Course Syllabus
| Investing for Impact and Change |  |
| Semester & Location: | Fall 2020- DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
Elective Course - 3 credits |
| Mandatory Travel Component: |
London (3 days and 2 nights between 18-22 November) |
| Major Disciplines: |
Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship |
| Faculty Members: |
Rune Riisbjerg Thomsen and Rasmus Dilling Hansen |
| Program Director: |
Susanne Goul Hovmand, sgh@dis.dk |
| Time & Place: |
Tuesday only from 14:50 – 17:45 |
Description of Course
This course is an introduction to the increasingly popular movement around impact investing and how money can be used to create positive change alongside a financial return. Financing the UN Sustainable Development Goals has been estimated as a $12 trillion business opportunity and we will explore how investments can positively impact important areas such as sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, conservation, as well as affordable and accessible basic services such as housing, healthcare, and education.
Through exploration of real-life case studies and an interactive approach to learning, you will gain valuable tools to that enable you to approach social and environmental challenges in a sustainable way. Guest lectures and site visits let you meet a wide range of inspiring impact investors, social entrepreneurs and political activists who work with making investing work for the greater good. The course includes a study trip to London where some of the leading actors within impact investing are situated.
Experiential learning is a key component of the course and students will be actively engaged learning in the following ways: 1) Developing their own investment deal by identifying a real-life solution that benefit society, measuring its impact and proposing a financial instrument that can enable and scale the solution. 2) role-playing games to understand interests from the various actors in the investment landscape, site visits and guest lectures from professionals within the field.
Learning Objectives
- To understand the purpose of the financial system and its influence on the economy, society and environment.
- To critically reflect on what sustainable development is and the different understandings that exists.
- To understand what impact investing means, its purpose and evaluate the potential for achieving both financial and social/environmental returns.
- To think creatively how impact investing can solve a particular social or environmental issue.
- Understand and distinguish between the various investment instruments and the actors within the field of responsible investments.
- To understand and critically reflect on measuring and monetizing impact and change.
Topics Covered in the Course:
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Socially responsible investing –The spectrum of finance from traditional investing to impact investing. How do the approaches differ and how impact investing is different from philanthropy and donations.
- Actors involved and their roles – who owns the money, who manage the investments, who is money invested in and how you can get involved.
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Impact first or finance first? – different approaches to impact and financial return. Examples and case studies of impact investing e.g. Green Bonds/Climate Bonds, Social Impact Bonds/Development Impact Bonds, Microlending.
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How to measure and monetize impact – Understanding strengths and weaknesses of different methods and approaches such as United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), Environmental, Social and Governmental factors (ESG), Certified B Corporations.
Faculty
Rune Thomsen
MSc International Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Analyst in PKA, one of the largest pension funds in Denmark and front runner of responsible and sustainable investments.
Rasmus Dilling-Hansen
MSc in Social Entrepreneurship and Management, Roskilde University. Project Manager in Den Sociale Kapitalfond, a Danish pioneer and market leader in social impact investments. Part of the team which is developing the first commercial fund for social impact investments in Denmark.
Readings
- Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth
- Finance, society and sustainability. How to make the financial system work for the economy, people and planet, Nick Silver
- The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism, Cathy Clark, Jed Emerson, Ben Thornley
- The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy, Mariana Mazzucato
Pre-requisites
There are no pre-requisites for this course. No prior knowledge of finance is needed.
Field Studies
Field studies form an integral part of the course to support our understanding of how investing for impact and change is done in practice. During the semester, we will meet several actors that are working with the topic on different levels. The aim is to understand the complexity of impact investing through different perspectives.
Tuesday, TBA: 14.50-17.45 Meeting the impact investor, "How to balance financial return and impact".
Tuesday, TBA: 14.50-17.45 Meeting the impact organisation "How to measure and report impact in practice"
Tuesday, TBA: 14.50-17.45 TBA
Approach to Teaching
The class will meet once a week during the semester. Assigned readings, company visits and student presentations will act as background for class discussion. This course relies heavily on reading in order to gain a deeper understanding of varying case studies we will discuss. Assigned texts must be read before class.
Organisations in and around Copenhagen will serve as case studies to illustrate the potential of investing for impact and change. Moreover, group work is essential following real life working scenarios.
Expectations of the Students
This course is not a traditional lecture class, but relies heavily on class discussion and group work, informed by an in-depth, critical reading of the assigned texts. The readings for each class have purposely been kept to reasonable amount and it is expected that all students have read, seen, or played the material prior to the lectures.
We expect you to fully engage in the lectures, participate actively in discussions, and be open minded about your fellow students' points of view. Your overall grade will be depending on an engaged, informed, and highly active participation in class discussion.
Evaluation
Learning journal
Each student is expected to keep an individual learning journal in which you reflect on the learnings of each lecture as well as the group assignments and field trips. The journal is required to be uploaded to your electronic portfolio by the end of the week.
Impact investment project
During the semester you will develop an impact investment project proposal. The project is developed in groups through four assignments which is described in brief below:
- Selecting an investigating an impact area/project, identification of stakeholders
- Choosing type of investment, defining expectations to financial and impact return, identification of potential investors
- Creating a framework for measuring and reporting impact and return
- Preparing and pitching the investment to board of investors (Dragons Den)
Grading will for these assignments will be based on the group delivery uploaded to the electronic portfolio as well as on your individual reflections from your learning journal.
Class participation
Participation will be evaluated by the extent to which students attend classes, actively engage in class discussions, contribute to workshops, and critically reflect on the assigned readings. You are expected to bring your reading notes as well as questions to class. The reading required is the one going beyond finding information, or identifying main ideas. It will ask you to dig deep to identify meaning, relationships between ideas, and to challenge yourself finding your own response to these ideas, and its impact to the world around. Such response involves analysis, synthesis and creativity. You are encouraged to bring your own experiences into the discussions.
Final Individual Oral Exam
The student is expected to make a presentation with reflections of the main learning objectives of the class.
Grading
Assignment Weight
Class participation 20%
Learning journal 40%
Group assignments 1-4 40%
Total 100%
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org
Course Summary:
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