Financial Innovation for Social Impact
This course is designed for students who aspire to become social innovators through their roles in private, public, or nonprofit organizations.
Solutions to social issues have long been considered the domain of nonprofit and public sectors, funded primarily by traditional philanthropy and government grants. Increasingly however, important social innovations are occurring in all three sectors, private, nonprofit, and government, and often in collaboration across sectors. Innovative products and services are being delivered to underserved communities through new organizational forms, often backed by innovations in financial models and practices. Our focus in this course is on these new methods of financing social innovation. Some of the topics we will cover include venture philanthropy, patient capital, social venture capital, social impact bonds, PRIs, microfinance, and social impact measurement. Because this course is open to students with varying backgrounds, we will also spend a few weeks on fundamental concepts of finance such as time value of money, net present value, valuation of stocks and bonds, capital budgeting, and nonprofit financial management.
Classes will involve a combination of lectures, discussions, and guest speakers. Students will be evaluated through quizzes, a midterm, and individual and team projects.
This class is cross-listed with SW. LBJ is the home department.