Farahnaz Karim: Catalytic philanthropy, impact investing & the UN SDGs

In this episode we talk to Dr Farahnaz Karim, Founder & CEO of Insaan Group, about catalytic philanthropy, impact investing and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Including:

What does Insaan Group do, and how did the organisation come about?What does the current impact investing market landscape look like? Where is the money coming from, and where is it going?How do we ensure that the focus on social, as well as financial, returns is maintained in impact investing?Is it appropriate to use philanthropic grant money as "first loss" capital to lower the risk of impact investments and make them more appealing?Has the emergence of impact investing increased the overall volume of resources aimed at social good, or is there a danger it is "cannibalising" money that might otherwise have been  given as traditional donations?What is the role of government in relation to impact investing and philanthropy?Are social enterprise models a good way of developing trust in places where levels of trust in traditional philanthropy/NGOs are low?Can investment-type relationships be more empowering for those on the receiving end than gift-type relationships?Are the SDGs broadly focussed on the right things, or are there obvious gaps?Is the appeal of the SDGs partly pragmatic i.e. that even if they are not perfect, they represent a widely-understood and agreed framework for prioritisation and measurement?Is it a challenge for the SDGs that they are so huge in scale it can be difficult for individual organisations to relate them to their work? When it comes to impact measurement, do we need to balance quantitative data with qualitative data?Can technology play a role in making it easier to capture qualitative data? 

Related links:

Insaan GroupFarahnaz's recent piece for Alliance, "Rethinking governance in philanthropy: where is the forgotten stakeholder?"Farahnaz's article for CircleMENA, "Towards the next paradigm shift in philanthropy" Farahnaz's 2022 Alliance piece, "Village to global village: Making sense of impact, ESG, and other ‘good’ ideas"Farahnaz's 2021 Alliance piece, "The nature of capital and other threats to impact""Insaan – the Future of Philanthropy?" in Frank magazinePhilanthropisms podcast episodes with Sadaf Shallwani, Cassie Robinson and Aaron HorvathWPM short guide to measuring impact.