Inside Korea’s Social Impact

  In a previous post, I explored how Korea’s traditional community practice of “gye” has evolved into modern forms of social finance.   👉Related article Korea’s Traditional Community Finance “Gye”: Its Expansion into Social Finance (Part 1)   From Traditional Gye to Social Finance in Korea (Part 2) On the 20th, the 2026 Global Forum on Value-Based Finance was held, where a declaration for promoting a value-based financial cooperative was presented. This reflects a growing effort to create a financial system that operates not only on profit, but on values.   In this post, I will share key discussions from the forum and examine why finance should be guided by social purpose.   Poster of the Global Forum on Value-Based Finance held on the 20th(Source: Social Innovation Entrepreneur Network) Why Do We Need a Value-Based Financial Cooperative?   To some extent, the question of “why” has already been addressed in previous posts. However, it i...

  In the previous article, I explored gye, one of Korea’s traditional community-based practices. In the past, when ordinary people had limited access to formal financial institutions, gye functioned as a form of financial community. In my view, this tradition has evolved into what we now call social finance.   👉Reread Part 1 Korea’s Traditional Community Finance “Gye”: Its Expansion into Social Finance (Part 1)   In this article, I will examine how Korea’s traditional gye culture has connected to modern social finance, and how this transition has taken place.   Funding is always essential for running a business. For small-scale social impact organizations, social finance helps enhance sustainability and expand the ecosystem.(Photo by Milly)  What is Social Finance? So, what exactly does “social finance” mean in the Korean context?   Social finance refers to financial activities that go beyond generating profit and instead aim to solve social ...