS Optimus Foundation, about its results-based approach to philanthropy. In our discussion, Maya shares more about UBS pioneering early investments in outcomes-based finance and why it has recently become more active in using blended finance to finance projects in climate adaptation and mitigation. During our conversation, we also discuss Maya’s career journey and her advice to other foundation leadership teams interested in being more active in blended finance and outcome-based finance approaches. 

A conversation with Yasemin Saltuk Lamy, Managing Director at British International Investment, about her early pioneering research on impact investing, how and when development finance institutions (DFIs) can play a more catalytic role in the ecosystem and why it continues to be challenging to scale catalytic financing solutions. In our discussion, we also learn about Yasemin’s own career path and her advice on how to navigate career choices working on impact investing strategies. 

A conversation with Mike McCreless from Impact Frontiers about what it means to be an impact-investor and not just an ESG investor. During our conversation, we discuss how Impact Frontiers defines impact, what have been the biggest achievements to date in impact measurement and management, what work remains to be done and why it is important, to create impact standards particularly for impact reporting.

A conversation with Yasmina Zaidman, Chief Development and Partnerships Officer at Acumen, about her experience building partnerships to provide patient, risk tolerant capital as alternative to traditional investment and grant making approaches in low-and-middle-income countries. In our discussion, we also learn about Yasmina's 20+ years at Acumen wearing multiple hats, as well as her advice to social entreprenuers about finding funders who are a good fit for their needs.