(2021 Issue No. 1)

A journey through Hong Kong’s social impact innovation

IDCC has come a long way since launching in July 2020,  and we are proud to announce, amongst many things, the launch of our newsletter which will give you regular updates on our journey to bring digital innovation to the Hong Kong impact ecosystem. 

In this first ever IDCC Newsletter, we are pleased to share with you some exciting achievements and major updates including:

• 1st ICB (2020 Aug-Jan) cohort completed!

• 2nd ICB cohort (2021 Feb - July) kickstarted!

• ICB wins Asia Pacific Social Innovation Partnership Award 2021

• Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) workshop series 

• IDCC launches Decentralized Development Finance Framework (DDFF) initiative and wins technology grant from Interchain Foundation (ICF)

• Upcoming events in Q2 & Q3

Keeping Up with ICB

First ICB Cohort Graduates!

Our first cohort of the ICB program ended on a high note in January 2021.  We thank our member organizations Dream Impact, Good Seed, and Social Enterprise Business Centre of Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS SEBC) for their engagement and contribution in a series of workshops, which collectively helped us grow the social impact sector in more effectively measuring and managing impact through digital automation.

To read more about how the first ICB program rolled out, click the following for more detail: 

Graduate certificates for our first cohort participants as they completed the ICB program. We thank our participants for their time joining the workshops, which created great learning opportunities for both sides. ICB is truly a collaborative effort!

Second Cohort of ICB Begins!

We kickstarted the second cohort ICB program in February 2021 with BEHub of The Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention (SRACP), The University of Hong Kong Center for Civil Society and Governance (HKU CCSG), and Gravity Capital Partners. Learning from the first cohort, we have improved and streamlined our workshop syllabus so that the ICB program can respond more precisely to our partners’ needs. We have also created an impact readiness assessment framework for our participants, and by using it, we may better understand their areas of strengths and weaknesses that can be leveraged and addressed through their journey of digital transformation. 

We treasure the opportunity to interact with our workshop participants face to face (first time since the pandemic started) where we could have discussions about setting ICB goals and mapping stakeholders (left) and some special bonding moments (bottom)   

ICB wins 2021 Asia Pacific Social Innovation Partnership Award!

We are proud to announce winning in the category of “Social Prosperity” from the Asia Pacific Social Innovation Partnership Award (APSIPA), where ICB was selected from a group of 77 other applicants from 13 countries across the Asia Pacific region. This award attests to our effort in building innovation with our partners advancing Hong Kong’s  social impact sector and its efforts to bring prosperity for all. Click below for more:

IDCC attends the award ceremony during the

Asia Pacific Social Innovation Summit on 11 April 2021

IMM 101 Workshops 

As the global market is more ready than ever to receive and support sustainable products, services, businesses, and brands, IDCC sees the need of the impact sector to integrate Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) practices into organizations’ core businesses and CSR strategies. We are therefore extending our reach to many other partners and organizations to talk about IMM strategies, digital toolkits, and impact frameworks so that they can maximize and capitalize on their impacts.

In these past two months, IDCC has already conducted 3 online workshops with participants of the Good Seed Program,  GCSE’s partner organizations, and the public in collaboration with more than 10 intermediary partners, including hitchbond (event promoter) and Impact Analytics (special panel guest).

IDCC will continue conducting more workshops in the near future.

Advertisement and announcement about the events will be posted on IDCC's social media 

Decentralized Development Finance Framework (DDFF)

Build Community-Driven Financial Inclusion for All!

This year, IDCC has kickstarted our financial inclusion initiative, the Decentralized Development Finance Framework (DDFF). The DDFF initiative aims to develop decentralized technologies that puts innovative financial inclusion tools into the hands of impoverished communities in Hong Kong, helping them to achieve self-determinism and economic resilience.  DDFF’s initiatives include developing decentralized solutions for:

• Time Banks 

• Community Currencies 

• Social Service Vouchers 

• Lending Library 

• Decentralized Fractional Reserve

IDCC works closely with partners and the communities they serve

Decentralized Time Banks

Under the DDFF framework, IDCC is now working on a pilot project supported by a technology grant from the Interchain Foundation (ICF). This initiative aims to decentralize the Hong Kong time bank economy and to establish a unified and digitized timebanking system integrated with blockchain technologies. By collaborating with Hong Kong’s Time Bank stakeholders and community leaders in Hong Kong, IDCC will build an open digital platform enables end-beneficiaries to safely and efficiently issue their own time-based currencies as well as trade their unique timebank tokens between more markets, enabling them to forge pathways towards prosperity and inclusion.

Upcoming events in Q2 & Q3

In the rest of the Q2 and the upcoming Q3, IDCC will conduct a wide range of activities to engage our consortium members and the public. Particularly, under the Decentralized Development Finance Framework (DDFF), IDCC is launching a Social Finance Series that includes a number of webinars, workshops, round table discussions etc.

The first upcoming event is a talk (5-6:30pm on 14 May) about Collaborative Economy featuring Tat Lam from Shanzhai City and Eric Ho from Architecture Commons. If you are interested in joining the event, you may register by clicking the follow link: https://www.hitchbond.com/event/214

This event marks the beginning of the DDFF series. IDCC will continue to launch various activities covering topics such as:

• community cooperative economy and urban development
• smart charity - cash allocation and universal basic income plan
• Alpha impact bond
• and many many more (stay tuned!)

In the coming months, IDCC will engage all its impact intermediaries and prepare for a Round Table Discussion in Q3 where we will talk about data governance and community building. Also, as IDCC and its first initiative ICB program soon will reach its first year milestone in Q3, we will organize a Board Meeting and Annual General Meeting (AGM) to review our progress and plan things forward. With so many exciting events going on, we will continue to keep you posted on our future events through our social media and upcoming issues of newsletter. Feel free to share our work with your friends and please welcome them to be a part of our impact ecosystem! 

A Big Thank You to our Partners!!

Last but not least, we are grateful to have continuous support from our dearest partners throughout this journey and would like to give a huge THANK YOU to all our intermediary partners, without which IDCC would never reach such success.