Pieter Oostlander was a guest speaker at the Impactory and he introduced the set-up of a social investment fund focusing on the Benelux. He also explained how EVPA operates around venture philantropy and Impact Investing.
Here are some key topics we explored and discussed about with the group which participated, who was mainly composed of multidisciplinary professionals in finance, training, academia and entrepreneurship.
Mr Oostlaner drew the parallell between risk, return and impact. He explained that Venture Philantropy investments work to build a stronger investee organization with a societal purpose providing both financial and non-financial support (advice, coaching, contacts, etc). Most people are not aware that venture philantropy and impact investing approaches include the use of the entire spectrum of financial instruments available (grants, equits, debt, etc) and it’s specificity is that it pays a particular attention to the ultimate objective of achieving social impact. The main different therefore lies in putting social impact before financial returns.
The main question arising at this stage is the one on definition. Throughout academia, experts, beginners, practitioners, there seems to exist the need of a clear definition: What exactly is Venture Philantropy and how does it differ from Impact Investing and other forms of investing for social purposes? The EVPA model defining Venture Philantropy and Impact Investment clearly illustrates the differences through a very simple diagram showing “finance first strategies” – where the financial return is maximized and the societal impact is secondary – and “impact first strategies” where societal impact comes first and financial return is secondary. In between these two extremes we can find a wide range of forms of investment including the venture philantropy scope and the newer term of “Impact Investment”, which includes both impact first and finance first strategies.
Depending on the type of issue a project or venture is focusing there are all those choices which we can choose and which fits best the given project goal.
Next to this model, we explored the aspect of measurement of impact. As Einstein once beautifully said, “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted”. This issue can be clearly seen in social impact business models, where most of the added-value is intangible and hardly quantifiable. A good example of impact measurement reporting can be seen in the EVPA survey 2011 / 2012 itself and they have also published “A Practical Guide to Measuring and Managing Impact” which aims at helping organizations willling to measure and manage their impact. In a nutshell, the guide shares best practices in impact measurement through 5 steps illustrated below.
1. Setting objectives: which change do you want to make in society?
2. Analyzing stakeholders: who will be involved?
3. Measuring results: how will you measure? Which metrics can be used?
4. Verifying & valuing impact: are the changes perceived and valued by the stakeholders themselves?
5. Monitoring & Reporting: Capture the data, follow it up and report it – use information to build on for the upcoming period
About Pieter Oostlander
Pieter (52) is the founding partner of shærpa. His professional background is in accountancy and finance. In that field, he has had various top-level finance functions. Nine years ago, he switched to the (venture) philanthropy sector as a director of the service organisation of a family foundation. This ultimately was the basis for shærpa. The decision to switch resulted from his ambition to make social impact and value creation (in addition to creating shareholder value) a significant part of his professional activities. He sees it as “marrying the soul of philanthropy with the spirit of venture capital”, and his work with shærpa is dedicated to doing exactly that.
As the chair of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA), Pieter actively pursues to further professionalise venture philanthropy and social investing in the European arena. Pieter is also a member of the board of directors of SROI Network, promoting the use of a systematic approach to social value accounting.
If you want to get involved even more – there are plenty of opportunities to do that, from helping us on sourcing the talent to leading fundraising efforts for SPORTUNITY in your company or amongst your friends. Feel free to contact me at or at +352 621 677 100.
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