Oxford Social Finance Programme | Saïd Business School

About the programme

Address the world’s most difficult issues: climate change, poverty, hunger and loss of livelihoods.

This programme blends finance and leadership skills to support solutions at scale and help you address the global challenges captured within the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). You will learn how to lever relationships, resources, catalytic philanthropy, concessionary capital, impact investing, development finance, and environmental, social, governance (ESG) traditional investments.

Funding for the SDGs currently falls short by trillions annually. To bridge the capital gap requires leaders who can collaborate across sectors with an entrepreneurial mindset and multiple tools in blended finance, policy, law, leadership, and negotiation.

Using real-time and real-life cases from around the world, you will learn timely and practical skills to navigate complex systems and build multi-sector partnerships that unite public, private and philanthropic capital with purpose.

You will:

Strengthen your leadership skills to build alliances within and beyond your organisation.
Navigate big finance and big technology to tap new resources.
Negotiate systems change in climate finance and nature-based solutions.
Use law and policy to advance your change capital agenda.
Learn with C-Suite faculty who have successfully used blended finance at scale.
Use tools including development impact bonds, social bonds and social success notes.

Introduction to the programme

Download video transcript

Benefits

To you

Access latest thinking from academic and industry thought leaders
Measure impact on communities you serve and success of partnerships
Blend sources of finance to realise ambitious local and large scale strategies
Understand tools eg programme and mission investments (PRIs and MRIs) and donor advised funds
Combine catalytic capital and grants from foundations, public private partnerships, development finance institutions (DFIs) with ESG and impact investments
Negotiation skills to build resilient and lasting partnerships
Subscription to ImpactAlpha
Lifetime membership of the Oxford Business Alumni Network

To your organisation

Create and develop a strategy for blending capital from different sources of social finance
Develop organisational infrastructure and culture to manage high-impact social projects
Access global leaders in the social and impact finance industry

Programme outline

Day one: Resetting finance to build back better

Examine the role of leadership and negotiation in building lasting partnerships
Introduction to experiential learning exercise.

Day two: Blended capital models

International examples from emerging economies
Ask the experts—social bonds, development impact bonds, social success notes

Day three: A global perspective: Social finance innovation

Examples of successful social impact and development bond implementations
Cross-sector collaboration
Ask the experts—ESG investments and B-Corp

Day four: Private capital, ESG and sustainable investing

ESG as a source of sustainable and blended finance
Traditional finance firms bringing ethical finance from the margin to the mainstream
Ask the experts - Family offices through a global perspective

Day five: Redefining capital for the future

A vision for the next five years - global thought leadership
Experiential learning - report back on fund design exercise.

Post-programme

Lifetime membership of the Oxford Business Alumni Network.

Class profile

10+ years of professional experience
5+ years of leadership experience working in impact with sustainable development goals
Decision makers allocating capital
Advisors to investment and finance stakeholders

What our alumni are saying

A blend of unique practice, fundamental knowledge and new innovative and professional approaches. The programme will provide you with a strong base but also with perspectives which previously you have not seen.

Maria Bulygina

Project Manager

Meet the faculty

Gayle Peterson has over 25 years of experience advising social investors and has assessed projects totalling over $16 billion in assets. She is the author of Navigating Big Finance and Big Technology for Global Change. The Impact of Social Finance on the World’s Poor.

We also have a variety of guest speakers on the programme.