The rhetoric of “CrowdValue” as a social finance tool @Crowd Dialog EU 16
Channel: Michael Gebert
Date: 2017-01-30

Crowd Dialog Europe 2016 - Graz - Main Stage Insight Talks

Speaker: 
Irene Demetriou
Anirot Cyprus

Impact investing and social enterprises are an emerging asset class which address key societal changes and at the same time enable new entrepreneurial models to take place. The EC has placed social business and impact investing at the forefront of its development policy, emphasised in its Social Business Initiative 2011 as well as in the Social Investment for Growth and Cohesion 2013. 

It emerges that crowdfunding, as a social finance tool, can become institutionalised in order to pursue objectives such as: access-to-finance to vulnerable groups such as youth, promote equality between men and women, combat discriminations, promote quality and sustainable employment, guarantee adequate social protection, combat long-term unemployment and fight against poverty and social exclusion. By taking into consideration the abovementioned objectives, social enterprises can follow a tailored investment-readiness program which incorporates crowdfunding as the key access-to-finance mechanism. 

A specific programme for fine-tuning social enterprises’ business case is required in order to stimulate the scaling-up and growth of social entrepreneurship, by including crowdfunding as a fundamental pillar of the equation. With the profit-impact dilemma no longer leaning towards a choice between making a difference or making profit, crowdfunding is one of the most effective ways to provide finance to social enterprises.  

Crowdfunding and crowd-advocacy can, therefore, help capacity building in member states with less developed social finance markets. This speech will present how social enterprises can become investment-ready through a bespoke support system, tailored for success for crowdfunding. It will also advocate in favour of local financial intermediaries such as ethical banks and social finance institutions as the new stakeholders in micro-lending for social enterprises while at the same time it will present a strong case for the promotion of crowdfunded impact investing as the new game changer for economic and social cohesion, in order to achieve CrowdValue by and for the Crowd.