What is the Impact Economy?

 At a time when the nation seeks new approaches to job creation and economic renewal, many experts acknowledge the relationship between national competitiveness, social impact and  environmental benefit.  This broad shift is exemplified by new capital flows, often referred to as impact investing, and new types of firms often referred to as social enterprises.    

We describe this emerging ecosystem as the “Impact Economy,” a phenomenon that encompasses a wide range of sectors including community enterprises, clean tech, ethical brands and affordable housing.  As the Impact Economy takes shape, public policy can play a pivotal role to accelerate its evolution.  It creates the operating context in which the field can flourish.  By the same token, a lack of clarity about policies or an absence of programs can hinder its development.

The Impact Economy Initiative

The Aspen Institute Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation (PSI) has launched a new program strand, The Impact Economy Initiative (IEI), in order to help policy makers create an enabling environment to support this trend.  Due to its well-established heritage as a non-political organization, Aspen uniquely can convene elected officials and public servants from both sides of the aisle to foster a bipartisan consensus on the issues.

Through its long-standing leadership development initiatives, convenings, communications and strategic partnerships, PSI seeks to inform and maximize the impact of key social sector actors, so that each can contribute to the good society, at home and abroad. Based on the momentum of PSI’s work in the philanthropic realm, PSI now is focusing efforts to explore new trends such as the Impact Economy and the broader emergence of hybrid institutions and the investors that support them. To achieve its goals, IEI operates within the PSI program and seeks to catalyze discussion and cultivate new ideas about how policy can stimulate economic gain and generate social benefit for all segments of our society.

Contact the Impact Economy Initiative at:
Impact Economy Initiative
The Aspen Institute
One Dupont Circle, NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 736-1491 (phone)
(202) 293-0525 (fax)
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/iei