Through our Innovative Finance Initiative, we focus on building a robust, impact-driven investment market in Sub-Saharan Africa, where outcomes are deliberately designed, measured, and proven. Innovative finance is the toolkit that allows us to turn intention into action—mobilising capital to address society’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

We develop the talent, ideas, and tools that will shape the future of business and finance from a Global South perspective, within the Global South. By building spaces and structures for collaboration, we strengthen the impact investing ecosystem and accelerate capital towards meaningful change.

We are proud to have launched two of South Africa’s most pioneering impact investing structures: the Green Outcomes Fund and the Early Childhood Development Social Impact Bond Innovation Fund—both designed to unlock capital and deliver measurable impact at scale.

Our goals are to:

  • Cultivate the impact finance leaders and thinkers of tomorrow
  • Advance knowledge that pushes the boundaries of impact finance
  • Channel capital towards social and environmental outcomes by advocating for a more just financial system
  • Design, test, and launch innovative financial products that leave the world better than we found it
     
africa impact

Impact Investing South Africa

Bertha Centre has been the proud Secretariat for the National Taskforce for Impact Investing South Africa, providing operational support to its members since 2018.
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systemic impact

Systemic Impact Investing Training Course

Impact investing has grown tremendously over recent years but there has been growing concern about whether it has really generated the type of change needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
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africa impact summit

Africa Impact Summit 2023

The Africa Impact Summit was a collaboration between impact investing National Advisory Boards (NABs) across the continent who formed the Africa Impact Investing Group, as well as Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship and t
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green outcomes

Green Outcomes Fund

In January 2020, the Bertha Centre launched the Green Outcomes Fund (GOF) in collaboration with GreenCape and the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA). The GOF is a brainchild of the Bertha Centre and seeded through a design-
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investec

Investec Leadership Conference

Bertha Centre partnered with Investec ahead of their Leadership Conference, which took place in February 2023, in producing pre-learning material (podcasts, videos, learning briefs, and webinars) for their 400 leaders.
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student seed fund

Student Seed Fund

The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship and the SAB Foundation (SABF) partnered to offer the Student Seed Fund to social innovators and entrepreneurs as part of their joint missions to catalyse
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ecd

ECD Social Impact Bond Innovation Fund

The IBIF, a first for the global South, was set up to drive Early Childhood Development (ECD) targets in the Cape. It was the culmination of more than four years of research, design and advisory support delivered to the Western Cape
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