Reflections: 2019 Oxford Social Finance Programme

On 8 November 2019, we wrapped up the third year of running the Oxford Social Finance Programme (OSFP). Many students sent thank you notes, but one in particular summarizes the common experiences of our colleagues: “It was challenging and inspiring .... I could not have hoped for more. Since leaving Oxford, I can hardly think of anything but two questions—Who’s life will change? and What will I do differently? This week feels very much feels like a beginning ....”

Academic Director Alex Nicholls and I design OSFP to foster self-discovery and new beginnings and we hope the programme will be transformative for our students, their organizations, the world. While everyone came to finds ways to use social financial tools, they found much more. Surrounded by 48 new friends and colleagues from 25 countries representing a cross-section of government, finance, foundations, and civil society organizations, the class unified quickly. They listened deeply to different perspective, debated rigorously, and crafted new approaches for impact. (And yes, their conversations continued well into the evenings in local pubs.) 

A major theme of OSFP was time—epitomized by Dr. Benjamin E. May’s poem, Just a Minute.

I’ve only just a minute,

Only sixty seconds in it ... 

Just a tiny little minute,

But eternity is in it.

There is urgency for us to act to address the world’s most complex challenges captured by the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Some experts predict we have 10 years to address climate change before disastrous environmental consequences. The class prioritized the issues that embodied their work and passion: climate change and poverty alleviation receiving the highest priority followed by equality, access to energy, and sustainable economies, quality education, eliminating hunger, and health care. The most commonly identified value for our class was integrity and its importance in shaping relationships and forging solutions. 

The learning themes of the day and the week addressed these priorities by providing a deeper understanding of: 1) the SDGs within a system; 2) theoretical frameworks for addressing them; and 3) practical ways for incorporating new knowledge into practice. 

The week was busy—moving on day one from overviews of the social finance field from Said Business School (SBS) Dean Peter Tufano and Oksana Oracheva, General Director Vladimir Potanin Foundation, and Academic Director Alex Nicholls. During my session on leadership and wicked problems, students worked through the moral dilemmas investors face in social finance and the importance of putting community at the center of decision-making. Jenn Pryce, CEO Calvert Impact Capital, discussed the social finance ecosystem. Guest faculty for OSFP are typically CEOs or C-suite level executives who ground students in the realities of deal making. They openly shared their leadership experience of challenges within the field of social finance and creating blended capital investments. The guest faculty line-up, and the SDGs they addressed, included:  

·       Relevant across SDGs: Jenn Pryce, CEO Calvert Impact Capital, spent quality time in the classroom, over lunch, and in tutorials over two days helping students understand the ins and outs of blended capital structures to address the SDGs; and Aunnie Patton Power, founder Intelligent Impact, shared her Social Finance Toolkit.

·       SDG #4 and #8: Peter Hinton, CEO Summit Development Group, and Jamie Merisotis, CEO Lumina Foundation, provided insights into Education Finance for early childhood education for children in Nigeria and Africa and strategies for to move youth living in poverty into life-changing higher education.

·       SDG #13: Climate change was tackled through multiple lenses: movement building with Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director, Wallace Global Fund; ESG and making money through mission with Tom Van Dyck, Managing Director, Royal Bank of Canada; Bruce Lourie, CEO Ivey Foundation, discussed ways to build lasting cross-sector collaborations designed to move the country of Canada to a low carbon economy; Christian de Valle, Managing Director, and Edit Kiss, Business Development, of Althelia Fund, demonstrated how to put natural capital funds to work at the nexus of conservation and economic development; OSFP alum Aldo Soto, Rainforest Foundation, shared his experiences trying to prevent the destruction of the Amazon rainforest—the “world’s lungs.” 

·       Relevant to all SDGs: Alex Nicholls provided an overview of impact measurement followed by a deep dive into the why and how of community feedback with Fay Twersky, VP Hewlett Foundation; Naina Batra, CEO Asia Venture Philanthropy Network, and Valerie Threlfall, CEO Ekoute, used small group breakouts to enable students to take home a strategy for building community feedback into their practice.  

·       Working across multiple SDGs: OSFP alums Colleen Kelly, CEO, Concern Worldwide US, and Kirk Prichard, VP Concern Worldwide US, shared their experiences as CSO navigators and translators helping businesses like ADM work in fragile country states with the greatest needs. Alex, Radana Crhova, Development Impact Bonds Adviser at Department for International Development (DFID), and Phyllis Costanza, CEO, UBS Optimus Foundation (Optimus), discussed their respective experiences in Development Impact Bonds (DIBs). Optimus has launched several of the world’s first DIBs and Social Success Notes to address inequities in education, health, and access to clean water.

·       Across all SDGs: Kate Raworth, founder of Donut Economics, and Martin Rich, CEO and co-founder of Future Fit Foundation, provided new frameworks for thinking and acting differently to promote sustainable development. 

·       Professor Marc Ventresca moderated an Oxford Debate with guest faculty members Peter Hinton, Tom Van Dyck, Bruce Lourie, Fay Twersky, Naina Batra, and Ellen Dorsey. The debaters and audience members passionately provided pros and cons of the issue, Business Knows Best. The debate illustrated another way of listening to different perspectives to make intelligent decisions. The Cons won the day, believing community engagement, rather than business, is essential to creating change with integrity. 

Each day OSFP uses cases to help ground students in real time problems and social finance solutions. These learning tools can be accessed by contacting Annabelle Richards.

Ultimately, OSFP’s success is the power of team. Alex and I want to thank our students for giving us hope through their inspiring work; our guest faculty for their time and deep commitment to changing the world; and our SBS colleagues Annabelle Richards and Rola Elchami for their remarkable recruitment process to ensure an outstanding cohort. Finally, we are grateful to our lifeline logistics team, Christina Lisgo and Carlota Rodriguez, for keeping our trains moving on time and in the right direction.

It is an honor for me to be Programme Director of OSFP and Oxford Impact Investing Programme. I enjoy staying in touch with our global alums (500+ and growing from 90 countries) and welcoming new students to our impact community.