For purpose-driven organisations and entrepreneurs, the hardest challenge can sometimes be having the right tools available to make the impact you know you’re capable of. That might mean having access to funding or investment, finding the right business support, or even identifying what needs to happen to fully integrate your values into your organisation.

We spoke to Tatiana Glad, Executive Director at Impact Hub Network to find out more about her career supporting impact makers. We also learned about the changes she’s seen in the ethical business space over the years and how verification can help purpose-driven organisations reflect on what they need to do next.

Tatiana Glad

Can you tell us a bit about your career so far and how you first got into the social innovation space?

It’s hard not to imagine being in it, really. When I was growing up in Canada, my parents were immigrant entrepreneurs and a lot of what they focused on was creating value within our society and community. That introduced me to the idea of business as a tool for development, for creating a better life and society and for contributing to your own neighbourhood.

When I was studying business, it was during a big movement for globalisation and also a lot of anti-globalisation and anti-corporate protests. So I had the question of whether I went down the route of being a protester against the system or finding ways to change the system using business as a tool.

I did work in banking for a time and that was mostly because I had a big question I needed to answer. I wanted to know how the money system worked, because the system didn’t seem to fund social change agents at all and a lot of people in the social change movement shun the economic side of it. But I didn’t want to be in a situation where I didn’t understand the economics.

Can you explain your work with Impact Hub and what the organisation does?

Impact Hub is a network of entrepreneurial communities around the world. We’re in 120 locations in 68 countries and we support impact entrepreneurs who are trying to make the world a better place. That support includes our peer-to-peer community, entrepreneurial support programs and convening diverse stakeholders to collaborate on big issues and make impact stick. Read more in our latest impact report.

I co-founded the Impact Hub in Amsterdam and ran that for 14 years. All of our Impact Hubs are bottom up, founded by local entrepreneurs in collaboration with their local community, and they’re independent entities within the global network.

We’re very proud of the diversity Impact Hub represents, because impact makers are everywhere, in all neighbourhoods. We’re often in contexts where English isn’t the first language, where the distances we’re working with are larger or, in fragile contexts. So we’re really proud to have these impact makers rooted in and working with their local communities and environments.

How did you first learn about the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF)?

I knew about SEWF more or less from the start, because it started around the same time as we were founding the Impact Hub in Amsterdam. As we were getting started, I was hearing things about this event happening in Edinburgh, which was the first SEWF event [in 2008].

We then started to hear more about it through our network, because the Impact Hub in Inverness was already closely connected with the founders of SEWF. Then finally I had the chance to attend SEWF23 in Amsterdam last year. That was where I met some of the team for the first time and also where I heard the first conversations around the People and Planet First verification.

Why is verification important for purpose-driven organisations?

There’s plenty that you could say about verification and how it provides credibility for organisations, better access to markets and financing, supporting impact measurement and so on. But what I think is most important is actually the process that goes on behind the verification – or the tool that it provides for people and organisations to self-reflect.

When people go through this process, they’re forced to reflect on what it means to be purpose-driven. They’re asking what they have to put in place, what dilemmas they have to resolve and what risks they might have to face in order to take that stand. That reflection process is potentially more important than the stamp, because it’s what leads to behavioural change in the organisation.

Credit: Impact Hub Network

What changes have you seen within the ethical business space over your career?

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is the shift from philanthropy to purpose-driven models. I really came into this space through the Corporate Social Responsibility movement and the talk about a triple bottom line [people, planet, profit].

Back then, there was a sense of naming the disconnect between core business and doing good. But now purpose is more integral to business strategy and you see this at all levels.

The other change I’m excited about is the rise of ethical consumerism. That was there in the 1970s, but information then was limited. Ethical consumers were on the sidelines but now the idea of being conscious with where you spend is becoming mainstream. It hasn’t transformed the whole marketplace yet but people are increasingly able to make more choices – and as they do, they’re demanding more transparency.

We’re also seeing it play into employee engagement. When I worked for a large corporate I was doing good stuff internally, but I was told “this is what you do on the side”. Now banks are being forced to integrate their values with their products and any employee can have purpose as part of their role without needing to be in a titled position higher up in the business.

What do you hope that we will see in the future, what do you believe we need?

For the last few years we’ve been moving from isolated, small-scale efforts to a more integrated, robust system. There are more interconnections around ethics, sustainability and how we do business. I’d like to believe that a new system can grow out of this and all of the experiments going on.

On top of that, we’re actually realising some of the things we wanted to see 15 years ago – networks, job opportunities, education, events. That’s great, but what we now need to demonstrate is that the emerging system works. We need to be able to move money, to show up in the economy in different forms. We need to see purpose-driven entrepreneurs gaining traction in the marketplace and having more opportunities to make a living.

People and Planet First is a verification and a global collective that is accelerating the transition to an economy that puts people and the planet first. A collaborative approach with network partners across the globe is taken to verify enterprises in over 130 countries. Learn more on how to get People and Planet First verified and join the global #PeopleAndPlanetFirstWeek campaign on social media, where verified enterprises worldwide are being spotlighted.