Guest Blogger Lindsay Mitchell, a member of the Dexterity Consulting team, recently returned from SOCAP10.  Here are some thoughts on her experience.

Impact investing. Social entrepreneurship. Social enterprise. Tactical Philanthropy. New Money. All buzz terms heard last week when I attended the Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP) in San Francisco, along with 1200 other like-minded individuals from all parts of the value chain, from social entrepreneur to investor.  From what is usually seen as opposing perspectives - financial profit and social good - there came much hope, optimism and energy towards bringing these polar worlds closer together.

Based on experience in both non-profit and for-profit sectors I've been asking the question - "Why isn't doing good making money?" Fundraising for the non-profit world is not sustainable, and the problems are too big not to put dedicated resources, knowledge and expertise towards addressing them.

I simply do not understand why as a society we aren't willing to pay or invest capital in solving the big social problems. We are willing to make donations for a charitable receipt, so why aren't we willing to invest the same amount of money in social entrepreneur or social business even if there is a high risk or lower than average return?

During SOCAP, I felt the thrill and energy of the movement towards the space in between business and non-profit. Indicators such as the number of social entrepreneurs with great business pitch ideas, and the launch of social investment funds and products show the trend; a general movement of capital from the traditional markets towards a new kind of economy. An economy built on social impact, and meaningful outcomes.

My idealist side was ecstatic, but my cynical side still felt that nothing had really changed. These indicators could also just mean that money is now being directed to organizations with a high return on investment that happen to be doing good and meaningful work. But what does good and meaningful work look like? And how do we measure it? It has an appearance that looks like we've simply figured out how to make money out of bringing water to communities, or telecommunications to towns in Africa.

But the impact investing conversation is still very young. Terms are not fully understood by all players in the debate, and like any new creation of a frontier idea it will take time to map the unchartered territory.

Mistakes will be made, and misunderstandings will happen but I think if we can challenge our societal assumptions that donations are a gift to charity to do good work, and investments are dollars in a business simply meant to maximize return we may just find a space at the intersection of the two. And that intersection has the possibility of radically addressing some of the major global problems by leveraging the best of both worlds. Idealistic perhaps, but what do you think people thought when the Wright brothers told people there were going to fly?