Involve the people of Europe in shaping their future and give them power to help shape it. Let the people act in real life political and economic decision making. Give European households redeemable ECB vouchers for impact investing. To make deposits for and / or invest in positive social and or environmental impact. Give the people impact vouchers.

1. Power to the People,
with Impact Investment Portfolio's
Summary
Involve the people of Europe in shaping their future give them the power to help shape it. Let the people
act in real life political and economic decision making. Give European households redeemable ECB
vouchers for impact investing. To make deposits for and / or invest in positive social and or environmental
impact. Give the people impact vouchers.
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.1

2. Introduction
The McKinsey Global Institute published 'A Window of Opportunity for Europe' report in 2015 and
subsequently launched an Essay Competion in 2016 inviting scholars to present their views for the future
of Europe1
. In this thoughtpiece I present the case for impact investment portfolio's for European
households as an adaptation of the suggested helicoptermoney, but with instructions to save or invest for
impact. Returns of course can be spend as the investors please.
The purpose of this proposal is to both kickstart the European Union economy through a massive
investment injection, but also direct money to economic activities not only creating turnover,
work & income, but also social & environmental positive impact.
By offering the people of Europe the means to act in real life political and economic decision making, their
attitude towards politics will change. Both in learning about the challenges, but also searching for
opportunities to realize their ambitions for more security, economic prosperity, good healthcare &
education and a healthy environment to work and live in.
'Democracy is not a spectator sport' President Obama, the first Afro-American US president
at the Democratic Convention which nominated the first female candidate for the US presidency.
'Everybody complains about politics and the state of affairs. They know exactly whats
wrong, but nobody has plans or offers alternatives'. Dutch born German Parliamentarian
Kees de Vries, Radio 1, 29th
July 2016.
IMPACT VOUCHERS
Households impact investment portfolio's will not just drive saving or consumption, as helicopter
money could, they will also drive positive social and or environmental impact.
The savings and investments generate extra income, interest or dividends, and that will stimulate
consumption or more savings. Preferable extra in the peoples social & environmental investments &
investees, thus creating a steady flow of capital to social and environmental investing.
1 McKinsey Global Institute 'A window of Opportunity for Europe', Ex Sum, Exhibit 4, page 9, (June 2015)
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.2

3. Impact Vouchers could be given out every quarter and the savings & investments would be in kept
portfolio's paying out interest or dividend automatically or reinvest. Investments will have return related
risk and households can loose their investment capital and thus the extra income.
TANGIBLE & TRANSPARENT
To make the power of the households saving & investing tangible offer local, regional, national,
European, Global and thematic savings & investments. So people know in who & what they are
investing. Local and Regional as the European adaptation of the USAs successful Community
Development Financing created by the Community Development Act revitalizing local economies and for
underserved communities. National as in sovereign bonds, but it would be more appealing if households
could invest in government areas they find most relevant such as health care, education, security &
safety. Popular bonds would get lower interests through higher demand which leaves room for higher
salaries, training, research, development and innovation etc. European investing as e.g. in European
Investment Bank bonds, aiming at green and sustainable development (which fortunately are already
offered to retail investors). Global investing as in the efforts of EU countries to support social & economic
development globally.
Thematic savings & investments refer to financial strategies and investment products for themes such
as climate change & water management, diversity & equality, sustainability & fair trade, the circular
economy, resource scarcity etc. Not so different from the drivers for growth the McKinsey Global Institute
defines: Investing for the Future, Mobilizing the workforce and Boosting markets and productivity2
.
A focus on lending or investing in social & sustainable small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
will appeal to household as the most powerful local employment driver, which is nr1 on the publics
agenda. Be it short or long term, for providers or their (future) children and grandchildren.
2 Idem: Mobilising the workforce (Grey and female labour-force participation, Pro-growth immigration & Enhanced labour-
market flexibilty); Boosting markets and produc-tivity (Public-sector productivity, Competitive and integrated markets in
services and digital, Further openness to trade); and Investing for the Future (Supporting urban development, Nurturing
ecosystem for innovation, Effective education to employment, Productive infrastructure investment, Reduced energy burden,
Reigniting investment and job creation)
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.3

4. Thanks to the power and reach of the Internet even SMEs are easy to find and support by going there and
buying goods and services or through on line sales. SMEs can also benefit from access to all kinds of
cooperation and knowledge sharing. The world wide quality of the Internet makes international and
diaspora consuming, lending or investing possible. From household to household and creating a new flow
of capital next to remittances of migrant workers. Because the world is bigger than Europe and we should
share it's resources.... With all is inhabitants, human, animal and plant life.
SME investment support
The impact voucher system could thrive with support for SMEs infrastructures. To organize themselves in
cooperatives for funding and innovation purposes resembling the guilds, the social-economic structures
created during the industrialization era, cooperatives and modern fin tech innovative forms to organize
themselves. Locally and in sectors, but also with their supply chains: connecting producers to consumers
through direct mutual interest.
An intermediary layer of service providers offering investment funds would accelerate capital flows
towards social enterprises. Like the intermediaries in which the Uks Big Society Capital invests3
. Just as
intermediaries supporting SME social enterprises to become investor ready, scale up and constantly
innovate their activities.
Corporations sustainability agenda
(large) Corporations pursuing ESG (Environment Social and Governance) goals are obviously eligible for
investment with impact vouchers. But especially corporations that pursue the UN's new Sustainable
Development Goals. As Redefined Capitalism valuing corporations on their ability to solve societal
demand and challenges. And democracies define, guide and facilitate the transition to new core activities.4
3 https://www.bigsocietycapital.com/what-we-do
4 Nick Beinocker & Nick Hanauer Capitalism Redefined in http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/31/capitalism-redefined/
(Winter 2014)
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.4

5. FINANCIAL RETURNS & SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT?
I am talking about savings and investment vouchers for inclusive impact investing. A term coined by
super sustainable 'internationally leading' Dutch Triodos Bank, whose chairman Peter Blom was the EU
representative in the G7 Social Investment Taskforce. The bank manages a mere 12billion Euro in the
Netherlands, but it's not the only Dutch supersustainable bank, we have ASN Bank and Anthos Bank that
even has a fiscal charity status managing leading impact investment funds. The three of them hardly
dominate the Dutch banking sector, but they seriously influence thinking, practice and innovation.
Rabobank is our Green bank financing agriculture, food security, and promoting Green Bonds, ABNAMRO
bank promotes sustainable property, invests in Social Impact Bonds and recently launched a retail SME
fund with the Dutch Development Bank FMO. Actiam was the the first to launch impact investment funds,
also an SME fund for developing countries with FMO and ING, once forerunner in microfinance, is stepping
up its impact investing activities. Together the largest Dutch pensionfunds and insurers, all institutional
investors, hold 24billion Euro in self reported impact investments around the world. Which makes The
Netherlands, the 20th
economy of the world, world champion :)
Investment Power to the People!
So far impact investing has been an exclusive affair. High Net Worth Individuals, charitable foundations,
institutional investors , private bankers, asset managers and financial advisors got on to see if they could
do with impact investing what micro finance and financial inclusion are doing for the banking of the poor.
And they worked hard: developing a track record, an impact metric system to be sided with the financial
returns, investment and knowledge sharing networks, investment fund (returns) databases, tailored
education, sector specific knowledge, seed & start up funds, priming the pump etc.
The financial infrastructure already exists
According to Cathy Clark at CASE, a third of financials is now offering impact investing as a service. That is
beyond the traditional 20% tipping point, but they are offering it 'exclusively'. They are creaming markets
which hinders (exponential) growth tremendously and is a major barrier to achieving the Monitor Institute
optimistic predictions for 2020 in their report for the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN.org)5
.
5 The Monitor Institute Investing for social & environmental impact http://monitorinstitute.com/downloads/what-we-
think/impact-investing/Impact Investing (pdf)
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.5

6. But if you look beyond the data of the's GIIN's annuals survey, you will see the markets for investing with
impact are doing great and growth is abundant.
The global Green Bonds market is expanding rapidly since private markets discovered it's publicly listed
favored funding and now amounts to 700billion US$. It aims at 100billion US$ issuance this year.
The first Green, Climate Bond dates back to 2007, when you realise that it took microfinance 40 years to
reach 80+billion US assets under Management globally, of which a third is international investments, this
is very promising.
Uridashi, Japanese Impact Bonds for development in South Aast Asia and Africa, and Reconstruction after
the Tsunami, have been around since 1994 but started to grow rapidly since the Millennium. At the end of
2015 the Uridashi Bond Market was over 33billion US$.
Over 5billion US$ has been raised by the International Finance Facility for Immunization for Vaccine
Bonds which fund vaccine programmes in the poorest countries. And are said to have halved child
mortality the last 20 years.
The UK government has been nurturing social investment since 2000 and the Bostons Consulting
Group's guestimate for social investment in the UK in 2016 is already surpassed by 50%6
as it reached
1,5billion UK£. Fortunately the UK introduced it at G7 level in 2012, initiating a Social Investment
Taskforce which is now lobbying at OECD level.
Social Impact Bonds, a 2009 British invention are going viral, counting about a 100 operational / being
structured and they are broadening their scope to Development Bonds. The operational market just
surpassed the 200 million US$ mark7
. A guestimate for the next 2 to 3 years is doubling those numbers as
Japan just announced a 200million US$ budget for Social Impact Bonds.
6 Big Society Capital Social Investment Across the World (March 2016)
https://www.bigsocietycapital.com/sites/default/files/attachments/Social%20Investment%20Insights%20-%20Retail%20social
%20investment%20across%20the%20world_0.pdf
7 http://www.socialfinance.org.uk/social-finance-launches-social-impact-bond-white-paper-and-global-impact-bond-database/
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.6

7. Another British innovation 'Charity bonds' raised 87million UK£ since inception in 2003 of which 50milion
was raised in 2015. The EU will dearly miss the UK's leadership in social investment....
(Financial) People like transparent, certified & verified financial products & instruments. But especially with
clear environmental or social goals & impact. For now inclusive impact investing opportunities, for house-
holds, remain scarce with the exception of a few first movers. We see flirtations of traditional finance with
online crowdfundingplatforms as part of layered financing strategies. The foundations are there, it is time
to accelerate the impact investing market by opening it up to the people. With impact vouchers for
households. It will add another layer to the social investment pie ….
Copy, Paste & Roll Out
We can wait, let impact investing, climate & social investing and financial innovation take it's course. Await
the OECDs further research on Social Impact Investment Evidence8
. Await track record building efforts and
the creaming of the market process. We can thus repeat the decades long evolution of responsible
(exclusion), social and sustainable investing (ESG risk integration) to ESG opportunity and impact
investing. Or we can speed up the process building on existing frameworks, tools and expertise.
Eligible Impact Investment
Impact vouchers could be used for investment products labeled as having social & environmental impact.
Such as the French Finansol labeling system which it is trying to introduce the label in Belgium, but
finds that hard as 'the institutional system and finance regulations are different everywhere. Uniform
introduction in Europe would slash that barrier and would stimulate savings and investment products
developers, big and small, to qualify for labels and offer SMEs and social entrepreneurs easier and
cheap(er) access to capital. That requires a low threshold for Small & Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs)
based on core activities, employment, and sustainable operations9
.
8 OECD Social Impact Investment Building the Evidence Base (2015) http://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/social-impact-
investment.pdf
9 Such as in Spain's SME Impact Bonds issued by ICO https://www.ico.es/web/ico_en/press-release/-/blogs/ico-launches-
first-issue-of-social-bonds-in-spain-for-1-billion-euros
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.7

8. Evolving from ESG to SDG
An impact label would stimulate large (listed) corporations to move beyond ESG goals, green bond
financing or for instance Unilever's 2014 Sustainability bond to finance is Vision 2020 strategy for a
Sustainable Living Plan.
Corporations could aim for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the new key
performance indicators to reach for10
. Impact vouchers would create a new market and demand for
such investment products.
There are many more examples of existing financial products I could champion to build on and learn from.
But to quote Caroline van Leenders (the Dutch government appointed manager for the transition of the
Dutch financial sector towards sustainable finance) it boils down to one catalyst, the age old agadium:
'where there is a will there is a way'.
THE POLITICS OF IMPACT INVESTING
If you think that in the political arena economic growth and social & environmental impact can't team up
on the highest political level ... The Netherlands has a coalition cabinet of Liberals pursuing economic
recovery & growth and Socialists pursuing social & environmental impact for 4 years now. They are
restructuring, reforming and achieving results.
Yes it hurt, yes we have to many people out of work, and worry especially about youth unemployment and
the 50+employees laid off since the financial crisis. Our health and care systems are going through a
painful transition process and our investments in climate change are embarrassingly near Europe's micro
states Luxembourg and Malta.....
10 Sonen Capital, a San Fransisco based impact investments asset manager developed a model for impact evaluation integrated
with the UN's SDGoals. As an other follow up of their impact measurement portfolio model presented at WEF Davos in 2014.
http://www.sonencapital.com/thought-leadership-posts/2015-annual-impact-report/
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.8

9. But the Netherlands is getting in better shape economically and more future proof facing aging, population
decline and resource scarcity. But also closer to the desires of our Millennials for happier, healthier &
sustainable living.
Our youths, some of the globes best educated, cosmopolitan and globally aware citizens, in majority want
investments to go beyond financial returns. To take into account social and environmental impact. If we
can do that we can also invest for positive social & environmental impact and move beyond primarily
avoiding ESG risk as financial markets are doing faster and faster.... Impact vouchers would speed up the
market for ESG opportunity and impact investing.
POPULAR SUPPORT?
And the people? Are they supportive? Are they ready for it? Well they embrace crowdfunding and other fin
tech innovations to finance renewable energy to slow down climate change and make social and cultural
investments for cohesion, health and wellbeing.
The 2015 Dutch crowdfunding market saw 20% societal & cultural investments. And another 11% for
renewable energy11
. If only a third of all traditional investments went to societal & environmental goals!
Crowdfunding for impact is not a mere national affair: one of the fastest growing Dutch platforms lends
money, from as little as 100euro and up, to SME entrepreneurs creating employment in developing
countries12
. Because people do care and do believe they can make a change. We all can, step by step and
if we all do it, it will be a huge step for mankind.
Dutch people saving for their retirement budget through pension funds keep voicing their preferance for
sustainable and responsible investing. Their asset managers, institutional investors, are trying to adhere.
But still with marginal percentages for responsible and impact investments, slowly expanding their ESG
risk universe or a shake down of poor ESG performers13
.
11 Retrospective research for Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland by Douw&Koren
12 Www.Lendahand.com works with local MFIs in the Philippines, Ghana, Colombia and Mongolia.
13 See annual (sustainable) investment reports of APB https://www.abp.nl/english/about-us.aspx PGGM
https://www.pggm.nl/english/what-we-do/Pages/Responsible-investment.aspx PFZW https://www.pfzw.nl/over-
ons/Paginas/paginas-homepage/We-zetten-ons-vermogen-in-voor-een-leefbare-wereld.aspx etc.
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.9

10. Giving households impact vouchers and stimulating the impact investment market can encourage
institutional investors further to utilize their knowledge and experience with responsible and sustainable
investing and speed up their present actions and ambitions.
IT'S THE MARKET(ING) STUPID!
Let governments invest in governance, security and basic needs. And let the people invest for the people,
for the future of their children, their kin, their neighbors and their fellowmen. The people choose
governments they put their trust in, surely they can also choose economic activities they want to support
directly through impact vouchers.
Impact vouchers give democracy double popular support: not only a vote for political parties,
politicians and their goals and agenda's, but also for societies investment agenda, it's priorities and actual
choices.
About the author: Drs Alcanne Jeichien Houtzaager MA holds degrees in Political Contemporary History (University
of Utrecht/Groningen) and Politics of Alternative Development Strategies (Erasmus International Institute of Social
Studies, The Hague) She worked in charity marketing & fundraising for 20 years (health foundations & faithbased
international aid, development & missionairy work). Moved impact investing in 2011 with a focus on inclusive impact
investing, as a next step development strategy effectively combining philantropy, politics & investing to tackle local
and global challenges. https://nl.linkedin.com/in/alcannehoutzaager
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, inclusive impact investing. Pag.10