Executive Summary for The Blended Value Map: Tracking the Intersects and Opportunities of Economic, Social, and Environmental Value Creation
by Jed Emerson, Senior Fellow and Sheila Bonini, Research Fellow
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

What is Blended Value? Value is what gets created when investors invest and organizations act to pursue their mission. Traditionally, we have thought of value as being either economic (and created by for-profit companies) or social (and created by nonprofit or nongovernmental organizations). What the Blended Value Proposition states is that all organizations, whether for-profit or not, create value that consists of economic, social and environmental value components—and that investors (whether market-rate, charitable, or some mix of the two) simultaneously generate all three forms of value through providing capital to organizations. The outcome of all this activity is value creation and that value is itself nondivisible and, therefore, a blend of these three elements. While all value naturally consists of a blend, certain investors and organizations are intentionally attempting to create and maximize the impact of this value. The key areas in which both investors and organizations are working to maximize this blended value are: Corporate Social Responsibility Social Enterprise Social Investing Strategic/Effective Philanthropy Sustainable Development The Blended Value Map presents an overview of each of these “silos” of activity and within each area outlines key Actors Web Resources Books, Articles, and Papers The Map presents a discussion of what key challenges and issues people within each silo are working to address. In addition, the Map presents a number of cross-cutting issues that actors in each silo are working with in common.  These issues include Capital Questions Performance Metrics Leadership and Organizational Development Public Policy, Tax, and Regulatory Questions The Map also presents ideas about how we could work to organize an international effort to better connect the efforts of those in each of the silos in order to make sure that insights developed in one silo have the best opportunity to influence and inform the work taking place in another silo.