This course is intended to provide students with an overview of the range of investing and funding approaches used by impact investors. This will be done through a combination of lectures, discussions, and presentations by leading impact investors and thought leaders. The substantive areas covered will include: (1) financial instruments and techniques used to fund social enterprises (for-profit, nonprofit and hybrids); (2) the differing financial return and social impact return expectations of impact investors; (3) how investors/funders and investment/wealth managers and advisors structure their portfolios and funds; and (4) strategies used by impact investors to search for impact investing opportunities. As well as investor/funder perspectives, the course will explore the role of financial innovation in creating opportunities to finance social enterprises, and the enabling regulatory framework and information intermediaries that are needed to support the development of robust social capital markets.

Bruce Usher

Co-Director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise; Elizabeth B. Strickler '86 and Mark T. Gallogly '86 Faculty Director; Professor of Professional Practice

Bruce Usher is a Professor of Professional Practice and the Elizabeth B. Strickler '86 and Mark T. Gallogly '86 Faculty Director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School. The Tamer Center educates leaders to use business knowledge, entrepreneurial skills, and management tools to address social and environmental challenges, and has grown into one of the largest centers at Columbia Business...

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