Engaging Governments Friday, May 10 2013 Panelists: Benedict Cheong (Moderator), Chief Executive Officer, Temasek Foundation Andrew

Muirhead, Chief Executive Officer, Inspiring Scotland Paul Carttar, Partner, Bridgespan Group Bruce Dewar, Chief Executive Officer, Lift Philanthropy Partners Kimberly Syman, Managing Partner, New Profit Governments engage in innovation for two primary reasons, said Bruce, the CEO of Lift Philanthropy Partners. The first is they dont like status quo and they want to do something different, and the second is when there is a crisis. Drawing from the example of driving social change off of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, we engaged government in policy advocacy and engaging the community through youth literacy programs and after school activities. As a venture philanthropy organisation, we invested in social innovation and solutions in communities. Governments are looking for new and better solutions. However, there must be measures and accountability in venture philanthropy. It's a challenge working with government, he said. Governments are inherently risk averse and about protecting themselves. One has to treat the government like an investor. Kimbery said New Profit, based in Boston, was an early venture philanthropy model in the US. To date, New Profit has made 38 investments - doing both non-profit and for-profit deals. New Profit aims to use any lever toward economic and social mobility, she said. In her view, venture philanthropy can play a role with government in three ways: 1. Effective use of resources toward community. Philanthropy can better understand community through deep due diligence that is free from political decisions. 2. Positioned to help organizations grow and strengthen impact. 3. Can be an outside partner advocating for government to drive social change. Andrew said Inspiring Scotland has invested more than 40 million since 2008. It is a grant funder with a venture philanthropy model. It uses a three sector approach and brings in partners early so that they are all on the same page. According to him, some essential elements of partnership are: Cross sector respect Keep it strategic De-politicize Invest in relationships Focus on added value (not cost) Evidenced leverage (money and time) Shared understanding of success measures / clear attribution Some benefits they have seen through partnerships include:

Builds scale/efficiency Policy impact Answer to prevention challenge Rational resourcing Liberates 'life changers' Leverage

Paul Carttar, who is the former head of the U.S. Social Innovation Fund, addressed how government can be an enabler and partner with social innovation organizations. It was not part of US historical trend that the government was engaged in providing social services. It wasn't until 20th century that this changed. Expectations have changed in terms of how government should respond. There is momentum building for government to be more accommodating about where innovation is coming from and how to support it in a respectful way. Circumstances are favorable for this with the Obama administration, Paul said, adding there is a sense of growing incentive on how government dollars are spent and greater emphasis on how the government should be involved. The US government is supporting many initiatives relevant to venture philanthropy and social investment. He hoped that will create momentum in the marketplace by increasing funds from the federal government to fund strong evidence-based models. There are many initiatives to improve the availability and use data. If you look at what we do and extrapolate forward, it is impossible to envision how this wouldn't happen without explicit partnerships with government. However, it is far more complicated to actually do so. Panelists said that governments in developing Asian countries are not sophisticated and hence it is important to work closely in alliance with them to find common MDG goals, work through various channels in terms of vertical hierarchy. China is now more open to civil society, so the trend is changing. Next year, there will be open registration for NGOs in China. When asked how one can work in situations where one has to spend most of the time building credibility and relationships, and how does one balance working with bureaucrats versus with politicians, panelists said it was important to have more than just one point of contact and to engage at all levels. It is also important to cultivate relationships across political parties and to work with as many stakeholders and their counterparts as possible. It is also imperative to be patient and good to involve multilaterals that the governments look up to. Takeaways: The key to our success as venture philanthropists is delivering on what can be proven to be better than status quo. It has got to be about performance. There is a need to develop strategy for government at a sector level, not at an organizational level. Work together and collaborate with the government. Be strategic in how to engage with government, look long-term, and put time and effort in to get great results.