The Social Stock Exchange (SSE) is an up-and-coming initiative of the Central Government, and is regulated by SEBI. The SSE is meant to help non-profit organisations raise funding as well as enable funders to support initiatives in a regulated environment.
Hemant Gupta heads the SSE at the Bombay Stock Exchange. We will be hosting him on 12th July for an #AMA session on the SSE, between 11am-1pm. He will be talking about what’s the value proposition for funders/philanthropists/HNIs to fund initiatives via the SSE, how and why funding can be channelled, demystify the instruments and mechanisms available for this, etc.
Do share your questions here.
We will record the session and share after.
Just like there are auditors for pvt companies, the SSE has proposed a social auditor (SA) mechanism for NPOs/their projects. Am unsure but from what I understand, only CAs are eligible for the SA certification.
One of the orgs within our network (CGEM - Centre for Grower-centric Eco-value Mechanisms) is doing kick ass work in making sure how non-profits across the country who already have many natural farming, agro-forestry etc. programs going on can access carbon market money to scale up their efforts.
I’ve started a thread here documenting their work. I think we should definitely invite them over for the conversation with Hemant Gupta.
BTW, was speaking with Gayatri Nair Lobo/ATCEF. They’ve done a deep consultation and created an FAQ they’ll share. Highlight from the discussion : apparently orgs have just 3-5 days to do the raise after they list!
So if I am understanding, a lot of funraising needs to happen before it lists and then formal transfers can be made post the listing if the time window is so small. Is that a right way to think about it?
I would like to invite Kaushik Raju of the Atria group. He runs the Atria University and the Atria Foundation as well as many of their business interests. I have been collaborating with him on a few ideas over the years. One of which is something I think we should be more involved with called ‘Interspecies Money’ . This is a market-based solution to address climate and biodiversity loss. I will create a sperate grove thread on this. Do let me know how to share the invite if this makes sense.
How can funders and non-profits make the most of the SSE?
How should funders evaluate the different instruments - ZCZP, DIB, etc - available to them to back initiatives on SSE.
What are the reporting mechanisms available to funders for listings that they’ve backed?
Can non-profits list individual projects on SSE to raise funds? What due diligence do these projects go through before they are listed?
Do blended models go on the SSE? Say, I want to do 1L as ZCZP and 1L as a for-return investment towards this? So a certain amount of restoration effort that carbon markets won’t directly account for can also happen?
What is the role that Social Auditors will play for the listings on the SSE? And who can be certified as a Social Auditor?
How do DIB’s get listed on the SSE?
Do we have a concept of AGM from these organizations? How do we build better reporting standards?
Who can be considered a Risk Funder under the DIB model? Are there pre-req to be a risk funder?
Thanks for this Marisha. One question from our side (based on a reading of this factsheet):
Whether an org is eligible depends on whether at least 67% of its funds and activities are directed towards the “target population”, which is defined as
underserved or less privileged population segments or regions recording lower performance in the development priorities of central or state governments.
What about work that doesn’t have a clearly defined target population (of humans)? For example, ecological restoration, research to understand impacts of climate change; even in some cases environmental communications, production of educational material. Would organisations that focus on work like this be ineligible?
For us, eligibility is the most basic question, and it’s only once we understand this properly that we’d delve into the other details
Will investing the SSE companies account for fulfilling the obligations of CSR investments by companies?
Else how will these investments be accounted for? Do sustainability accounting frameworks like SASB have a role to play in the accounting for these investments?
I will re-ask when we are doing the next meeting on camera.