3rd International Annual Conference on Impact investments, Donations & Philanthropists for Peace and Sustainable Development - 12 December, 2018, United Nations

Official partners

(Other continental or worldwide networks, please contact us)

Minutes 2018 :

International Annual Conference on CrowdFunding, Smart Finance and Responsible Investment for Peace and Sustainable Development
In the frame of the 10th GENEVA FORUM at UN, December 10-14, 2018
United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

Investment VS Donation

What is Truly the Best for Development ?

Crowd Lending / Crowd Supporting / Crowd Investing / Smart Finance / Appropriate Technologies

Several public or associative organizations that are active in the domain of CrowdFunding, Smart Finance and Appropriate Technologies, federated or organized, at the national level. The main national actors, the federations, and the specific operators, organized presently at the international level, and are called to meet annually at the end of the civil year, at the International Annual Conference on the CrowdFunding, Smart Finance and Appropriate Technologies, at United Nations, in Geneva.

This annual space of sharing results and pooling of skills, allow to the actors of the domain to exchange practices, solutions, ideas, needs.

Your Annual Exchanges Resource

In the following of the national and continental meetings that are organized in each country and continent by the local federation, this International Annual Conference at United Nations allow the actors to implement in consultation, or to inform mutually, of progress and actions they lead during the year, or that they have in project.

The participants at this Conference are:

• Local and regional actors of different countries
• Thematic Actors by disciplines of finance and of crowdfunding
• Regional or national federations
• Thematic Federations, by disciplines of finance and of crowdfunding
• Large Institutions of Finance, Sustainable Development and Economy
• Government departments (Economy, Industry, Finance ...) and international associations of Ministries
• Specialized Journalists (finance, economy, science, environment, education, sustainable development ...)
• UN agencies (UNDP, UNEP ...)

Subjects that are in the agenda of this year are:

• Standards and references of exchange on Participatory Finance practices between national and international organizations
• National and international Charts of Participatory Finance, examples, projects, ongoing discussions of shares
• Financing Solutions of the actions of Development and New Appropriate Technologies
• Access of citizen actors to the Development of Projects beyond their simple financial contributions
• Administrative Status / legislative / recognition / etc of actors of Smart Finance projects
• The Citizen Participatory Finance, beyond the digital interface
   * Expected Features of web portals of Participatory Finance
• Services for Participatory Finance provided by FabLabs
• Dissemination and Exploitation of the results to the uninvolved Big Public
• Road map for the mutual opening of the data collected

Detailed Program

Exchanges between stakeholders of the meeting will happen in a round table between speakers and debates with the audience of the Assembly.

Organiser : NGO Objectif Sciences International, Geneva

Chairman :

Thomas EGLI, Founder of Objectif Sciences International, Head of the GENEVA FORUM

Content 2018

Official Opening Session - Wednesday 11 December 09:00, 2019

Session organised by the NGO Objectif Sciences International, in partnership with the Swiss CrowdFunding Association,

• Keynotes
• Remarks on current situation
• Remarks about concepts of the International Annual Conference

Whilst near-infinite sums of money are available to private for-profit companies, the amount of investment into the non-profit NGO (NP NGO) sector remains negligible.
Yet for many investors, quality investment opportunities remain difficult to find.
These facts suggest firstly, that there is a certain mismatch between the way NP NGOs are structured and what investors are seeking; secondly, that investment opportunities are limited due to the fact that it only seems possible to inject financial life into NP NGOs through donations.

The conference first considers existing forms of investment in an NP NGO, including:

• Donations, which can be viewed as a type of long-term investment.
• Sponsorships, as a means to positively affect brand image through association with a worthwhile project.
• Loans, whose repayment generates a revenue.
• CrowdLending, which allows many lenders to invest small sums which together can add up to a significant total amount.

The conference then moves swiftly on to the real question for investors:
Is it acceptable to invest money in an NP NGO, and if so, how is it technically feasible?

A key consideration is how to maintain the separation between:

• the owner-operators of the NP NGO (the members of its board of directors), and
• the investors who profit from the activities of the NP NGO, who can have absolutely no involvement in the operation or strategic direction of the NP NGO.

Following the introduction, participants divide into 2 groups to reflect on one of the following questions:

Can a new form of responsible investment emerge? One where a separation of powers is observed between project decision-makers, who have no financial control; and investors, who have no operational control. Can the role of money be perceived in a new way, as a form of ‘energy’ delivered to projects chosen for their worth ?
What new ways are there of positioning worthwhile projects forpeople who want to invest their money for the public good?

A report of this workshop will be published in the "Resources" section of the FORUM DE GENEVE website.