Take this survey to put Philly on the social enterprise ecosystem map

International eyes have been on Philadelphia’s social entrepreneurship and impact investing communities for years.

And yet, in a 2017, we only placed 12th out of 21 cities in a national survey ranking social enterprise ecosystems, aka the Social Enterprise Ecosystem Report.

That’s up from, well, no ranking the previous year: Not enough local folks participated in 2016 for the city to be included in the list.

D.C.-based social enterprise incubator Halcyon, international investor network Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) and the Bush Foundation are doing it all again and inviting anyone working for a social enterprise or for an organization that supports social enterprises to record data about their local networks. That can include B Corp founders, investors, some nonprofit heads, board members and the like.

(The survey makers define social enterprise as “an organization employing commercial strategies to achieve social impact, measuring and reporting outcomes towards this goal.” Here’s our own primer.)

The purpose of the study, now in its third year, is to serve as a benchmarking framework for use by communities looking to foster solidarity and measure collective progress.

Rankings are arranged according to four “pillars” of a social impact ecosystem, with Philly’s 2017 scores and ranks for each:

• Funding — Availability of public, private and philanthropic dollars (41.37/18)
• Quality of life — Affordability, access to transportation and culture (54.02/9)
• Human capital — Academic institutions and talent pool (57.94/8)
• Regulation and receptivity — Policy and culture surrounding social enterprise (62.48/8)

“As with any new movement, the first challenge is to identify the ecosystem,” wrote ImpactPHL Program Manager Cory Donovan in an email. “Who’s out there? What are they doing? What have they learned and how can we learn from each other? etc.”

That’s why the impact investing advocacy org is encouraging folks in the know to participate.

“We’ve been doing that groundwork here on a local level with ImpactPHL and Halcyon is doing that nationally,” Donovan said. “We envision Philadelphia as a leader in the national and global impact economy, so participating in this survey helps Phildelphia’s impact economy ‘show up’ in the rankings and compare our ecosystem to those in other parts of the country.

“We’d like the rest of the world to know that Philadelphia has a strong impact sector that’s solving problems for itself and for the world,” he said.

Not convinced it’s worth your time? This year, there are some perks for survey takers, including a copy of the 2019 report, a chance to win an Amazon gift card and a chance to win a ticket to SOCAP’s 2019 conference — and that last one is worth $1,500. Onward.