The Global Social Investment Exchange (GSIX) initiative, lead by GreaterGood South Africa and SASIX,emerged out of the experience, learnings and success of the SASIX initiative coupled by numerous requests for support around its replication in other developing countries and strengthened by extensive global research over the past decade.

The concept of a global social investment / stock exchange and a related / governing Federation of Social Investment / Stock Exchanges was elaborated during a meeting in early 2009 organised and hosted by GreaterGood South Africa Trust with the support of The Rockefeller Foundation and its Bellagio Conference Centre. A preparatory concept paper outlined a framework for a single global exchange that could more efficiently move capital, meet a set of high and comparable standards, demystify the opportunities to attract more investors and capital sources, and better connect developing world enterprises to markets and capital. It considered the need for the existence of a single standard or, if there were to be multiple social exchanges and multiple standards, consideration of the nature and role that a federation structure and inter-relationship, similar to that provided by the World Federation of Exchanges, could bring.

During the Bellagio meetings, it clear that there was a need for (i) a federation of exchanges to set standards and conduct needed advocacy ; and (ii) a global single entry portal representing existing social stock exchanges, supporting the development of new exchanges and facilitating deal flow between investors, issuers and issuer intermediaries in order to build a more dynamic, information rich but accountable social capital marketplace. Work is continuing on the development of both of these initiatives.

At the same time, Bellagio GSIX meeting participants identified several strategic issues that require further research or work to move forward in establishing a global federation of national/regional platforms. These included:

The variety of services and practices represented in the room is only a subset of the endeavors underway. Some attempt to comprehensively “map” the ecosystem of social capital markets, both within country and globally, is seen as a necessary first step. Such an ecosystem should include, at minimum, a listing of the known brokers, standard setters and accreditation structures, ratings agencies, investment banks, research houses, government regulators, self-regulating bodies, and social enterprises. Ideally, such a map would include the stages of development of these entities, the geographic scope of their work, and a sense of their service area on the spectrums of services, capital sources, and enterprises. (Spectrums I, II and III)

Language is a barrier to money moving in the field. A common taxonomy or set of terminology that would hold across national regulatory strictures and norms is needed. While no single group may succeed in developing and distributing such a taxonomy, those working together need to be sure they are clear on the definitions that they are using, as well as remaining aware of terms that may be gaining meaning among a broader audience and thus becoming accepted though remaining ambiguous.

This mapping exercise and wiki style interactive glossary of terms represent a first attempt to broadly begin to address both of these areas of future work. We would invite you to seriously engage with the site and contribute to the development of a greater global understanding of actors, players and applicable terminology.