The sold-out Investing in Impact conference in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, New Zealand, was a vibrant expression of the international network that Social Value Aotearoa has firmly found its voice within. It gathered together change makers, practitioners, leaders, learners, and explorers from Aotearoa and across the world. The conference itself became a vessel for driving bold ideas into action, courageous thinking, and weaving together the many different sectors all moving towards the same goal: a new social fabric with planet and people at the heart, grounded in the knowledge that true value is relational and doesn’t fit into a spreadsheet.
“To change the way the world accounts for value – that’s the big mission of Social Value International and the anchor for the next two days.”
Director of Social Value Aotearoa, and board member for Social Value International, Jo Nicholson, opened the conference with the questions we need to ask ourselves, setting the stage for the real talk required to progress these bold goals. “Are we actually progressing or just talking about it? Whose voices are still missing from this conversation?”
The conference brought together thought leaders from across the globe to tackle the big conversations on the table within the context of this time. Some of the impact measurement heavyweights taking the stage included Kevin Robbie of Think Impact, Nicola Nation of Ākina Foundation, Awerangi Tamihere, Chief Operating Officer of Whānau Ora, Jeremy Nicholls, Founder of Social Value International, and Anzac Tasker of Guardians, a design studio guided by a commitment to contribute to positive outcomes for our many worlds. These were only a few of the speakers in the jam-packed two-day schedule, where attendees were truly immersed in the world of Social Value.
Awerangi Tamihere spoke to the spirit of change and the journey to measuring what matters for whānau. “What does success really look like for us as a nation? Is it measured only in GDP? Or is it found in the wellbeing of whānau, the strength of communities? When a whānau finally secures safe housing, rangatahi connect with their language, kaumātua feel valued and supported — GDP cannot tell us these things.”
Tamihere offered inspiring, fresh perspectives to the room full of change makers, thought leaders, data analysts, and experts, pronouncing: “Evidence is taonga.” She expressed the importance of data being considered taonga — living, breathing, and valued — with reporting seen not merely as compliance but as storytelling. “These are not just dashboards; they are taonga because they carry the voices, the goals, and whakapapa of whānau. They hold the evidence of struggle. Whānau can trust the data because it is grounded in lived reality. When reporting back to communities, it is designed to be seen, spoken to, and engaged with so whānau, kaimahi, and partners can recognize their mana in the evidence.”
Brad Norman, Whānau Ora’s Chief Data Officer, complemented Tamihere’s keynote in the following panel, A Systems Approach to Social Value: “We’ve already got things that work in place. We need to be investing in what works — to stop investing in transactional, short-term, deficit-based models that haven’t worked and start investing in our future, our mokopuna.”
The conversation expanded into how impact investment can change society, asking the question: Why are our economic systems broken, and what are some more compelling versions?
Founder and CEO of Social Value International, Jeremy Nicholls, joined the conference all the way from Liverpool, where the Social Value movement was conceived more than three decades ago. Nicholls was clear on where the shift needs to come from: “Accounting is the problem here. The way we calculate profit makes costs imposed on other people become unaccounted for, with organisations chasing increased financial return — leaving a trail of harm in the backwash behind.”
Kevin Robbie took the focus into impact investing from an international perspective. Speaking from his experience with the Melbourne-based consulting agency Think Impact and his earlier journey in Scotland developing the Social Enterprise Strategy, he explained how social procurement, impact investing, and impact measurement build the role of investment to drive outcomes for social enterprises. “Impact investment strategies are not one size fits all,” Robbie said. “You need local data to attract that institutional capital.”
The leader of Ākina Foundation, Nicola Nation, echoed Nicholls’ sentiment and spoke to real-world examples where her work embedding social and environmental impacts meant they were focused on walking the talk. For Nation, purpose was at the core of Ākina, where a values-based decision-making approach created a safe container for action. “We need to have confidence in the decisions — staying connected to our purpose, being connected to our people, and recognizing the importance of organisations that have a close connection to the communities they serve.” On the future of Social Value and Impact Measurement, Nation added: “Collaboration and partnership will be key.”
Anzac Tasker of Guardian Design Studio offered an indigenous perspective on how working together for better outcomes and social change begins with the relationships and conversations you have along the way. “The kaupapa has its own spirit and it’s trying to come to the surface. Our job is to give the kaupapa texture and dialogue so that it can become its own identity and expression, presenting itself to the world. There is often a beauty within the texture of the dialogue that helps to bring that into fruition. It’s rare that good quality storytelling, design, and creativity come from a place of friction or different agendas.”
As we begin to step more confidently into these journeys as a nation and as organisations across many different sectors, Tamihere brought it back to the basics of working together as a whānau to build the fence just right: “What we build together only lasts if we keep it steady, true, and balanced. Impact is built on balance, evidence is held on taonga, and the glue that binds it together is trust.”