In 2007, the Rockefeller Foundation convened a group of investors, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists at its conference center in Bellagio to explore how to more effectively allocate financial capital for social and environmental benefits. The participants ended up coining the term “impact investing”, igniting a global movement to create a new financial paradigm.
15 years later, it is becoming increasingly clear that the established practices of impact investing are insufficiently effective at addressing the complex systemic crises that rip through society. There is thus a need to look for new ways of enhancing the theory and practice of impact-driven finance.
One promising approach is to leverage the mindsets, methods, and practices from systems thinking and complex systems science to usher in the next generation of impact-driven finance: systemic investing.
While there is no formal definition of systemic investing yet, we currently define it as the application of systems thinking to addressing societal problems through the strategic deployment of diverse forms of capital, nested within a broader systems change program and intended to transform human and natural systems.
Purpose of the TransCap Initiative’s Convenings
The TCI’s mission is to build the field of systemic investing. Core to this mission is the nurturing of a community of practice whose members collaborate on research, innovation, and prototyping in a connected and orchestrated way.
Convenings play a critical role in nurturing this community. In the early stages of our field-building effort, our convenings will focus on (i) showcasing and amplifying the work of early pioneers (organizations and individuals that have applied principles of systemic investing for years), (ii) developing relationships and social bonds amongst leading thinkers and doers, and (iii) incubating new research and prototyping collaborations.
Climbing up to the Summit
Over the next year, the TCI will host a series of convenings to fertilize the emerging niche of systemic investing. The culmination point will be a summit at which new collaborations will be seeded and can subsequently be nurtured by the TCI and its partner network.
This summit will take place on January 30 and 31, 2024, at MIT’s Samberg Conference Center in Cambridge, MA. We will convene 60-80 investors, innovators, challenge owners, researchers, and financial intermediaries to showcase pioneering efforts, give shape to the field, and incubate collaborations.
Participation will be by invitation only. If you would like to be considered for participation, please fill in this form.
