A few weeks ago, I participated in Latimpacto´s second conference in Rio, titled, Impact Minds Standing Together. The essence of this network is rooted in strengthening human connection.

Latimpacto is a young network that grows from the legacy of its sister networks in Europe, Asia, and Africa. And yet, in less than four years, it has grown to +200 members within the region. 

A few years ago, ‘venture philanthropy’ and the ‘continuum of capital’ were unknown terms. Today, thanks to Latimpacto and its outstanding team, a new community of stakeholders, foundations, corporations, family offices, development agencies, funds, intermediaries, lawyers, and academics are gathering around these topics.

What was unique about the Latimpacto´s event is that it offered us the chance to join others navigating the same interests and challenges. We were able to share with openness and build trust, developing new bridges across the region and fomenting curiosity to learn new mechanisms, tools, and experiences to improve social and environmental investment in Latin America.

Today’s challenges require urgent and diverse responses. Latimpacto and its conference is a clear example of the rhythm and pace we should pursue, changing mindsets and behaviours with humanity at the centre, and informing them with rigorous open knowledge on successful and failed experiences.

Within the panels and conversations, flexibility, trust, and incentives were cross-cutting topics. It was an invitation to maximise the capacities and skills of distinct stakeholders in the system, across the continuum of capital. When we discuss flexible pool funds, catalytic capital and blended finance, the philanthropic sector is called to provide patient capital, help build evidence, develop, and promote monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks and support technical assistance. By understanding each role, as well as the gaps and the enabling conditions of the system, we can accelerate this process – de-risking and incentivising the entry of new capital to help us reach scale in response to the challenges we are facing.

With a focus on system-change, Latimpacto invited new actors to participate in the different sessions and events. We saw local and community leaders, who brought different perspectives on diversity and belonging to the conversations and challenged us to complement the enabling conditions for more inclusive and sustainable solutions.

From last year’s conference to this one, more projects, tools and funds have come to centre around issues of gender, climate, the silver economy, education, and others. Hence, there is still an opportunity to build learnings and communities of practice to better understand how each problem is being impacted by different innovative finance tools. From here, we can identify gaps and opportunities for articulation and scale that networks can generate by accompanying the efforts of different actors, ultimately promoting actions that lead us more quickly and powerfully to the desired impact in the region. 

Latimpacto´s Impact Minds: Standing Together is an event that reflects the dynamism and growth of the venture philanthropy ecosystem in Latin America. The transformation of mindsets, the integration of diverse actors, and the focus on systemic change are fundamental pillars of this movement. There is progress, and collective hope. The rhythm and heart beats will continue inspiring us and others to be part of the impact economy to address the challenges of our time.

Daniel Uribe Parra, Managing Director, Fundación Corona