Social Capital Markets 08: What, Where and Why

I’m headed to San Francisco tomorrow for next week’s Social Capital Markets 2008 Conference. SoCap08 is being held for the purpose of “bringing together the people who are accelerating the flow of capital to good,” and will be attended by over 500 social entrepreneurs, investors, and others from around the world who are active in the space.

So why am I, our Development and Marketing Director, attending the conference?  It’s NOT to raise money for Greenlights.  There are two reasons.  From a personal perspective, this is a key area of interest for me and has been since my Social Venture Partner days.  While raising money for Greenlights is what I do, I’ll always be interested in figuring out ways to increase the flow of philanthropic capital to the most effective social solutions.  That is what this conference is all about, and I don’t think I’m overstating to say that 98% of the people who are doing really great things in this area will be there.

The second reason I am going IS for work.  Greenlights tries to be out in front of nonprofit sector issues and opportunities – like the whole loss of nonprofit executive leadership facing our sector.  The philanthropic landscape in Austin is unique; we’re a very entrepreneurial town and those with excess disposable income to invest in the nonprofit sector often don’t have “traditional” views about how best to do it.  I’m looking forward to bringing back ideas and connections to share with those who ARE looking for new ways to have a positive impact with their resources.

I’m sure my head will be spinning most of the time.  How could it not with the likes of the Acumen Fund, Good Capital, google.org, Blueprint Research and Design, Ashoka, nextbillion.net, Nonprofit Finance Fund Capital Partners, Ideablob, REDF, RSF, and the list goes on, all represented?  But I’ve made a commitment to blog (on this site) and tweet (@kimjwilson); so if you are interested in this topic, think about subscribing to this blog or to those of others who will be blogging, and/or following along on Twitter (#SoCap08).

Kim Wilson, Development & Marketing Director
Greenlights for NonProfit Success