Via Generocity
Last year, Generocity published the first version of the Leaders List, identifying “12 people of color leading the social impact charge in Philadelphia.” It included short profiles of 12 impressive folks working in each of their editorial calendar themes of that year, one for each month. For year two, Generocity again based the list on its 2018 editorial calendar, but this time asked for community input via a nomination form. More than 130 nominations were received from which Generocity selected the 2018 Leaders List.
Philanthropy Network's executive director Sidney Hargro was named in the category of Impact Investing. His profile by Julie Zeglen is below.
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Sidney Hargro: Impact investing (October)
Philanthropy and impact investing — typically defined as the practice of investing venture capital in for-profit social enterprises — are gradually becoming seen as partners working toward a collectively more impactful funding sector.
Hargro, executive director of the Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia, said that in recent years, the philanthropic sector has seen a push toward using their money in more innovative ways.
Hargro uses impact investing as an umbrella term for both venture capital and mission-aligned investing by philanthropists, which is the practice of “using capital to create change that’s not necessarily grants,” he said — think the Barra Foundation’s investment in New Day Chester, Inc. and Patricia Kind McKenna’s push for foundations to invest more than their mandated 5 percent.
Put another way: Impact investing is about using charitable capital for change, regardless of the tax status of the organization receiving that investment.
It’s just one of the recent “big-picture shifts” in philanthropy, though, Hargro said. Another: equity over diversity and inclusion, with a more intentional focus on the systems and biases that contributed to a lack thereof over time.
“The term diversity has been in the sector and been around for decades and longer,” said the nonprofit pro, who joined Philanthropy Network in Summer 2017 from the Community Foundation of South Jersey, “but the reality is, if we achieve embedding equity not only in our work, but also in seeking equity in our communities, the other two are automatically there. You can’t achieve equity without diversity and inclusion.”
They’re heady topics, and indeed, Hargro said he’s “constantly trying to simply the way I talk about things and pull away the jargon, because it often serves as an obstacle to helping people understand philanthropy.”
Accordingly, this fall, Philanthropy Network will conduct a “field scan” of philanthropic activity and attitudes in the region, to be conducted by a consultant. The org will use the results to create resources for its members who are asking how they can incorporate new ways of thinking into their work.