Kelsey Holmes | November 1, 2022
Tell us, why was GIIN also a must for MAKMENDE to attend?
Over the past years our team worked with fund and asset managers in the impact world to help make their impact numbers feel more tangible. Our aim is to showcase what money can do on the ground. Our clients that have a track record of impact investment, like Symbiotics and Incofin, were present at GIIN. Incofin showcased its cases with video stories shown on a big screen. In giving a face to their work, current and new investors gain a deeper and more tangible understanding of their investment and the impact it has on the ground.
Why does storytelling matter in the world of impact investment?
Impact investment is a growing sector but still niche. There is an understandable fear of greenwashing and half-truths so genuine storytelling is critical here. To add credibility and due diligence to your work and at the same time inspire your stakeholders, it’s essential to provide storytelling that combines real fact-based accounts with compelling and inspiring human stories. Having a presence at GIIN was a great opportunity due to our model and expertise: our stories provide a human face, a real and tangible insight – and are always verified and evidence-based.
Why are real stories crucial for impact investors?
The stories that are based on real accounts and testimonies of ‘real people’ can help investors not just explain ‘what’ and ‘how’ they work but also inspire new investors to jump on board. This fact-based storytelling also builds on credibility and helps the sector to learn from one another as we can only avoid greenwashing and window dressing with more transparency and more authentic storytelling.
What exactly does impact mean in the investment space?
There’s no one clear-cut definition of impact – in the investment ecosystem or elsewhere. Storytelling is a great tool to show the interconnected nature and compounded impact of investment, bringing awareness to the great work happening on the ground, facilitated through investment. It’s also about bringing evidence to risk-averse investors, and accelerating growth with better, more concrete, more credible, first-hand stories.
What about particularly strong storytelling cases that you think took the work of some investors and organizations seeking funding to the next level?
In this space, there’s a tendency to lean into a flyover way of talking. We need investors and funds to get more concrete – and more in-depth. It needs to be about connecting the dots between funding and what’s happening on the ground in a way that’s compelling. Storytelling is a great tool to activate here. It can help investors on future projects by translating their vision and mission into something more concrete. It can also help with projections and forecasting in telling the story in a way that attracts more investors. Here is Incofin’s storytelling, a great example with stories ‘from the ground’. On GIIN’s big stage, the audience could listen to great storytellers such as John Elkington and polar explorer Will Steger. They simultaneously alarm, inspire and activate the sector ‘not to waste any more time’.
Sign up for our free lunch workshop here
Think you know a lot about the SDGs you’re trying to achieve? You do, but we know how to communicate your work. Join us for new insights, fresh perspectives and storytelling techniques within the areas you know best. During this lunch workshop we share how remote storytelling can be a part of communicating your impact.
Bring in a piece of content (or plans for), which tries to communicate your work, but doesn’t quite work/you think could be improved. We’ll analyse your case and see how the MAKMENDE approach and remote storytelling could mix things up. To sign up simply send an email to flore@makmendemedia.com saying you want to participate and we will save you a seat! You’ll come away bursting with new ideas of how to approach things differently going forward.