This blog is written by Jesse Simmons, managing director of client experience and impact investments at CapShift, and cross-posted from Alliance Magazine.
This year’s Innovations in International Philanthropy Symposium carried a sobering yet galvanizing energy. Across sessions and conversations, the backdrop was clear: our world is hurting. War, famine, climate shocks, and the erosion of civic institutions are not just abstract headlines — they are lived realities for billions.
And yet, sessions were filled with donors and practitioners who came together to confront these challenges. The determination to act — to protect the most vulnerable and to advance solutions at scale — was palpable.
From awareness to action
Urgency drove conversations beyond awareness-raising. Attendees came asking, ‘What now? How do we put capital to work in the near term?’
In our session with Lauren Sercu of Sorenson Advisory, “Applying a Blended Finance Approach to Livelihoods,’ we explored the role of impact investing in addressing the challenges our world is facing.
Shifting power with blended finance
At its heart, blended finance is about combining different types of funding — for example, charitable dollars with investment capital — to achieve greater impact than either could alone. When designed thoughtfully, this approach can help shift power toward communities that too often bear the greatest risks but see the least rewards.
This matters because while philanthropy is essential, it cannot carry the load on its own. By complementing charitable giving with other forms of capital — investments, recoverable grants, guarantees, or other creative structures — donors and investors can collaborate to extend opportunities to people and communities that are often overlooked.
A framework for moving forward
To make this concrete, we shared a framework that participants could adapt to their own work. In CapShift’s role as an impact investing partner to many different types of investors, we’ve become well versed on the barriers to impact capital deployment. The below framework is designed to help asset holders capture the initial spark of impact intention and drive towards long-term success:
- Find (or be) the champion – Efforts move when someone insists they must.
- Identify stakeholders and incentives – Bring in the many different partners that a successful catalytic capital strategy will rely on
- Build a strategy – Set goals, clarify decision-making, and engage experts already doing the work.
- Deploy, review and iterate – Move money, learn, and adjust as you go.
- Celebrate wins – Impact is hard to measure – moving from intention to action is worth celebrating.
What encouraged me most was how our panel resonated with the wider solutions-first energy of the symposium. People were not looking for abstract debates, but for practical steps they could take now. This kind of thinking helps move conversations out of aspiration and into implementation.
Why it matters now
The urgency of today’s crises demands more than incrementalism. But the optimism at the Symposium came from seeing that solutions are on the table and funders are ready to use them.
If you are already giving charitably, blended finance offers a way to amplify that impact. Ask yourself: Are there ways I can do more with my capital? Could I complement my giving with investments or other tools that strengthen communities over the long term?
No single approach is right for everyone, but every asset holder can explore how their full range of resources — not just what is given away, but also what is invested — might serve the causes they care about most.
The task ahead is to keep elevating solutions, sharing tools that help people act, and showing one another that progress is possible, even in daunting times.
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Jesse Simmons is the Managing Director, Client Experience and Impact Investments, at CapShift.
