<Title of session> Parallel Breakouts on Human Capital: Human Capital Intermediaries

<Date and time of session> Wednesday 14

th
May 2014 1:45pm 2:45pm
Moderator: Patsian Low (National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre)
Panels: Sadeesh Raghavan (Investor, Board of Acumen Fund), Peter Yang (Empact), Tomomi
Shimizu (Kamonohashi Project), Namita Vikas (YES BANK)
Session reporter: Yumi Fujita

Summary of the content of the session:
There are different actors in the ecosystem of venture philanthropy; namely Social Organizations
who work with communities and beneficiaries; Capital Providers who provides Social Organizations
with financial, intellectual and human capital; and Intermediaries who ensure those capitals are
adequately and effectively allocated to Social Organizations. The focus of this session is the
relationship between these three actors and the role of intermediaries, as well as how the allocation
of capital can be done in the most adequate and effective way. The panels share their views from
the perspectives of each of the three actors Sadeesh from the individual capital providers
perspective, Namita from the corporate capital providers perspective, Tomomi from the social
organizations perspective, and Peter from the intermediarys perspective.

Sadeesh: As an investor, one of the key screening criteria when investing in social enterprises is
whether they have a right people to drive the business. However, it is not always the case that the
organization has the functional and/or technical capability to deal with things like legal, accounting
and administration matters, in which the need for intermediaries is quite significant. The challenges
in delivering such human capital effectively lie in both the provider and the recipient sides of the
capital. For example, there could be a cultural difference in between the two parties; there might be
a resistant to receive the capital in the management of the social enterprise; and there might be an
expectation gap between the two. The role of investors is to help navigate such processes of
matching the two.

Namita: When you look at the entire value chain of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), not
only external intermediaries, but also employees of corporation are strong social impactors
because they create multiplier effects. For corporations, the key is who and how they work with, as
well as how to measure the social impact, since they have obligations to report to their investors. In
YES Bank, the important thing for effective allocation of the human capital is to ensure the
employees work in the areas of their interests and that the service provided to the community
matches what is really needed on the ground.

Tomomi: As a non-profit organization operating in Japan, Kamonohashi Project has worked with
several intermediaries and corporate volunteers that are dispatched through them. One of the
successful examples was that an intermediary adequately identified the needs of our organization
and allocated volunteers with the right skill sets. This was made possible since the intermediary itself

understood the languages of both non-profit and business sectors. On the other hand, other
corporate volunteers, who were dispatched through another intermediary, could not perform very
well, as they were used to work in an established environment, and not in a non-structured
environment. For corporate volunteers, it seems to be better for their personal growth if they are
dispatched through the intermediaries. This is because they feel they can multiply the effect of their
contributions by interacting and collaborating with other professionals.

Peter: The role of Empact is a middleman bridging both capital providers and social organizations,
translating the languages between non-profits and corporates. We spend a lot of time on
understanding what the two parties are looking for and help them understand each other. Also, it is
important as an intermediary to know the real needs of social organizations in order to effectively
match the volunteers skill sets. This is done by translating from their problems to actionable items,
uncovering their blind spots. On the other hand, managing corporates expectations is also
significant, making sure that the objectives of the corporates and what social enterprises can gain
balance. Lastly, Empact makes sure that the volunteers gain something from their learning journeys.

Questions from the Audience:

- How long can intermediaries survive without subsidies until when the intermediary market
scales up, with both capital providers and social enterprises not wanting to pay for the
services?

- There is a potential competition going on between major firms, who provide social
organizations with pro bono work, and small consulting organizations, who try to do
intermediary work seeking for profits. Such pro bono-base work by major firms can
potentially crowd out the smaller firms, whereby the profitable market for intermediaries
cannot be adequately developed.

Sadeesh: Social enterprises should examine whether their organizations can be truly benefited from
the services provided and determine whether to pay and if so, who they should pay to. Subsidies can
be used for something that is not directly related to the core business of the social enterprises but
somehow affects your business, for example. If the social organization is a nonprofit model, things
get fuzzier, but the key is to what are the metrics

Namita: There is no perfect model on how to engage with intermediaries. One of the important
criteria for corporates and intermediaries to work together is how they can collaborate with each
other and what kind of chemistry the two parties have.


Tomomi: If the quality of the service provided by capital providers is high, then social organizations
feel convinced to pay for the intermediary service. Intermediaries have to create a value for both
corporates and social organizations; otherwise nobody will pay for their services.

Peter: From the corporates perspectives, the decision on whether or not to work with
intermediaries would depend on the corporates objectives. If they dont have the right resources to
meet their objectives, then they might want to work with credible intermediaries. It is indeed
challenging for intermediaries to sustain themselves, but along the way of intermediaries
development stages, the government assistance can also play a big role in initial funding, building a
track record, and paving the way to attract human capital, for instance.

Major conclusions of the session:
1) The role of intermediaries is to bridge the gaps between capital providers and social
organizations be it a language/mind-set gap, an expectation gap, a capability gap, and
many others.
2) In order to bridge such gaps, it is important for intermediaries to ensure the alignment of
the needs and expectations of both social enterprises and providers, by understanding what
each party really wants.
3) Quality of services provided by intermediaries is critical in order for the intermediaries
market to be sustained profitably. In other words, high value-added services by
intermediaries would make social organizations or capital providers (corporations) want to
pay for such intermediary services, which helps to develop the market.