On October 13, 2025, CSP hosted an evening in Zurich to mark the publication of the fourth edition of our Investor's Guide series, the Investor’s Guide to Multicapital Strategies.
This guide reflects what CSP has learned through years of working with investors: that impact is a question of who you are and what you stand for, not only what you invest in. All types of capital matter: economic, social, cultural, and symbolic.
We hosted guide contributors Jessica and Andrea La Mesa who drew on their own experiences to bring the guide's framework to life. Several themes emerged from the conversation:
Values as a starting point. Purpose and personal values underpin any meaningful impact journey. The circumstances we are born into may not be of our choosing, but how we respond to them is.
Understanding where you can have the most effect. Every investor brings a different combination of time, expertise, and resources. Identifying where these can be most usefully directed is a worthwhile exercise.
The art of combining capitals. Social, symbolic, and cultural capital are frequently underestimated relative to financial capital, however, the most effective strategies work across all of them.
The importance of systems awareness. Lasting change requires an understanding of root causes and of how philanthropy, investment, community, and data relate to one another.
The evolution of an impact strategy. Our guests traced a path that many investors will recognise: beginning with investment, moving toward philanthropy, and gradually finding an approach that draws on both. Central to this is staying genuinely engaged with the work and reflecting where one's energy is best spent.
We were grateful to explore with the community what multicapital approaches look like in practice and hear from those who put its principles into action.
