Позитивные изменения. Том 1, №1 (2021). Positive changes. Volume 1, Issue 1 (2021)

IMPACT AS AN APPROACH TO LIFE

It’s not news that impact investing is near to other forms of socially responsible business development. Jioulnar Asfari, director of the SOLj Center for the Promotion of Innovation in the Society, says the same thing. According to the expert, finding place for impact investing among other investment strategies is, in fact, an attempt to separate it from ESG investments (environment-social/sustainability-governance), which began to form a little earlier. There is a steady movement that sees the difference between the first and the second in that the ESG concept, as a rule, arises within already existing business and impact projects are initially created in order to solve certain social or environmental problems.

At the same time, experts have no consentience regarding the equivalence of the two parts of the definition – «transformative» and «repayable» ones. In fact, financial dividends are not a fundamental point for the majority: the main thing is that investments work for a stable social effect. Zero return on social bonds is permissible, says Elena Feoktistova, Deputy Chairman, Managing Director for Corporate Responsibility, Sustainable Development and Social Entrepreneurship of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. "An investor can invest money as a social investments – in fact, as a grant, supporting social entrepreneurs, and that money, even if it doesn’t generate income, can be seen as an impact investment because it helps to solve specific problems," she said.

Jioulnar Asfari

MY FAVORITE IMPACT CASE

Ksenia Frank: Olga Barabanova and KINESIS. While still working as a volunteer, Olga finds out that wheelchairs for children are very heavy and do not provide sufficient mobility and are not individualized. Having set up the production of children's bicycles (Lisoped), Olga realized that the technology of making wheelchairs is not very much different from bicycles. Today Olga is producing light active wheelchairs in Moscow (the company is included in the register of social entrepreneurs): Kinesis is the first in Russia (and so far the only one) that makes personalized wheelchairs for children from 2 years old, adults and for Paralympians.

"A person who has created a successful business understands how to get what he wants with the help of investments. In business, this desire is measured in money. In impact investments – in social changes," Ekaterina Rybakova, President and co-founder of the Rybakov Foundation, supports the idea.

Summarizing, we can say: the definition scope can be wide – would be it useful. Thus, the founder of the Seven Suns Development Group of Companies, entrepreneur and social investor Alexey Ryzhkov believes that impact investing in principle should be understood as the activities of any companies that are somehow related to the positive impact arising. "I see ‘impact’ as a format that sooner or later everyone has to transit to," he says. Perhaps, different versions of the definition will again converge into a single picture at this ‘transition point’. "Impact Managing is the ability to see these aspects all as a whole. And there is an art to do it and now I see it more in terms of governments, that is, building a system of governance," Jioulnar Asfari says.

HOW THE IMPACT CAN BE MEASURED?

In fact, all market participants, which concerned the topic development, agree on one thing: investments should ‘work’, producing a clear and, if possible, measurable positive impact. It is still the second question – whether it will be possible to return funds invested and even more so to make a profit. The main thing is to achieve a measurable social effect… and be able to evaluate it.

"We decided for ourselves that since we want positive changes, they should affect the quality of people’s lives. And we will rely on feedback, on how people themselves evaluate these changes. Tens of thousands of people participate in our activities. We interview them. And we evaluate our impacts by the way they evaluate the impact of our programs, our projects on their lives," Ekaterina Rybakova says.

Venture investor Ksenia Frank is also confident that quantitative assessment when measuring impact raises many questions and is insufficient by itself. "In the work of the Timchenko Foundation, we do not tie grants only to the achievement of planned metrics (the Foundation introduced a monitoring and evaluation system in 2015). If metrics are too closely tied to funding, they can inadvertently provoke wishful thinking." Ksenia Frank notes that in areas such as social or environmental impact, the purely numerical equivalent of benefits can lead to a shift in focus: "We all know how to count «outputs»: number of classes held, manuals published and people who attended the class. Yet there is something much more difficult to assess and that very few people think about. That is what really has changed in the lives of these people and how stable these changes are."

Jioulnar Asfari agrees with the existence of an internal conflict between the known metrics of performance evaluation and, in fact, the impact evaluation. "The impact is such a semantic aspect, and its ‘birth place’ is the heart, and all the evidence is in the head. Therefore, it is important not to overdo it: the control and measurement system itself should not become a goal in itself. When we talk about impact, it is important to be able to see the effect of all indicators at the strategic level together." At the same time, Jioulnar Asfari notes, today the world market is beginning to form the impact evaluation standards necessary for public companies, there are indicators that can be measured and calculated, and the formation of a relevant evaluation system is, as a whole ring, a matter of time.

Ksenia Frank

Ekaterina Rybakova

MY FAVORITE IMPACT CASE

Ekaterina Rybakova: If we talk about the Rybakov Foundation's projects, it's difficult for me to choose. They include the University of Childhood and our course, which we developed together with The Higher School of Economics university as an evaluation and self-diagnostic tool for schools, as well as the school community «The School is the center of society». The course that we are now introducing into the curriculum of pedagogical universities is aimed at giving future teachers skills in community management, community building so that they can use them immediately in school.

Alexey Ryzhkov is sure that the metrics, in any case, are necessary for impact: "It is important that any sphere, any activity is viable in terms of metrology. It is important to develop criteria, it is important for society to coordinate them. It is important to use these criteria." At that Ryzhkov notes, along with universal criteria, there should be industry metrics. But they should be universal, relevant for all countries and activities – first of all.

However, everyone has no inherent optimism about the prospects for implementation of a single universal evaluation system. Ekaterina Rybakova believes that it will be extremely difficult to reach an agreement even at the level of one, single country. "In many ways, the question of preferences, what exactly you consider important for a certain sphere, plays a role here," she notes. Preferences – and, we add, the traditional "devil in details". "For example, one foundation states: we invested in the project – 300 children have been taught programming. My first question is: where are these children from? If these children played chess yesterday, and today you taught them programming, how much social effect is there? If yesterday they were drinking beer in the alleyway, and you brought them to the club, got them interested so they stayed, taught them programming and gave them a profession, then there is a real social effect", – says Ksenia Frank.

In general, experts agree: an evaluation is necessary despite all its complexity. "When you create an infrastructure project, it’s ‘a venture inside a venture'", Vladimir Smirnov says. "I know that a reasonable, conscious, social community will say that this is really needed. It is very necessary – a very cool project, which really works, helps, makes. For example, in Blagosfera Center, as in the most complex project, we count this. And the numbers are quite encouraging for us.

Vladimir Smirnov

MOVING DIRECTION

The broad scope of ‘impact investing' concept sets a predictably long running start for modeling the development paradigm. On the one hand, mainstream cases have already begun to appear on the Russian market. So, in 2020, the Towards Impact Investments accelerator was launched – the Impact Hub Moscow pilot project and the Navstrechu Peremenam Foundation, under which social projects for impact investment are selected and finalized. On the other hand, the current map of the domestic impact extends from internal social projects of large companies to models of public-private partnership and venture financing.

Thus, investors are increasingly ready to invest in the development of territories and communities and evaluate this activity as a kind of impact investment. There is potential in the sphere that will sooner or later begin to return not only with human capital, they believe. Many projects of the Rybakov Foundation are focused in this direction – About Women, About Children and others. "Community is a special relationship between people, where people are united by common values, a common working. It is being in the community that changes their lives and leads to those positive changes that begin first of all in thinking and then in actions, deeds, and quality of life."

At the same time, in the format of influence investments, public-private partnership projects are developing today, supported, in particular, by VEB (the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs). "VEB, as a development institution, has a whole direction that is dedicated to this – impact investments and impact projects," Elena Feoktistova says. In the first case, we are talking about financial participation in socially significant projects, in the second – about the creation of projects as such. "In fact, this is a private public partnership, a real entrepreneurial activity, which should ensure the return on investment. Above or below the market value – it is another story," she said.

Finally, a scenario is possible where impact investing will close to venture financing, which is much more understandable to traditional business. "I believe in the potential of venture capitalists, who are not indifferent people deep inside, and on weekends they often do volunteering in helping elderly and rescuing dogs. In business, they also often make decisions based on the common human values. Simply put, the idea has not been formed yet, nor «digitised» by them" says Ksenia Frank. Perhaps, it is not necessary to turn non-profit organizations in the direction of repayable financing, instead, direct more traditional investors and founders to where there is the impact… "I am sure that many of the founders of companies on a human level have a desire to make a positive contribution to the society, they do not understand yet that it can be beneficial for them as well," – she remarks.

Elena Feoktistova

MY FAVORITE IMPACT CASE

Elena Feoktistova: Roman Aranin and Observer. Let's give a very classic example. A person began with solving his own problems (the company that creates modern wheelchairs and an accessible environment in the regions today began with a wheelchair repair shop after its founder suffered a spinal injury – ed.), but solved the problem not only of his own, but also of hundreds of people around. He managed to ensure stability in solving that problem, which was original, and very significantly expanded the original idea and project. This is a very good example of how things work.

THE "THREE SECTORS MODEL" NO LONGER WORKS

Most experts agree that a public discussion about the impact approach is needed to conduct. "In my opinion, now it is important to talk, write, and build knowledge," Jioulnar Asfari says. – It is important to conduct public discussions. In our country, there is quite a strong division: charity is separately, corporations are separately, investment communities are separately, and we have a lot of self-regulation within individual communities." The result of this approach is the low negotiability of market participants, the expert notes. To form a systematic approach to the impact, it would be useful to create platforms where representatives of various communities can conduct discussions, and form a cross-regulation. "Then there will be a movement from disparate private investment, which cannot be copied and repeated as an experience, because it is always individual, towards some institutional, collective forms," Jioulnar Asfari sums up.

MY FAVORITE IMPACT CASE

Vladimir Smirnov: School of Positive Habits at the Lifestyle Foundation. How can we raise people who will be socially responsible? We can only starting from a young age. School of Positive Habits is developed for 1–4 forms, a case of 9 lessons, where children discuss the topics of mercy, compassion, helping their neighbor, helping the environment, and animals. The program also intended for high school students, 9-10 forms, who then conduct the same lessons in their school. Such a synergy turns out. Part of this program is also designed for preschoolers, when children 5–6 years old are told what is good and what is bad. These are just values common to humanity. It would be great to have these in every country, in every region, in every school. Tens of thousands of children have already complete the program training, in two or three regions there are centers organized at pedagogical institutes of higher education that train future teachers, seminars are held, there a methodological center operates. I have a dream that this will be in every school in the country.

Smirnov also speaks about the problems that hinder to build a dialogue today: "The social and charitable community itself has often bad, ‘unprofessional’ attitude to business. People who save other people seem to be somewhere near angels and cherubs. The social block, the social sphere does not work loyally enough with business and potentially involved people."

But for all that, according to business representatives, this distance can be covered. "I perceive the commercial and social elements as two components of a single whole, like Yin-Yang, which should always be a whole," Alexey Ryzhkov says. – And today we see when companies or projects do not combine these two components they suffer without each other. When these two components are combined with each other, there is that integrated whole that should be."

Alexey Ryzhkov

INEVITABLE IMPACT

Perhaps the only thing on which all stakeholders are unanimous is that the "transition to the side of good" for business and society as a whole is inevitable. "You’re somewhere in America, come to a decent party and say "I’m doing business." "What kind of social activity do you do?" – «None» – "Okay. Are you doing something interesting? Maybe you’re saving nature or doing something to make it different?" – "I do nothing." You will be invited to business meetings, but not to good society. It should be by itself. It was once fashionable, today it has become mandatory. At least this «fashion» should appear in our country, so that it is inconvenient to do nothing," Vladimir Smirnov says, founder of the Blagosfera Center for the Development of Social and Cultural Projects and Charity.

Alexey Ryzhkov is, also confident in the inevitability of a paradigm shift. "We are experiencing a civilizational crisis. And in order to emerge victorious from it, we need to review all our activities regarding impact, the impact we have on the world as a whole. We shall formulate these criteria of impact, to understand that we cannot address important issues using local approach. We cannot build our local well-being or our local happiness without solving common problems. I believe that in this logic and in the logic of ‘victory’ over the challenges and threats that we face, we must move to a new format of activity as a whole: business, government activities, all individual people, and all market players."

Prepared by Maria Krieger

Экспертные статьи / Expert Publications

Почему люди покупают социальное? Психология потребительского выбора

Наталья Гладких, Владимир Вайнер

Ответ на вопрос «Почему люди покупают социальное?» может показаться очевидным: желание помогать другому (по внутреннему стремлению или «социальной желательности» такой модели поведения) свойственно человеку по его природе. Мы могли бы ограничиться таким ответом, если бы нас интересовала только ситуация, когда человек совершает покупку не потому, что ему нужен данный товар (а часто, наоборот, и не нужен вовсе), а ради того, чтобы помочь конкретному детскому дому, ребенку, знакомому, благотворительному фонду и т. п.

Наталья Гладких,

кандидат психологических наук, ведущий эксперт Института социально-экономического проектирования НИУ ВШЭ

Владимир Вайнер,

директор «Фабрики позитивных изменений»

Некоторое время назад в социальных сетях активно распространялся текст с призывом покупать то, что продают бабушки у метро, – не потому, что эти товары отличаются качеством, а потому, что «отличаются» бабушки – фактом особой необходимости заработать какие-то даже самые небольшие деньги. «Кажется, нам всем нужна герань» – такими словами заканчивался этот текст. В этом случае мы вряд ли можем говорить о потребительском поведении, а скорее об акте благотворительности. Очевидно, модель покупки условной «герани», потому что ее продает бабушка, не может стать регулярной: герань как минимум придется куда-то потом девать. Подобная модель благотворительности – пожертвования в обмен на условный «товар» – была популярна еще в дореволюционной России. Благотворительные жетоны, популярные в то время акции «Белые цветы», «Купи красное яичко» и другие являются примерами такой (надо сказать – эффективной!) стратегии фандрайзинга. Популярны они и в наше время. Знаменитая «Смородиновая вечеринка» Фонда «Созидание», «Душевный базар» и множество других программ, акций и кампаний – примеры фандрайзинга, основанного на двойной выгоде – получаю и товар (и в большинстве случаев это не «герань», а все-таки действительно качественный, полезный и приятный продукт или услуга), и ощущение, что сделал что-то полезное.

Сложнее, когда «социальный» товар вступает в конкуренцию с товаром «обычным» на полке магазина, в ярмарочном ряду и других ситуациях совершения каждодневных покупок. Когда речь идет о регулярном потребительском поведении, ключевой категорией которого является потребительское решение, выбор в пользу определенной альтернативы. Этот выбор характеризуется целеполаганием, критериями, стратегиями и большим числом более сложных явлений.

Потребительское поведение является предметом исследования многих наук, но в целом можно выделить две большие группы. К первой относятся внепсихологические теории: экономические и математические модели, построение теорий игр и статистических решений, просчетов вин-вин-стратегий и т. п. Ко второй группе наук относятся психологические дисциплины, осуществляющие учет «искажающих» идеальные математические и статистические стратегии факторов человеческой психики. Эти факторы неизбежно проявляются в ежедневных человеческих решениях в реальной жизни. Зачастую мы выбираем не тот магазин, который ближе и дешевле, а тот, который дальше и дороже, – только потому, что в нем работает продавец, с которым мы сто лет знакомы и давно дружим. Так же сложно математически просчитать, например, выбор спутника жизни – вряд ли мы стали бы полагаться на сумму баллов по условным критериям. «Человек не настолько иррационален, чтобы действовать всегда рационально» – так описал формулу искажений решений человеческой психикой Грегор Саймон, один из авторов и основателей психологического подхода к изучению процессов выбора, обладатель Нобелевской премии – к слову сказать, по экономике. Интересно, что другой известный автор психологического подхода к анализу процессов выбора, Даниель Канеман, также является обладателем Нобелевской премии и также – по экономике. Получается, что даже в строгой и рациональной экономике есть место признанию иррациональности влияния психических процессов в ситуации выбора.

Работы Канемана, Саймона и многих других исследователей психологического подхода объединяет стремление разобраться как по факту, в реальности, осуществляется выбор. Важной категорией в данном подходе является понятие «эвристик». Это простые принципы, устоявшиеся алгоритмы, выраженные в форме суждений, которые люди используют для того, чтобы облегчить себе задачу принятия решения. Примерами эвристик могут быть, например, пословицы. «Семеро одного не ждут», «Нет дыма без огня» и прочие пословицы определяют по факту наше поведение в ряде ситуаций, помогают нам принимать решения: ждать или уйти, не дождавшись, верить или нет и т. п. Мы ориентируемся на них как на некоторый принцип совершения выбора модели поведения в ряде ситуаций.

Прежде чем перейти к анализу эвристик, которые определяют выбор социального товара, стоит для начала привести доказательства в пользу того суждения, которое заявлено в названии как доказанное: люди покупают социальное. А действительно ли покупают? Действительно ли товар, обладающий социальной ценностью, является «модальной альтернативой», то есть вариантом выбора, который обладает преимуществами по сравнению с другими?

Здесь и далее мы будем ссылаться на данные исследования, которое мы проводили по заказу Фонда региональных социальных программ «Наше будущее» несколько лет назад. Как видно из диаграмм 1 и 2, даже марку, которую респонденты предпочитают покупать «обычно» (а именно такая ситуация – привычной покупки – является наиболее сложной для изменения), готовы поменять на продукцию социальных предпринимателей. Даже рассматривая в качестве «поправочного коэффициента» социальную желательность данного ответа (хотя в нашем случае – анонимного онлайн-опроса – условия в минимальной степени способствовали его возникновению), мы получаем достаточно весомое соотношение. Отчасти фактором «внешней валидности», подтверждающим верность нашей гипотезы, является активное использование «социального» как стратегии продвижения «обычных» товаров. Социальный маркетинг на сегодняшний день представляет собой устоявшееся и активно развивающееся направление маркетинга, а на фестивалях рекламы уже сложно отличить рекламу коммерческую от социальной: гуманистические ценности становятся главенствующими и активно эксплуатируемыми как благотворительными фондами, так и крупными корпорациями (что, в общем, прекрасно, особенно в случае, когда эти кампании имеют большой не только коммерческий, но и социальный эффект).

Готовы ли вы поменять марку, которую покупаете обычно, на продукцию социальных предпринимателей (сделанную социально незащищенными группами населения) с аналогичными свойствами по качеству и т. п.?

Диаграмма 1. Готовность поменять привычную марку на продукцию социальных предпринимателей, %

Если вы узнаете, что товар или услуга произведены социально незащищенной группой населения (инвалиды, многодетные семьи и т. п.), как это повлияет на ваш выбор продукции?