I was fortunate to be featured in a recent article on social finance from Charity Village. In the conversation with Karl Noseworthy, which formed the basis of the article, I touched on the role of social finance as it related to the funding challenges that nonprofits face, the potential roles of corporations and hybrid organizations, some of the key trends around social capital markets, and the role of an online platform to influence social change.

Read the full article at the source, or below. And thanks to Charity Village for continuing to feature social finance as an emerging theme in the nonprofit arena.

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Making CSR Believable: Chris Jarvis writes an excellent post on some of the core issues around CSR - how do companies create and foster trust through their investments in CSR? And what is the role of social capital in this dynamic?

The Philanthropist moves online (via Mark Blumberg's Canadian Charity Law blog): The Philanthropist is a quarterly journal that publishes articles and information of interest and assistance to managers and directors of Canadian charitable organizations and foundations, and their legal and financial directors.

Economic downturn - Crisis or Opportunity?: Joel Solomon encourages us to look at the current situation as an opportunity for transformation - both in the social sector, and in our individual living. 

Responsible Investing on the Rise: The Social Investment Organization recently released the Canadian Socially Responsible Investment Review 2008, which has revealed a significant rise in investment strategies that integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into financial analysis and portfolio management.

Social Innovation Fund update: There's been a lots of buzz every since the Obama Administration proposed the Social Innovation Fund to provide incentives to scale up the work of successful nonprofits. The Fund is now signed into law, and we now have more details around the Fund's intentions, including the $50 million ask for FY2010. America Forward has an detailed FAQ on what we know so far, and Nathaniel from Change.org digs even deeper. Canadian policymakers, are you following this?

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Tides Top 10 of 2008: If you haven't seen this already, check out Tides Canada's annual list of outstanding social change organizations.

On Social Enterprise in the UK (hat-tip: Volans): An interview with Kevin Brennan, the Minister for the Third Sector, where he talks about the importance of social enterprise, its potential impact on public service delivery, the need for "lift-off" finance and more emphasis on measurement.

Social Entrepreneurship on Campus: Nathaniel from Change.org has a great post on trends and opportunities for social entrepreneurship at universities.

Charities Borrow For-Profit Strategies To Do Good: Well-written article from the Christian Science Monitor that describes recent interesting developments in the "hybrid" space in between the non-profit and for-profit worlds. References to social entrepreneurship, philanthrocapitalism, microfinance, L3Cs, and more.

Mission, Inc.: The Practitioner's Guide to Social Enterprise: New book by Kevin Lynch (Rebuild Resources) and Julius Walls (Greystone Bakery) that draws on their own organizations and learning from 20 other social enterprise leaders around what it takes to succeed in starting and running a social enterprise.

Mandatory CSR Reporting in Denmark: Denmark's 1,100 largest enterprises will now be compelled by law to describe their corporate CSR or socially responsible investment policies, the ways in which they've been implemented and the results they've produced.

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