Societal Impact Financing Initiative
A particular focus lies on harnessing the catalytic potential of private capital for the common good. Starting from the DACH region, SciFi aims to advance giving, impact investing and mission-oriented public-private partnerships in Europe and beyond.
Tailored financing tools and cross-sector coalitions are needed to pilot and scale innovative approaches. SciFi brings together a variety of stakeholders for this purpose: impact entrepreneurs, wealth owners, foundations, and, where needed, business and politics. In particular, it aims at promoting the strategic and pooled use of resources: what is the specific role of private capital to advance transformations? What do optimal financing structures look like? How can endowments be managed in an impact-oriented way?
SciFi is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
The warming stripes banner shown at the top of our website was popularized by climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins of England's University of Reading. The banner visual representations of the change in temperature as measured in each country, region or city over the past 100+ years. Each stripe or bar represents the temperature in that country, region or city averaged over a year. The stripes typically start around the year 1900 and finish in 2023, but for many countries, regions and cities the stripes start in the 19th century or sometimes even the 18th century (Show your stripes, n.d)
Current
Expert Forum Adaptation and Mitigation Finance
This year, the third edition of this annual conference brings together policy makers, academics and investors, including development finance institutions and foundations with a particular emphasis on private investors.
It is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will cover both adaptation and mitigation finance.
The Expert Forum 2025 takes place the same week as Super Return Berlin, the largest gathering of venture capital and private equity investors in Europe.
For more information, contact olga.almqvist@esmt.org.
Past events
Cooperation events
- Sustainable Business Roundtable on "Reporting with Impact: Linking ESG Reporting and Managerial Decision Making" with the ESMT Institute for Sustainable Transformation on June 19th, 2024
- ESMT Open Lecture with Stefan B. Wintels, CEO of KfW, on the dual transformation of economy and society on February 8th, 2024
- Sustainable Business Roundtable on the new social responsibility of business in cooperation with the ESMT Institute for Sustainable Transformation on November 9th, 2023
- ESMT Open Lecture with Imme Scholz on the state of progress towards the United Nations SDGs on October 15th, 2023
- Student workshop on social standards in the supply chain for the event โS in ESGโ organized by Net Impact and Bosch on October 5th 2023
- Panel on impact investing at the ESMT Demo Day in cooperation with Vali Berlin on September 15th, 2023
SciFi flagship events
Expert Forum Adaptation and Mitigation Finance
September 9th, 2024
With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, our event brought together:
- Leading international climate finance scholars
- Policy stakeholders
- Investors
- Development finance institutions
- Foundations
Expert Forum Blended Finance for climate and energy investments
March 27th, 2023
Our expert forum brought together different stakeholders to reflect how to jointly mobilize more capital to tackle the climate crisis:
- European Banks and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs)
- Institutional investors and asset managers
- Large foundations and family offices interested in climate finance
Roundtable on endowment management (in German)
February 9th, 2022
With 3 panels: return on investment, ESG / sustainable finance and impact investing
Podcast
Podcast: Financing Impact
Financing Impact is a podcast about funding and scaling societal innovation. This podcast is brought to you by SciFi, the Societal Impact Financing Initiative at ESMT Berlin. See detailed episode overview & key takeaways.
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Episodes
See key takeways and links related to each episode:
- # 1 Dormant assets - with Stephen Muers and Antonis Schwarz
- # 2 Funding social businesses - with Aunnie Patton Power and Julia Winkler
- # 3 Power dynamics in funding - with Marta Zaccagini and Ben Wrobel
- # 4 Systems thinking for climate finance - with Dominic Hofstetter and Kirsten Dunlop
- # 5 Fostering social innovation - with Gorgi Krlev and Dominik Domnik
- # 6 Deep impact investing - with Charly Kleissner
- # 7 Impact investing in public markets - with Krisztina Tora and Eric Rice
- # 8 Impact investing in EdTech - with Marie-Christine Levet and John Soleanicov
- # 9 Institutional investors and net zero - with Brunno Maradei and Wiebke Merbeth
- # 10 Malengo - with Johannes Haushofer, Richard Nerland and Gladys Amule
- # 11 Impact Investing in Frontier Markets - with Patrick Nussbaumer and Winnie Odhiambo
- # 12 Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) - with Katia Halabi and Raji Jayamaran
Contact
Olga Almqvist
Contributions and Past Events
Contributions
- Vali Berlin ESMT Demo Day on September 15th
- Bosch and Net Impact on Stakeholder Management on October 5th
- Moderation of ESMT Open Lecture with Imme Scholz on October 18th
- Cooperation FUTURE Institute on the development of the module on sustainable finance for the new โDoing Business Sustainablyโ course
Past Events
Blended Finance for climate and energy investments on March 27th, 2023
Our expert forum brought together different stakeholders to reflect how to jointly mobilize more capital to tackle the climate crisis:
- European Banks and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs)
- Institutional investors and asset managers
- Large foundations and family offices interested in climate finance
Roundtable on endowment management on February 9th, 2022
Mit 3 Panels zu: Rendite in Zeiten des Nullzinses, ESG / nachhaltiges Investieren, Impact Investing