If Social Financing ventures focus primarily on projects with successful track records, could this present a barrier to new programs/ideas before they have an opportunity to demonstrate results? If so, this could discourage innovation and deter investors from solving certain social problems.
Although Social Financing appears to be a stable trend with growing interest from the business community, what would happen if this interest suddenly shifted or went away all together? Governments and non-profits engaging in Social Financing will want to develop contingency plans to confront this possibility.
Could organizations offer overly risky or crooked Social Impact Bonds to the public? If a corrupt organization does this on a large scale or this practice receives substantial media coverage, it could severely damage the Social Financing sector. To prevent this, stakeholders will want to ensure sufficient regulation and other checks and balances are put in place.
In countries with stable governments, investors will be relatively assured that any Social Financing agreement they enter into will a government entity will be relatively secure. However, in many of the places where people could get the most benefit from social programs, stable governments and regimes don’t exist. What can be done to ensure that people in the most impoverished areas of the globe benefit from Social Financing?
How will the Social Financing community police phony Social Entrepreneurs and Social Purpose Businesses that are over exaggerating their efforts for marketing purposes? Although, there will always be people who take advantage of popular movements, the transparency gained by modern communication technologies may help with this potential problem. Furthermore, if these businesses and entrepreneurs are not harming legitimate Social Financing operations, maybe they don’t need policing.
In addition to providing individuals with real time access to events happening all around the world, modern technologies also offer a wide array of entertainment and ways for people to lose themselves. What happens if future generations focus more on escapism and less on interacting with the global community?
