Held in Oaxaca, Mexico, the event brought together more than 600 people with different visions and actions related to social and environmental impact
Fundo Vale took part in the third edition of Latimpacto, a conference focused on tackling social and climate challenges through innovative venture philanthropy solutions. This edition, whose slogan was “Impact Minds: Beyond Frontiers,” dealt with topics such as racial and gender inequalities, innovative impact finance, impact measurement and management, systemic change, the bioeconomy, climate change, art and culture, and the use of technologies for impact and education. The need to include vulnerable groups in economic and social opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean more than ever was highlighted in several speeches.
Held between September 9 and 12 in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, the event brought together more than 600 participants from around the world, including impact-minded capital providers from the private, public and philanthropic sectors, impact investors, catalyst organizations, institutes, foundations and civil society organizations that are implementing projects. The participants came from 36 countries, including the United States, Canada and countries in Europe and Asia.
As a member of Latimpacto’s board of directors, Fundo Vale took part in the meeting, which was attended by Doug Miller, considered the “father” of the venture philanthropy movement and the founder of Impact Europe, the first network of its type and Latimpacto’s sister organization. Miller was present throughout the conference and his achievements were publicly recognized on several occasions.
“The Latimpacto conference has established itself as an essential event for fostering collaboration, learning and connections between organizations, foundations and companies that are looking for a more strategic type of philanthropy, as part of North-South exchange,” said Márcia Soares, Fundo Vale’s Amazon and partnerships manager, who took part in the “Corporations and Innovation” panel discussion, sharing experiences gained from her organization’s work.
“I realized that the environmental agenda has definitively entered this ecosystem. When I started to track this situation, five years ago, that wasn’t the case. Green finance, climate change, the bioeconomy, environmental conservation and other themes were strongly present in the formal and informal spaces of this conference,” she added.
As well as hosting insightful discussions, the event served as a launchpad for several initiatives. Among them was the Green Catalytic Fund, a partnership between Latimpacto, Coca-Cola and Bayer aimed at helping businesses and companies in Latin America and the Caribbean combat carbon emissions in the region. An investment fund focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), developed in partnership with technology multinational Lenovo, was also launched.
Prior to the conference, the participants went on field trips to learn about social enterprises in and around Oaxaca, including businesses focused on sustainable agriculture, natural food and ceramics production, as well as indigenous weaving projects, an organic coffee factory and a sexual and reproductive health program for young indigenous and Afro-Mexican women, among other initiatives.
In just five years, Latimpacto has established itself as the leading forum for discussions about philanthropy and impact investing, constituting a powerful network in Latin America that already has more than 200 members. As a founding member of Latimpacto, Fundo Vale supports its Pan-Amazon Agenda and its actions in Brazil, focusing on mobilizing different sectors and types of funding, both local and international, to promote conservation and social and environmental sustainability in the region, while seeking to strengthen the climate agenda.
Social enterprise magazine Pioneers Post published an in-depth article about the meeting. Click here to read it and find out 10 lessons learned at the conference.