Impact Transactions From a Practitioner's Perspective

• Date: 01 August 2018

48 ELR 10688 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 8-2018

COMMENT

Impact Transactions From a

Practitioner’s Perspective

by Ann E. Condon

Ann E. Condon is a Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute. Previously, she led

General Electric’s resource eciency, chemical stewardship, and internal sustainability programs.

In Impact Transaction: Lawyering for the Public Good

rough Collective Impact Agreements, Patience A.

Crowder proposes a theory of how written agreements

can be a vehicle to foster “collective impact” collaborations

to address social ills.1 Collective impact initiatives (CIIs)

bring together actors with diverse experiences a nd perspec-

tives to focus on an issue, with the potential to create new

skill sets and solutions to long-standing problems. Profes-

sor Crowder posits that the absence of an existing con-

tractual framework is one of the emerging barriers to the

eectiveness of CIIs, many of which are cu rrently based

on informal relationships and not enforceable agreements.

In particular, the author believes we need to develop prac-

tical contract drafting strategies to memorializ e collec-

tive impact strategies. is article is designed as the rst

in a series on collective impact. Future articles will review

specic contract law issues, recommend governance struc-

tures, and explore how collective impact can be sc aled as

a tool in the regional equity movement. One element that

is missing from this article is evidence that organiz ations

working on social projects will ga in tangible benets from

adopting a formal contract. Art iculating these benets,

perhaps through detailed case studies, should be a key ele-

ment of Professor Crowder’s future work.

I. CIIs and Social Change

Professor Crowder is correct that CIIs are a promising vehi-

cle for eecting social cha nge. My perspective is that of a

practitioner. For the last three years of my career as a law yer

at General Electric (GE), I acted as legal counsel to the GE

Foundation. Using my more than 30 years of experience

working on transactions, I supported the program manag-

ers as t hey developed unique collaborations a round science,

technolog y, engineeri ng, and math (ST EM) education and

healthcare, and in particular, developed regional programs

to address the opioid crisis. e opioid work stream rec-

1. Patience A. Crowder, Impact Transaction: Lawyering for the Public Good

rough Collective Impact Agreements, 49 I. L. R. 621, 622-23 (2016).

ognized the need to (1) build collaborations between gov-

ernmental agencies, such as the police a nd rst responders;

(2) involve local service providers, such as hospitals and

community health centers; (3) build on the expertise of

nongovernmental agencies, such as those providing men-

tal health and housing support to aected families, and

(4) nd ways to engage addicted individuals. One of the

signicant lessons learned ha s been the power of engaging

very diverse organizations working with the same popula-

tions on related issues. is enables much better utiliz ation

of the assets of each organi zation and minimizes duplica-

tive or competing work. ere is not—and likely will never

be—sucient resources to fund every need.

I am also a board member of the Institute for Sustain-

able Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization

that has been working with local communities on resil-

ience projects for many years.2 One of the main lessons

of resilience work with communities is that the poor are

the most adversely aected when a natura l disaster strikes.

On the plus side, organizations working on resilience have

learned that improving the ability of a loca l community

to plan for, respond to, and rebound from a natural disas-

ter can be done in ways that improve the ongoing lives of

members of those communities and their ability to man-

age more routine upsets to their nances or personal lives.

ISC has been working with multiple communities, acting

as the convenor and facilitator, to bring together social ser-

vice agencies, local communities, a nd environmental orga-

nizations to prioritize the needs and discuss what works

and how they can collaborate. Just the act of convening the

various organizations can have dramatic and often quick

benets. is work has given me some insight on what is

needed to foster a collaboration.

e initial formation phase of a new collaboration is

one of the most challenging. It requires two things: (1) a

funding source that is w illing to provide a safe space for

what some critics consider “mushy stu,” and (2) a will-

2. See Partnership for Resilient Communities, I.  S C-

, https://www.iscvt.org/program/partnership-resilient-communities/

(last visited Apr. 4, 2018).

Copyright © 2018 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.