The Centre for Innovative Finance and Social Impact (CIFSI) at Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) aims to mainstream innovative finance for social impact as a complement to government and philanthropic spending. The Centre seeks to provide knowledge and capacity-building tools to facilitate social purpose organisations to access private capital for social change.
Innovative financing refers to a set of financial solutions and mechanisms that create scalable and effective ways of channelling private money from the global and domestic financial markets towards solving pressing global problems.
At ISDM, CIFSI will provide knowledge and opportunities for the social sector and social purpose organisations to raise capital through hitherto untapped models and sources.
CIFSI aims to enable more private capital to flow into the social sector to bridge the SDG gap, by mainstreaming innovative finance that drives greater social impact
Create and disseminate high-quality and actionable knowledge on innovative finance and impact assessment to drive social impact.
Drive funding and social impact assessment tools, approaches and practices through convenings, events, workshops and learning modules.
Develop collaborations and build partnerships and networks to enable social purpose organisations to leverage private capital better, facilitate funding for profit and non-profit social enterprises through the social stock exchange and enable social impact organisations to evaluate the impact they create.
CIFSI's knowledge resources and capacity building tools seek to empower recipient social purpose organisations with the right information, skills, and expertise necessary to access innovative financing for social impact
In the development ecosystem, effective and adequate financing mechanisms are at the core of achieving impact at scale. By broadening the scope of financing through innovative finance, CIFSI can play a role in enhancing opportunities for social purpose organisations to acquire the resources required to address pressing developmental challenges.
Enable and empower social purpose organisations to utilise innovative forms of financing to better leverage private capital for fulfilling the sector's funding requirements.
Enable social purpose organisations and funders to assess the impact of organisations and projects/initiatives, that will ultimately support their need to raise more private capital.
Strengthen the regulatory environment of financing for the social sector.
CIFSI intends to bring together multiple stakeholders and contribute towards building a stronger community of financiers for sustainable social change. The stakeholders include:
This is an introductory primer for the recipient social purpose organisations to unpack all the essentials on innovative finance instruments. It includes other relevant details such as stakeholders, processes, value proposition, applicability, and associated risks. Led by examples and demonstrations, the primer also highlight the recipient’s eligibility for attracting innovative finance.
A tech-based digital interface that helps organisations seek specific details on different innovative funding instruments, weigh their opportunities and check their eligibility for securing such funds.
Indian School of Development Management, supported by Citi India's CSR efforts, launched the Centre for Innovative Finance and Social Impact (CIFSI) to mainstream innovative finance for social impact.