Saturday, November 24, 2007

Buzzword 7 - Social stock exchanges


Some of this year's buzzwords are pure blather. (Here are links to the previous buzzwords for 2007)

Others describe ideas that I think are at the leading edge of change in philanthropy. This one - Number Seven - Social Stock Exchanges - is just such a buzzword. For more about this phenomenon - opportunities to invest in equities in social enterprises - here are some key resources:

Sample Social Stock Exchanges

Information on Social Stock Exchanges
Other perspectives on Social Stock Exchanges
There are several reasons I think these exchanges will stick around and cause some significant changes in how we think about social enterprise - most of which have to do with the relationships between markets and transparency and consistency. More thoughts on this are here and here.

Social Stock Exchange - number seven on the buzzword list, but definitely one that's more than just a phrase.

UPDATE ON Q4 Giving - Fact or Fiction - check out the comments on my question regarding Q4 Giving - and thanks to those who wrote in.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are setting up North America's first social stock exchange connected to a green social network, called the Green Stock Exchange (GREENSX) at: http://greensx.com, which will be launched in the Summer of 2008 to begin trading.

The Green Stock Exchange will trade shares in social businesses. A social business is a business that makes a profit, but benefits society as well. We have a triple bottom line (economic + social + environmental).

Since all the listed companies on the exchange are pre-screened, evaluated, and audited according to social and sustainable guidelines set by the exchange, it will make it much easier for green investors to find and support social businesses. The GREENSX provides opportunities for small green Issuers to access public equity capital efficiently, while providing early stage investors, angel investors, and venture capitalists with greater liquidity.

This also includes a eBAY.com trading system for carbon credits.

We have not made any press releases yet, so nobody knows about it yet. It is still in the beta stage testing. Check it out at: http://greensx.com.

Anonymous said...

From my point of view a Social Business is a diffrent thing, it's more what Yunus defines as a non-loss, non-dividend company like in here http://www.grameencreativelab.com/
Is there an alternative term to it?