In the months ahead we will be exploring philanthropy and impact investing — concrete tools for changing the world for the better. Here is the thinking behind this approach.
Over the coming months, LifeGate will be hosting a series of in-depth features on philanthropy and impact investing. This column is supported by Investing for global impact, a global study published by the Financial Times in partnership with GIST (Global Impact Solutions Today) and with the support of Barclays bank.
To understand the complex dynamics contributing to the development of a better, more inclusive, more sustainable world — one that gives everyone a dignified future and safeguards planet Earth and all living beings — we need a holistic and systemic vision, one that embraces different, even contradictory, points of view, needs and ways of operating. We need a dialogue that sheds light on the connections and dynamics (positive as well as negative) between all actors and stakeholders: nations, municipalities, small and global companies, profit and non-profit organisations, civil society organisations at every level, from neighbourhoods to the United Nations.
In a holistic-systemic vision no phenomena exist in isolation, and all relationships and connections must be mapped and considered: the economy and nature are inseparable, private property and public goods are in practice indivisible. Who owns the air above me? And the clouds? And the stars? Whose responsibility is it to hold everything together, maintaining an equilibrium (even a dynamic one)? Who must and can contribute to building a better world? In our view, everyone: institutions, private individuals, social organisations, individual citizens.
Our perspective is holistic and inclusive. For this reason, we will be talking about philanthropy and impact investing, but also about new forms of collaboration under way between traditional companies and between companies and public bodies, and about all the innovative cross-pollination taking place among these actors. We will talk about social investment, about measuring positive impacts on the Planet, about new perspectives and new paradigms. For us, "investing" means using one's money but also, in a broader sense, generating interactions and an impact on the economy, the environment, nature and people.
Always seeking to bring to light the new paths being taken day by day to achieve what until recently seemed impossible: contributing to a "better world" while, at the same time, generating profit. These new paths require us to move beyond powerful paradigms that underpin our traditional social and economic system, such as the opposition between profit and philanthropy, between development and sustainability, between openness and protectionism. The age of dichotomies is over; the age of circularity has begun.
The contributions gathered under the Investing for Global Impact tag aim to help illuminate all of this, creating a broad and clear dialogue. A dialogue that, without overlooking Italy, follows closely what is happening in other countries of our interconnected and globalised world. A dialogue that places individual responsibility at its centre — that is, what each of us can do in our private and professional lives, with the awareness that each of us plays multiple roles, all of which are nonetheless encompassed within a single person.
Our goal is to engage more people in thinking about philanthropy and impact investing, social enterprises, foundations and their role in building a better world. This is why we speak of global positive change today: we start from today to build a better future. All together, with everyone's contribution.
We chose an English name because the intention is to look at the world to the north, south, east and west (and in all the directions "in between"). For the pleasure of being a little counter-current at a time of Trump and Brexit; a Brexit that seems set to entail withdrawal from English as a common language as well. Why give up the pleasure — without forgetting one's own language — of being able to communicate across the whole world by speaking a shared language?
