An Evening with Deval Patrick: Reinvesting in America

Deval Patrick joined Bain Capital in 2015 and is a managing director of Double Impact, an initiative that seeks to scale financial and impact growth for its partner companies, which try to solve critical social problems using sustainable business models. (Source)

Double Impact focuses on three core themes:

Sustainability: sustainable products and operations that minimize environmental impact and promote ecologically beneficial water, energy, and agriculture practices through efficiency gains and sustainable alternatives.

Health and Wellness: improve health outcomes through food access and quality, products, and services promoting healthy lifestyles; access to healthcare; and better education, training, and human development.

Community Building: support great companies and expand economic opportunity in distressed communities to create good jobs, promote ownership and catalyze long-term growth.

(Source)

• What is Impact Investing?

  Defining impact investing

  Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.

  Impact investments can be made in both emerging and developed markets, and target a range of returns from below market rate, depending on investors’ strategic goals.

  The growing impact market provides capital to address the world’s most pressing challenges in sectors such as sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, conservation, microfinance, and affordable and accessible basic services including housing, healthcare, and education.

  (Source)

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  Defining social impact bonds

  Social impact bonds are part of a broader suite of Pay for Success contracting mechanisms, which direct government resources to outcomes achieved rather than services delivered.

  In a social impact bond, intermediaries bring together impact investors, high-impact service providers, and government payers to implement preventative social services that, if successful, will lead to improved social outcomes and reduces government costs, generating both fiscal and intangible value for society.

  Source: “Financing Outcomes Through Social Impact Bonds” by Tracy Palandjian in What Matters: Investing in Results to Build Strong, Vibrant Communities (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco & Nonprofit Finance Fund: 2017) 149-155.

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  The value of social impact bonds

  Social impact bonds rely on framework:

  High-performing nonprofits get access to long term, flexible funding, which allows them to grow and links performance to further funding.

  Impact investors are able to reflect their values in their investment portfolios by receiving financial returns only when projects measurably improve people’s lives.

  Governments gain a new level of accountability for taxpayer funds by only paying for results.

   

• Examples of Social Issues of Interest To Impact Investors

  Poverty

  The official poverty rate in 2016 was 12.7 percent. In 2016 there were 40.6 million people in poverty.

  The median income of non-Hispanic White, Black, and Hispanic-origin households increased 2 percent, 5.7 percent, and 4.3 percent between 2015 and 2016. (For Asian households, the change in median was not significant). Source

  In Kansas, 12% of people were in poverty and 7% were in extreme poverty in 2015. Source

  • 85,000 Black and Hispanic children fell below 200% of the poverty line in 2015.

  In Missouri, 14% of people were in poverty and 9% were in extreme poverty in 2015. Source

  • 176,000 Black or Hispanic children fell below 200% of the poverty line in 2015.

  Homelessness

  More than 500,000 Americans remained homeless by the end of 2015. Source

  In Kansas, 2,255 people were homeless in 2017. Source

  In Missouri, 6,194 people were are homeless in 2017. Source

  Unemployment

  In 2014, 84 percent of Black 16 to 19 year olds and 72 percent of Hispanic or Latino 16 to 19 years olds were jobless. Source

  In Kansas, 4.2% of people are unemployed. Source

  In Missouri, 4.4% of people are unemployed. Source

  Employment rates decreased 14 percent for Blacks and 21 percent for Hispanic or Latinos from 2005 to 2014. Source

  Justice System

  The United States has five percent of the world’s population, and holds 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Source

  In Kansas, 813 youths resided in juvenile justice and correctional facilities and 16,438 adults were incarcerated in prison and jail in 2017. Source

  In Missouri, 1,226 youths resided in juvenile justice and correctional facilities and 43,758 adults were incarcerated in prison and jail in 2017. Source

  Opioid Addiction & Overdose Source

  Of the 20.5 million Americans 12 or older that had a substance use disorder in 2015, 2 million had a substance use disorder involving prescription pain relievers and 591,000 had a substance use disorder involving heroine.

  Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., with 523,404 lethal drug overdoses in 2015.

  • 20,101 were due to prescription pain relievers, and 12,990 were due to heroin
  • Prescribing rates for adolescents for prescription opioids have nearly doubled from 1994 to 2007
  • Prescription pain reliever overdose deaths have increased more than 400% for women and 237% for men from 1999 to 2010.
  • Heroin overdose deaths among women tripled from 2010 to 2013.