Thus, investors are increasingly ready to invest in the development of territories and communities and evaluate this activity as a kind of impact investment. There is potential in the sphere that will sooner or later begin to return not only with human capital, they believe. Many projects of the Rybakov Foundation are focused in this direction – About Women, About Children and others. "Community is a special relationship between people, where people are united by common values, a common working. It is being in the community that changes their lives and leads to those positive changes that begin first of all in thinking and then in actions, deeds, and quality of life."
At the same time, in the format of influence investments, public-private partnership projects are developing today, supported, in particular, by VEB (the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs). "VEB, as a development institution, has a whole direction that is dedicated to this – impact investments and impact projects," Elena Feoktistova says. In the first case, we are talking about financial participation in socially significant projects, in the second – about the creation of projects as such. "In fact, this is a private public partnership, a real entrepreneurial activity, which should ensure the return on investment. Above or below the market value – it is another story," she said.
Finally, a scenario is possible where impact investing will close to venture financing, which is much more understandable to traditional business. "I believe in the potential of venture capitalists, who are not indifferent people deep inside, and on weekends they often do volunteering in helping elderly and rescuing dogs. In business, they also often make decisions based on the common human values. Simply put, the idea has not been formed yet, nor «digitised» by them" says Ksenia Frank. Perhaps, it is not necessary to turn non-profit organizations in the direction of repayable financing, instead, direct more traditional investors and founders to where there is the impact… "I am sure that many of the founders of companies on a human level have a desire to make a positive contribution to the society, they do not understand yet that it can be beneficial for them as well," – she remarks.
Elena Feoktistova
MY FAVORITE IMPACT CASE
Elena Feoktistova: Roman Aranin and Observer. Let's give a very classic example. A person began with solving his own problems (the company that creates modern wheelchairs and an accessible environment in the regions today began with a wheelchair repair shop after its founder suffered a spinal injury – ed.), but solved the problem not only of his own, but also of hundreds of people around. He managed to ensure stability in solving that problem, which was original, and very significantly expanded the original idea and project. This is a very good example of how things work.
Most experts agree that a public discussion about the impact approach is needed to conduct. "In my opinion, now it is important to talk, write, and build knowledge," Jioulnar Asfari says. – It is important to conduct public discussions. In our country, there is quite a strong division: charity is separately, corporations are separately, investment communities are separately, and we have a lot of self-regulation within individual communities." The result of this approach is the low negotiability of market participants, the expert notes. To form a systematic approach to the impact, it would be useful to create platforms where representatives of various communities can conduct discussions, and form a cross-regulation. "Then there will be a movement from disparate private investment, which cannot be copied and repeated as an experience, because it is always individual, towards some institutional, collective forms," Jioulnar Asfari sums up.