Volume 40: Investing in Resilience: How a New Collaborative Initiative in Camden is Sparking Local Change with Broader Regional Impact

Levering the power of the food sector, the collective will deploy integrated capital investments in area food businesses to grow community health and economic resilience, including through increased ownership and wealth-building opportunities for Camden families. We do not anticipate establishing a “fund” in the technical sense but rather a networked collaboration of local and regional entities leveraging their respective balance sheets and knowledge and relationship assets to facilitate 20 to 25 investments in Camden and its surrounding areas over a three-to-five-year period.

investors, business leadersDermot MurphyApril 28, 2021Mark Watson, Fair Food Network

Volume 39: Untapped and Underutilized: The Tourism Industry and the Impact Economy

Tourism is an industry that is crying out for impact-driven entrepreneurs and investors to do what they do best: challenge traditional norms; put capital into new places; support diverse and dynamic entrepreneurs; find ways to ensure financial returns while prioritizing people and the planet, and move industries stuck in old paradigms into a future that enhances well-being for us all.

Volume 28: Minority Entrepreneurship is the Antidote to Persistent Poverty

It is well-known that 26% of Philadelphians live in poverty - a persistent challenge that perpetuates our status as the United States’ poorest large city. After leading The Enterprise Center for 27 years, my experience has taught me that all of our region’s stakeholders - public and private - need to act strategically to overcome this challenge and change the lives of nearly 400,000 residents that endure poverty’s effects. I’m calling for real investment in a critical priority for 21st-century Greater Philadelphia: minority entrepreneurship.

investors, business leaders, start-upsDermot MurphyFebruary 25, 2020Della Clark, The Enterprise Center

Volume 27: The Urgent Case for Investing Small and Local

In this post, I walk through my case for why investing in local businesses is inherently impact investing. After reading this, you will understand why small businesses struggle to access capital even in a strong economy, why decentralized local lenders provide fair capital, and how you and everyone around you can participate in transforming the trillion-dollar small business lending industry currently failing many local small businesses.

investors, business leaders, start-upsDermot MurphyJanuary 27, 2020George Cook, Honeycomb Credit

Volume 26: Seizing an Opportunity for Success in Growing Small Businesses

Just days before Christmas 2019, and we await the gift of regulatory clarity. Word is out that final OZ regulations have made their way to the White House. Can these offer what we need to craft a path forward to use this tax-benefited capital tool to grow businesses.

Volume 25: It Takes A City: Dispatch from a Two-Month Old Social Enterprise

Triple Bottom Brewing is Philly’s fair chance brewery. Our team brings a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to the table. We’ve been deeply intentional about reaching out to communities of people who are traditionally excluded from the mainstream economy in order to build an inclusive business, and have developed critical partnerships with Project HOME, Mural Arts Restorative Justice Program, and the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project to recruit and support our team members.

investors, business leaders, start-upsDermot MurphyDecember 2, 2019Tess Hart, Triple Bottom Brewing

Volume 24: Social Impact for the Financial World: The New Impact Modeling Approach that will Change the Way you Think about Social Impact

Social impact is an entity’s unmonetized external value. It is the uncaptured value of all of its outcomes - absent any moral judgment - on the interacts with via the products and services it delivers.

investors, business leaders, start-upsDermot MurphyOctober 23, 2019Catherine Griffin, Good Company Ventures

Volume 23: Making Research “Business as Usual” in Impact Investing

Policymakers, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, and impact investors frequently comment that we need evidence-based strategies to tackle social and environmental challenges effectively. The call for more thoughtful evidence-use has recently hit a crescendo in impact investing, with high-profile actors showcasing methods for incorporating secondary research into due diligence.

Volume 22: The Slow Adoption of Impact Investing; Aligning Financial and Impact Investment Risk

Impact investing has existed for a substantial amount of time, but it has not been fully embraced by the investment community and, to many, is still not considered a mainstream investment practice. While there are signs that its adoption is increasing, there are several barriers, both real and perceived, that have slowed its adoption. This paper will present some of the key reasons for impact investments’ slow adoption. It will provide background on the industry and discuss specific factors causing its slow adoption. This paper will then provide several principles aimed at furthering investors’ understanding of impact.

Volume 21: The PhilaImpact Fund’s Year of Progress: Key Accomplishments and Lessons Learned

When we announced the PhilaImpact Fund a year ago, we noted that it was created to fill a gap, offering a safe, smart direct investment opportunity tailored specifically to the Greater Philadelphia region. Our goal was to ensure that the opportunity gaps that exist in our communities get smaller, so that every resident has a chance to thrive from possibilities born from the region’s vibrancy. The results to date have been inspiring.

Volume 20: Investing to Make Health Care Available to All

Although the Philadelphia region is home to some of the world’s finest hospitals that deliver best-in-class health care, many of our communities still suffer from the lack of access to care. Equal access to health care can be—must be—more than an aspiration; it must become a fact of life. Impact investment has the potential to help make high-quality care available to all. Let us work together to transform our best intentions into real solutions that benefit all who live in our region and in our nation.

investors, business leadersDermot MurphyJune 21, 2019Reinvestment Fund

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 18: Drexel University’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships Generating Collaborative Solutions to Housing and Homeownership Challenges

Drexel University has taken on a mission as an engaged anchor institution with a substantial role and set of responsibilities in the life and local economy of West Philadelphia. One of our key strategies is to integrate this outward-looking perspective into our core academic functions through comprehensive supports for civic engagement. The Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, part of Drexel’s Office of University and Community Partnerships, offers a hub for doing academically rigorous work that is creative, collaborative, responsive to the needs and interests articulated by residents and neighborhood stakeholders, and generates benefits for both students and residents.

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 17: In the Zone: A Primer on Opportunity Zones

Investments into Opportunity Funds offer attractive tax benefits, while catalyzing capital inflows into economically distressed communities. However, prudence is necessary in evaluating these investment opportunities as they come to market. The tax benefits will not outweigh the negative consequences of a bad investment. Moreover, large numbers of investment opportunities have not yet materialized. While the initial round of IRS guidance has answered some questions, additional information, expected shortly, is necessary, and then firms will need time to evaluate and identify qualified investment opportunities before launching investment funds. Currently we assume that there will be Funds available for investment in 2019. While questions remain, Opportunity Zones offer an exciting space to monitor and evaluate for tax-sensitive and impact investors.

investors, business leadersDermot MurphyMarch 26, 2019Jennifer Wong - Glenmede

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 16: Investing for Social Impact: Community Development Financial Institutions

Most low-income communities in the U.S. have access to an important resource that few people outside of these communities know: a CDFI (community development financial institution). CDFIs are private community lenders dedicated to delivering social and economic impact by providing responsible, affordable financing to disinvested people and communities. Why are CDFIs important? If you live in a community whose streets are dotted with check cashers, liquor stores, and blighted buildings, chances are there are few if any bank branches and very little investment overall. Without access to capital, residents can’t start or grow a business, purchase or rehab a home, or oftentimes, have access to quality childcare and healthcare facilities. CDFIs provide access to capital that creates opportunity and leads to real change that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

investors, business leadersDermot MurphyFebruary 26, 2019Donna Fabiani - OFN

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 15: PIDC Seeks to Spur Inclusive Growth in Philadelphia with New Opportunity Zones

In the last year, two unique opportunities brought the potential to drive significant new investment in cities across the country. First, Amazon announced their search for a second corporate headquarters (“HQ2”) which is projected to employ up to 50,000 employees over the next fifteen years. More than 238 cities and regions submitted proposals, and 20 candidate cities (including Philadelphia) were ultimately selected by Amazon to compete in a next phase. Amazon eventually decided to split its second headquarters into two locations and chose New York and Northern Virginia for its next stages of growth.

investors, business leadersDermot MurphyJanuary 28, 2019Anne Bovaird Nevins - PIDC

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 13: What Does Fly Fishing have to do with Leadership in Impact Philanthropy

This story begins in 2002 in the western suburbs of Philadelphia. Clemens and a small group of colleagues saw the need to create a conscious and sustainable world through engaged philanthropy and had the vision to align practice with purpose – at the individual level, in the community, and on a global scale.

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 12: Building Equitable Communities Through Patient Impact Capital and Thoughtful Real Estate Development

54.46% in poverty
27.56% unemployed
209 deaths from overdoses in 2017

These are the sobering statistics of Harrowgate, a Kensington neighborhood north of Lehigh Avenue, that is only 15 minutes north of Center City on the Market-Frankford subway line, and three subway stops away from Fishtown – “the hottest neighborhood” in the United States according to Forbes magazine.

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 11: Impact Beyond Innovation

What comes after innovation? As CEO of Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners, an organization charged with catalyzing the Philadelphia region's entrepreneurial and innovation economy, I've struggled with this question. It was 2001 when I began to follow the emerging national narrative around impact, marked by Harvard Business Review's January 2001 issue: Ideas with Impact - an issue I still have to this day. In it, an article by Charles Handy entitled "Tocqueville Revisited: The Meaning of American Prosperity." revisits Tocqueville's journey, but focuses on capitalism instead of democracy. Handy writes of the need for "new capitalism" and discusses American Nobel Prize Winner Robert Fogel's optimism that "a new sense of purpose…will be at the heart of the next stage of capitalism." The idea resonated with me then and stayed with me over time.

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 10: Fostering Economic Growth and Mobility in Philadelphia

Although community development finance has primarily built its foundation around real estate investing, we have learned that in a city like Philadelphia, neighborhood revitalization does not always empower local residents to move up the economic ladder but can often lead to displacement through gentrification. An impact economy requires both growth AND mobility, and thus, our strategies must include a focus on both improving places AND empowering people. To this goal, an effective impact capital strategy is about more than just building and investing financial and physical capital. We should also consider how we build and invest in human and social capital in our city.

ImpactPHL Perspectives, Volume 8: ReStore - A Self-Sustaining Revenue Model to Further Local Housing Support in Philadelphia

Many who hear “Habitat for Humanity” have some familiarity with Habitat for Humanity's affordable housing work, the phrase “a hand up, not a handout,” and President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter's the tireless commitment to the organization over years. However, few are aware of our furniture and home goods social enterprise, ReStore, that infuses dollars into our Homeownership and Home Repair Programs - two programs that provide affordable payment options, sweat equity, and volunteer labor opportunities for low-income populations that have housing needs in Philadelphia.

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