Social Value Investing

Social Value Investing offers a compelling argument and practical framework for how collaboration between philanthropy, governments, and the private sector can drive long-lasting solutions to the world's toughest challenges. -- Bill Gates
The secret to success often involves recognizing the power of partnerships. Social Value Investing shows how extraordinary returns can be achieved when governments, businesses, nonprofits, and citizens team up and work together. -- Michael Bloomberg
Grounded in a well-researched and tested approach, this book will serve as a framework for partnership building. As you learn from the strategies pursued in these stories, you’ll discover just why I’m so hopeful about the future. You will enjoy this book, and I’ll bet you will be inspired, too, by its message of optimism and action. -- Warren Buffett
The book discusses the benefits of extensive collaboration between companies, governments, philanthropists and investors. But it is Buffett’s framework for predicting and measuring the positive social and environmental impact of a project that will be of interest to impact investors. -- Stephen Foley * Financial Times *
A critical contribution to our understanding of how to solve the world’s most pressing problems, presented as a practical step-by-step guide to forming powerful transformational partnerships. Through firsthand accounts dispatched from Brazil, India, New York City, and Afghanistan, Social Value Investing sets a new standard for effective international development. -- Josette Sheeran, president and CEO, Asia Society
In this important new book, Howard W. Buffett and William Eimicke have created a simple framework for building lasting social change through partnerships. They provide insights on what has worked, what has not worked, and the lessons learned. These best practices are a great guide for NGOs, private sector firms, and governments that are forging new partnerships. This should be essential reading for students and practitioners in economic development, non-profit management, and public policy. -- Sonal Shah, director, Beek Center for Social Impact+Innovation, Georgetown University
Eimicke and Buffett posit a new architecture for business models used to tackle our most intractable social problems based on the concept of 'shared success.' The solutions they cite lead to not only efficacy but also high performance, motivating a new way of thinking about social change. This book updates our thinking on this new form of problem solving and provides useful pragmatic and actionable examples to serve as business models for the next generation of social change maker. -- Ted D. Zoller, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The public sector is overwhelmed when it comes to the problems it needs to solve. Government faces a crisis of limited resources and a polarized leadership. What Buffett and Eimicke outline in Social Value Investing is how the private sector can fill the vacuum. It isn’t about eliminating the need for government, it’s about how to infuse the public sector with the innovation needed to make a dent into our collective societal challenges, like affordable housing, health care, transportation, or climate change. Bottom line, this book serves as a blueprint for our government officials to address one of our society’s most vexing challenges: our inability to actually solve problems. -- Chuck Todd, Host of Meet the Press
"Making a significant positive impact on the world is the holy grail of today's philanthropists, along with a growing number of businesses and public sector organizations. Impact Rate of Return, a new measurement for social impact at the heart of Social Value Investing, helps organizations achieve that goal. Buffett and Eimicke have authored an inspiring book with a detailed framework for collaborative leaders committed to doing good better.” -- Matthew Bishop, coauthor, Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World, and former senior editor, The Economist Group
Social Value Investing is a must-read for practitioners and academics who are truly interested in how to develop and implement inclusive and effective public policies. By seamlessly connecting rich case studies with an analytically sophisticated framework, Buffett and Eimicke show how partnerships between government, corporations, and philanthropy can provide the resources, expertise, and agility to solve complex twenty-first-century problems. -- Ester R. Fuchs, Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science, Columbia University
Claiming to create a cross-sector collaboration is easy. But structuring one that produces lasting positive impact is not so easy. Eimicke and Buffett, two of the country's leading experts with both practical and academic experience, have written the perfect book on how to design and invest in partnerships that produce true value. -- Stephen Goldsmith, director, Innovations in American Government, Harvard University
What a wonderful approach to solving large problems with a long view, specific collaborated objectives, and cross partner ownership of the metrics for success. Having personally observed successful military humanitarian assistance planning and execution, this five-point approach works and ought to be the standard everywhere. Buffett and Eimicke take the concepts further with a meaningful longer-term and holistic framework for success, which is so important for our future. -- Admiral Cecil Haney, USN (Retired), former commander, U.S. Strategic Command
Howard W. Buffett and William B. Eimicke remind us of a universal truth: none of us can change the world on our own. Using compelling case studies and instructive insights, they demonstrate the power of inclusive partnerships, and show how to create change that is both measurable and meaningful. -- Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation
The authors' key contribution to the field of social value investing - the development of the formula of the Impact Rate of Return as a measure for comparing various social investments - will make this work a visionary, and perhaps controversial, method for determining the value of this type of funding. * Booklist *
A must-read resource for professional practitioners across the domains of public policy, economic development, corporate governance, and philanthropy. * Kirkus Reviews *
The book is a good read for all readers....Recommended. * Choice *