Invest with Values

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

Lok Capital returns $65 million to investors and raises $80 million more

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Inclusive Economics The venture capital fund is expanding into healthcare, agriculture, and housing Vishal Mehta, Co-founder Lok Capital Gurgaon-based Lok invests in financial institutions serving low-income Indians, and is expanding into healthcare, agriculture, and housing. Lok has exited four companies in the past 12 months, enabling the firm to return $65 million in principal from its second fund, […]

Global Ethical Finance Forum to highlight the massive potential Sustainable Capitalism harbours

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 -Under the patronage of the Scottish Government, the 2nd edition of GEFF will spearhead an insightful panel session that focuses on the vast opportunities that come with embracing a long-term sustainable approach instead of an obsession with short-term profits. Edinburgh, Scotland – 29 June 2017: Middle East Global Advisors, a leading financial intelligence platform spearheading […]

Introduction to MFIs Part III: Microfinance Intermediaries

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This blog is the third in a series we are doing on microfinance. Before you read this, I suggest you check out Part I: Introduction to Microfinance Institutions and Part II: Introduction to Microfinance Networks. Here in Part III, the last of this series, I talk about microfinance intermediaries through which capital from investors is channeled […]

What’s New In Impact Investing? June Roundup

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Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into […]

Demand for impact investments generates a growing supply — of ‘intermediaries’

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Smarter Money All 37 providers surveyed by Toniic expect their business to grow this year Impact wealth managers, impact investment advisors and managers, investment consultants, management consultants, financial advisors, family offices — an army of service providers is responding to growing client demand for impact investing advice (see, “Smoothing the flow of impact investing with lane markers and […]

SOIL – Slow Opportunities for Investing Locally

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by Woody Tasch, founder, Slow Money  I often refer to Slow Money as “the CSA of investing.” As with community-supported agriculture, our efforts revolve around informal, direct relationships and shared risk. Slow Money funding is flowing in a variety of ways in dozens of communities across the United States (and a few in Canada and France) — peer-to-peer […]

Are You Still In? Are You Signed on Yet? C’Mon – the Country Needs You!

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by Hank Boerner, Chairman & Chief Strategist, G&A Institute Question of the Day:  Are YOU Still In?  Have you signed on?  “In” — that is, for the long haul on addressing the many challenges of climate change and related global warming issues.  And “signed on” — to the We Are Still In Movement (please see wearestillin.com for information). […]

A Guide to Sustainable Farmland Investing

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Healing People and the Planet by David Miller, co-founder and CEO, Iroquois Valley Farms We at Iroquois Valley Farms are pleased to announce a new corporate entity as we begin our 11th season of operations. In 2007 when we started the company, our idea was simple –growing healthy foods on organic soils would be good […]

Rising Green Bond Market Supports Eco-Friendly Projects

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(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Green bonds are debt instruments designed to finance environment-friendly projects. With most of the world now more strongly aligned on tackling climate change, governments and institutions are increasingly recognizing the potential of the green bond market as a significant transformational force to achieve carbon-reduction goals. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the […]

Investing with the Principles of Slow Money: Q&A with Claude Arpels

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by Logan Yonavjak Slow Money was founded on a core set of principles that differ from the way most investors make decisions. These principles emphasize patient capital and investing in local community – whereas the mainstream typically highlights quarterly earnings and profit maximization. This series of three blogs seeks to better explain why some investors – […]

OpenInvest points its robo-advisors toward refugee inclusion

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Smarter Money The investment screening theme is the tenth one to be added to the impact investing robo-advisor’s platform Photo credit: Starbucks OpenInvest has added a #WithRefugees investment screen to its impact investing platform. OpenInvest allows investors to back publicly-listed companies that have forward-thinking policies towards refugees, including Starbucks, which has committed to hiring 10,000 […]

Merging Profit and Purpose key focus at Global Ethical Finance Forum

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 -Under the patronage of the Scottish Government, the 2nd edition of GEFF will spearhead a series of discussions in Edinburgh this September focusing on mainstreaming ethical finance. Edinburgh, Scotland – 08 June 2017: Middle East Global Advisors, a leading financial intelligence platform spearheading the agenda of sustainable and inclusive finance, will convene the second edition […]

TriLinc Joins Forces with SOCAP in Good Capital Project Launch

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TriLinc Joins Forces with SOCAP in Good Capital Project Launch On June 19th New York City, the epicenter for capitalism, provided the setting for the launch of the Good Capital Project (GCP), a two-year impact investment initiative spearheaded by Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) to increase the flow of capital into purpose-driven investments. Over the past […]

Social investment in Asia: philanthropy’s new venture

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‘How many people here don’t have their smartphone within easy reach?’ asked Ong Peng Tsin, Chair of Solve Education in the opening plenary of this year’s Asia Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) conference in Bangkok, 7-9 June 2017. Only one hand out of 700 went up. Mine. Most of my fellow delegates inferred from this – […]

Meet LOCUS Impact Investing – New Invest With Values’ Sponsor

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Great work by our newest sponsor – Locus Impact Investing LOCUS Impact Investing Launched In May To Empower Foundations To Do More To Build Prosperous, Vibrant Communities New consulting, financial advisory and services organization offers comprehensive solutions to help foundations unlock new sources of capital, generating more impact in local economies ICHMOND, Va.,  — Leading […]

TBLI turns 20

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20th Anniversary TBLI CONFERENCE. As we approach the 20th anniversary of TBLI I want to take a moment to look back on the journey that brought us here today and I want to thank you all for coming along with us. TBLI(Triple Bottom Line Investing) CONFERENCE started as a capacity building effort to change the […]

Grand challenges for impact investing

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Smarter Money SOCAPs Good Capital Project seeks to streamline an unruly field Detail from Jonny Goldstein’s visualization of the Good Capital Project discussion With so many frameworks and schemas, the fragmentation of impact investing continues to frustrate. The latest to try their hand at coordination is today’s convening in New York of the Good Capital Project, […]

Resolved! The USA Will Move Forward Despite the Administration’s Cancellation of the Cop 21 -the Paris Accord

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“Resolute!” – The root of the word comes down to us from the ancient Latin, meaning (over many centuries) to decide on and stay with a course of action.  We’re seeing that these days in the “resolve” of the US corporate community, in the resolute actions of many cities and municipalities, in the actions of […]

“In the future all investing will be impact”

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Highlights from The Economist’s London impact investing event The Economist magazine put on its second impact investment gathering in a London still reeling from this week’s Grenfell Tower fire and recent terrorist attacks. Takeaways from the event: “Increasingly ‘impact’ is a measure of externalities embedded. So in the future all investing will be impact,” said […]

$30,000 and a platform: How Jeff Bezos and Amazon can revive small businesses and farmers

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Inclusive Economics Keeping the pitchforks at bay Over the last 24 hours, Jeff Bezos has made news for two big things. And they’re related. Yesterday, the Amazon founder, not a publicly known philanthropist, took to Twitter to say: “I’m thinking I want much of my philanthropic activity to be helping people in the here and now — short term — at […]

How to Initiate a Local Foodshed Resilience Program

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A Call to Action   by Theo Ferguson; founder, Healing Living Systems and Stuart Valentine; founder, Centerpoint Investment Strategies Imagine you are seated on a patio in the Tuscan countryside. The fresh mozzarella coupled with sweet tomatoes, ripe from the warm sun, pairs beautifully with the garlic sourdough bread and crisp local wine. The setting […]

Economically Targeted Investments by U.S. Pension Funds

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U.S.-based public and private pension funds have been making Economically Targeted Investments (ETIs)—investments that generate societal benefits in addition to the investment return—since the 1960s. Over this time, pension funds have sought risk-adjusted returns for their plan’s participants and beneficiaries through investments in worker-friendly affordable housing, in-state businesses, infrastructure, and other projects. The practice of […]

Employee ownership can pay dividends for investors, too

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Inclusive Economics Employee owners are less likely to be laid off and are 92% wealthier Arizona Stingley, New Era Windows Cooperative l Photo credit: The Working World Employee-owned firms reduce the disconnect between workers and owners, but they still need significant investment to scale. Investment opportunities in employee ownership are limited but emerging, says a new report […]

Three Days in Vermont

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Greetings RSF Community! Earlier this spring, Kate and I spent an eventful few days in Vermont, and I wanted to recap some of the highlights of our short, but geographically-intensive trip. Starting in Burlington, we zipped up and down the state by car, stopping to visit some of our borrowers, partners, and a slew of […]

100th Brief, green Apple bond, Goldman’s NextEra climate move

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The Brief Jun. 13, 2017 Port-au-Prince, Haiti Greetings, ImpactAlpha readers! #Featured: The Brief №100 Blow out the candles. Today’s 100th issue of The Brief is itself a #Signal. When we launched ImpactAlpha, skeptics doubted deal activity in the impact investment marketplace would be robust enough to warrant daily coverage. You put that to rest. Since January alone, […]

Your Guide to Fossil Fuel Free Investing – Webinar Now Available

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Trillium Asset Management, Green Century, and 350.org’s June 1, 2017 webinar, “Make a Clean Break: Your Guide to Fossil Fuel Free Investing” is now available for download. Speakers: Leslie Samuelrich, President – Green Century Capital Management Matthew Patsky, CFA, CEO – Trillium Asset Management Brett Fleishman, Senior Global Analyst – 350.org Vanessa Green, Campaign Director […]

Big Society Capital takes majority stake of Charity Bank

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The U.K.-based financial institution invested £2.5 million ($3.2 million) on top of the £12 million it earlier put into Charity Bank, a lender dedicated to charities and social enterprises. That brings Big Society’s ownership share up to 60.5 percent. Charity Bank offers loans of £50,000 to £2.5 million. It has lent £140 million since 2002 and […]

Connect Fund launches to build impact investing infrastructure

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Smarter Money The fund wants to improve due diligence, offer blended finance, and lower transaction costs Photo credit: Mike Wilson The Connect Fund has launched to build out impact investing infrastructure. The £1.8 million ($2.3 million) fund, a partnership between Barrow Cadbury Trust and the Access foundation, will invest in collaborative initiatives to improve due diligence, […]

National Geographic Society Commits $50 Million of Endowment to Impact Investments

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Creation of new impact investment program, managed by CA Capital Management, will accelerate the organization’s funding of research, exploration and education, inspiring solutions for the global good WASHINGTON, Jun. 08 /CSRwire/ – The National Geographic Society today announced it is dedicating $50 million from its $1.1 billion endowment to impact investments, furthering its commitment to […]

ImpactUS Opens Impact Investing Platform

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Financial technology provider and FINRA member broker-dealer ImpactusUS has announced the onboarding of the first issuers to its impact investing platform, ImpactUs Marketplace. The Marketplace is a community-driven, full-service platform offering institutions, individuals and financial advisors an extensive range of private impact investing opportunities. Currently, ImpactUs Marketplace has products only for accredited investors but hopes […]

Meet Peter Fusaro – Chairman – Global Change Associates @ #Intro2ESG Training

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Presenting at Introduction to ESG, Sustainable & Impact Investment One–Day Training The How & Why of Applying ESG to Corporate Valuations Hosted by Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY on June 15th Introduction:  For professionals in the capital markets, and in the corporate sector, G&A Institute and Global Change Associates are teamed to present […]

Innovators Face Challenges in Breaking Down Barriers to Capital for Underserved Entrepreneurs

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In just a few short years, MORTAR, a small business incubator in Cincinnati, has made impressive strides in helping longtime residents in fast-gentrifying neighborhoods start businesses and grow in tandem with their neighborhoods’ fortunes. Since 2014, the incubator has expanded from its original location in Over-the-Rhine to include three other Cincinnati neighborhood programs as well […]

The people’s pension power

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Illustration by Jack D. Unless you are swinging and missing at home plate, good things often come in threes. So when I had three random interactions all pointing in the same direction, I decided to take a closer look. It led me down a path to a $2 trillion pot of gold. The first interaction […]

Trillium’s Statement on U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement

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June 1, 2017// Boston, MA – President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement is a major setback for the planet and the economy. But our optimism will not be diminished. We are encouraged that renewable sources of energy are growing quickly (solar installed capacity has tripled since 2013) and […]

Meet Some of the Speakers Lined Up for Intro to ESG, Sustainable & Impact Investment Training

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Hosted by Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY on June 15th   June 2, 2017 /3BL Media/ – For professionals in the capital markets, and in the corporate sector, G&A Institute and Global Change Associates are teamed to present a one-day professional training program, hosted by Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College/CUNY, in midtown […]

Crowdfunding and The Investment Company Act of 1940

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One of the bugbears of investment crowdfunding is the fact that the laws do not allow special purpose vehicles—legal structures that allow investors to be pooled into a single entity, which streamlines investor communications and management. You also cannot crowdfund an investment fund. That said, there are exceptions to every rule. Real estate crowdfunding platforms […]

First Impact Investing Fund Listed on Italian Exchange

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On May 31, 2017, the “Investimenti Sostenibili” fund, managed by Sella Gestioni (Banca Sella Group) working exclusively with MainStreet Partners as sole investment advisor, marks nearly the half year point as a listed fund on the Italian Stock Exchange. Investimenti Sostenibili was the first listed fund that enabled Italian retail investors to directly access impact […]

Unilever Defends Long-Term Corporate Strategy, Rejects Buffett Takeover Comments

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The 2017 season for corporate annual reports and general meetings is in full swing. And the overarching question for companies is how to reconcile dueling visions of corporate purpose: sustainable long-termism versus short-term shareholder value maximization. Unilever CEO Paul Polman recently gave some insight into his company’s investment roadmap in an interview with CNBC. “In the […]

Export Development Canada Prices Third Green Bond, Responding to Rising Global Interest in Climate Financing

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Export Development Canada (EDC) today priced USD 500 million 1.625% Fixed Rate Green Bond due June 1, 2020. The lead underwriters were HSBC, J.P. Morgan and SEB. This offering is scheduled to close on June 1, 2017. This is EDC’s third Green Bond, with previous bonds of 300M in January 2014 and 300M in December […]

Investors Urge Texas Lawmakers to Stop the Advancement of Anti-LGBT Legislation

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May 26, 2017 (Boston, MA) – Lawmakers in Texas are continuing to prioritize discriminatory legislation that could harm the state’s reputation and business climate as the legislature enters its final weekend of session. Earlier this week, the Texas House amended an education bill to include regulations on access to restrooms in public schools. Lieutenant Governor […]

What happens to the rest of it? How foundations make investments

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Low-risk investment companies that channel a small percentage of their assets into philanthropy – that’s how Clara Miller, president of the Heron Foundation described foundations in an interview with Alliance a year ago. It’s on that ‘small percentage’ that the spotlight generally falls. What happens to the rest of it? How are those investments made […]

WHEB Delivers Growing Financial Returns with Impact Investing

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(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Impact investing now accounts for about $150 billion of assets under management and is doubling approximately every two years. This increased scale has moved impact investing beyond a niche practice confined to the activities of foundations and philanthropists, to a broader range of asset classes and a wider group of investors than […]

Where Tourists Step Lightly, Biodiversity Flourishes

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MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, May 23, 2017 (Maximpact.com News) – “We share our planet with millions of species of wild animals and plants. They keep us alive through making fresh air, clean water and healthy soils; they are used every day to make medicine, food and furniture and they support cultural, recreational and tourism pursuits,” says […]