#numbers4good

[humansonpurpose]

How can we smash down walls between the haves and the have-nots? How can we make sure that the have-nots, and the people who don’t have much of a chance in life have that chance in life, and how can we use finance and business as a way of helping tackle poverty and tackle disadvantage and generate opportunity? And that for me has been a real motivator for why I do what I do.

There can be a lot of hype about the social investment space, but actually social investment means nothing if it doesn’t tackle disadvantage or generate opportunity. And that ultimately is why we do what we do. I think success for us obviously means creating financial deals that enable poverty to be tackled. We can often say that capitalism and the financial markets do not serve people well, therefore there’s an incumbency on us to say "how can we create deals that enable that?”.

Dominic, co-CEO and Founder of Numbers4Good

On Purpose placement host

[humansonpurpose]

I think at heart I’m a deal-maker, I love doing and setting up deals. But I’m really excited to do deals that are actually benefiting society. I’d rather do a £500,000 deal for a homeless charity which is going to be able to do some really great work with vulnerable people rather than do a £500 million deal for something that’s unsustainable and has no meaning. 

At the moment our system is set up in such a way that the people who make the most amount of money are people who are taking the most advantage of society and the environment. It’s very bizarre, I don’t get that. The finance piece is so much more integral to the rest of society than we think it is. If you work in finance in the City, you just see deals and you just see people managing money. But actually money flows through all the edges of society and if you do it in such a way, it has an impact, and you have a (positive or negative) impact, regardless of whether you think you’re just sitting in an office.

Bertrand, founder, Numbers 4 good

On Purpose placement host