“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 […]
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Economically Targeted Investments by U.S. Pension Funds
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 […]
Meet Peter Fusaro – Chairman – Global Change Associates @ #Intro2ESG Training
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 […]
Beyond the Money: The Impact of Community Capital
I was recently at Women and the Environment, an amazing conference in Santa Barbara hosted by Pacific Standard Magazine and the awesome folks at LoaCom. I was fortunate to attend, speak, and hear about the great work being done, and the great work still to do, on environmental and social justice issues, much of which […]
InvestorFlow Report: The First 151 Investors
Who, What, Where, and How: The First 151 Investors Who are these “so called” impact investors? Where do they live? Where do they invest? What sectors do they invest in? Which stages of growth? What investment structures do they use? Our first report attempts to answer those questions, based on the profiles of the first […]
A busy day
Impact investors are picky. They each have specific sectors, geographies, stages, and scale that have to match their interests, in addition to the standard needs of liking the team, the plan, and the opportunity. Case in point: today (April 26th 2017) we circulated a total of eight deals shared by lead investors. In total they matched […]
PCV Reaffirms Our Support For The Small Business Borrower’s Bill of Rights
We work with small business owners who have a dream, but who don’t have big built-in networks or access to enormous sums of capital. For example, the fastest-growing group of Americans starting new ventures is African-American women. But you’d never know that based on where the money is going. Sarah Kersten Studio in Berkeley has […]
What’s New In Impact Investing? April Roundup
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 […]
New Systems Series: Volume Six
The sixth volume of papers in our “New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals” series offers visions ranging from a Cooperative Commonwealth and plural forms of Public Ownership to a Joyful Economy and the transition to a Cooperative Economic Democracy, sharing the hopeful message that a next system is closer than we think. In Cooperative Commonwealth & […]
Why the Good Capital Project: Interview with John Kohler from Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship
The Good Capital Project will convene for the first time this June in New York City. This new SOCAP initiative will bring together a cross-sector collection of experts, practitioners, industry leaders and other stakeholders to drive greater collaboration and accelerate capital flows into purpose driven investments. In the months leading up that event we will […]
Want to be an RSF Integrated Capital Fellow? Apply By April 15, 2017
RSF is a nonprofit financial services organization dedicated to transforming the way the world works with money. In service of their mission to educate, support and inspire the next generation of integrated capital practitioners and catalyze the flow of money to support healthy, regenerative economies in all communities, they have created the RSF Integrative Capital […]
What’s New In Impact Investing? March Roundup
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 […]
A New SOCAP Initiative: The Good Capital Project
SOCAP is excited to announce a new initiative, The Good Capital Project, launching June 19th, 2017 at an event in New York City. The Good Capital Project (GCP) is an integral step in evolving impact investment from an emerging industry into mainstream practice. Through a new design thinking process, we will convene all constituents to […]
5 Ways to Be a Clean Money Revolutionary in 2017
A SOCAP Guest Post by Joel Solomon My first book, The Clean Money Revolution, is coming out in May. So, you may be asking, what is clean money? Clean Money is money aligned with purpose: money that is about more than self-interest; money that prioritizes the commons; money that makes the world better. Clean money […]
What’s New In Impact Investing? February Roundup
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 […]
An Economy For Everyone: February Good Jobs Recap
In order to build wealth and create opportunities in and across America’s underserved communities, and reverse the troubling trends we’re seeing in our economy, we no longer find it defensible to focus on job creation alone. It’s clear that job creation does not itself equate to lasting economic change. And so, we must shift our […]
Not All Crowdfunding Strategies Are Created Equal
There has been a lot of controversy lately surrounding Title III platforms that has been giving crowdfunding a bad name. To offer some clarity, it is helpful to understand the difference between crowdfunding, the JOBS Act, and Direct Public Offerings. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, was initially signed into law on April 5, […]
Invest Northwest: Ten-Year Final Performance Review
For ten years Pacific Community Ventures has worked with the Northwest Area Foundation (NWAF) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) to annually evaluate the social performance of Invest Northwest, a place-based mission-related private equity fund. Invest Northwest was created in 2004 with the twin objectives of generating market-rate financial returns and social returns aligned […]
Impact Investing for the 99%: A New Path to Mainstreaming
A SOCAP Guest Post by Joshua Levin of OpenInvest All investments have impact. But to-date, impact investing has been largely limited to small, private companies, and accessible only to accredited investors. What if it were possible for normal folks to easily allocate their retirement portfolios in such a way that maximized the impact of their investments […]
What’s New In Impact Investing? January Roundup
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 […]
Community Capital Makes Strange Bedfellows
These past few months have shown us an America more politically polarized than ever. Any proposed solution is viewed through a conservative vs. liberal lens, and each side vows to oppose any proposal by the other. So it may be worth asking where community capital fits on that spectrum. As our readers know, the term […]
The SRI Conference Popcorn Presentation
In past Popcorn Presentations, many of you heard our CIO Garvin Jabusch speak about Green Alpha Advisors, but we thought we’d try something a little different this year. I’m Arina, the newest addition to the Green Alpha team. I’d like to briefly share with you how I found myself at Green Alpha, and hopefully give […]
Cooperative Banking in Croatia
The Democracy Collaborative’s Adam Simpson and Sarah McKinley sat down with Goran Jeras, one of the lead developers of ebanka, an ethical bank project launching in Croatia, for a conversation about building the institutions of an ethical and sustainable financial system. Adam Simpson: Goran, thank you for joining us today. You are the cooperative manager […]
The Good News: 15 Media Outlets Focused on Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing
A SOCAP Guest Post by Gary Gach The ever-growing SOCAP community is witnessing history in the making: the birth and fostering of a new economy, a new economy that’s inclusive, regenerative, and truly thriving. We are making a new road at the intersection of money and meaning and several impact-focused, independent media outlets are covering […]
Community Investment Funds: Four Models
Community capital is about empowerment of communities. It is a set of strategies that allows ventures to raise capital from their ideal investors within their own community, allows anyone of virtually any economic class to invest in their community, and allows communities to build wealth though a cycle of investment, growth, profit, and reinvestment. As […]
New SEC Rules to Make DPOs Easier
On October 26, 2017, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new rules designed to make capital-raising for small businesses easier. The two exemptions the SEC has updated, the intrastate offering exemption and Rule 504, are the two most commonly used strategies for companies doing direct public offerings to raise capital from their own […]
Wealth Management’s Changing Landscape: Women & Millennials
As consumers and investors, women are changing the way society interacts with its money by consistently making more holistic decisions than men about how they spend, save and invest their money. Currently, women directly control 39% ($11.2 Trillion) of the investable assets in the U.S., and are already strong influencers on the disposition of most […]
What’s Next? Parecon, or Participatory Economics
Download the PDF This paper by Michael Albert, published alongside three others, is one of many proposals for a systemic alternative we have published or will be publishing here at the Next System Project. You can read it below, or download the PDF. We have commissioned these papers in order to facilitate an informed […]
Well-being Economy: A Scenario for a Post-growth Horizontal Governance System
Download the PDF This paper by Lorenzo Fioramonti, published alongside three others, is one of many proposals for a systemic alternative we have published or will be publishing here at the Next System Project. You can read it below, or download the PDF. We have commissioned these papers in order to facilitate an informed […]
Dark times call for brighter new visions of the world we want to see
Our system is failing. Profound anger at a rigged system has led many voters to reach for something different – even if it means turning in a dangerous new direction. The voters have rejected a stale elite consensus, but we are now confronting a still greater threat. What remains of Madisonian checks and balances has […]
Towards a New, Green Economy
Download the PDF This paper by Tim Jackson and Peter A. Victor, published alongside three others, is one of many proposals for a systemic alternative we have published or will be publishing here at the Next System Project. You can read it below, or download the PDF. We have commissioned these papers in order […]
Six Theses on Saving the Planet
Download the PDF This paper by Richard Smith, published alongside three others, is one of many proposals for a systemic alternative we have published or will be publishing here at the Next System Project. You can read it below, or download the PDF. We have commissioned these papers in order to facilitate an informed […]
Direct Public Offerings Now Available For Up To $5M
The SEC yesterday issued final rules that increase the aggregate amount of money that may be offered and sold for Direct Public Offerings using the federal exemption from $1 million to $5 million. In conjunction with those rules, the SEC also introduced additional investor protections with rules designed to disqualify “bad actors. Highlights of the Amendments to Rule […]
Smart Sustainability for Superior Returns
By Arjanna van der Plas It’s a common dilemma for investors of all sorts: in their heart they want to choose for sustainable investing, but their brain tells them it’s wiser to go for financial gains. And even if the heart wins and they start looking into sustainable investments, they may worry that“fossil-free” and “low-carbon” […]
Framing the challenges of a next system after fossil fuels
Systemic Crisis and Systemic Change in the United States in the 21st Century This new working paper from The Next System Project was prepared as an invited contribution to the “After Fossil Fuels: The New Economy” conference taking place in Oberlin, Ohio from October 6-8, 2016. In the paper, Next System Project co-chairs Gar Alperovitz […]
Invest Here!
A SOCAP Guest Post By Adam Wiskind Neighborhood Economics Highlights New Tools to Redirect Capital Locally The Neighborhood Economics conference was a SOCAP associated event that told inspiring stories about how investment in local businesses can transform our communities. Overwhelmingly, invested capital in the US flows to large scale Wall Street corporations. Only 1% of […]
Can Public Equity Investing Have Impact?
By Garvin Jabusch There’s an argument in the world of impact investing that goes something like, ‘impact happens only through private investments; there is no real impact, apart from shareholder engagement efforts, in public equity investing.’ An associated perception is that investment impact means capitalizing an enterprise beyond what would happen otherwise, meaning private equity […]
Impact Unicorns: Can We Have Our Cake and Eat It Too?
The term “unicorn” was coined by Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures to describe private companies that have achieved a post-money valuation of $1 billion or more. Originally, these companies were scarce, magical and elusive. As of August 31, 2016, according the CrunchBase Unicorn Leaderboards, there are now 191 unicorns. In my impact investing practice at […]
The Intersection of Investment, Equity, and Opportunity: Ed Dugger III at SOCAP
The opening plenary panel of SOCAP16 will kick off the conference with insightful considerations on the “how” and “why” of social capital markets and the critical, and equal, importance of both. One of the leaders in the field who will speak on the plenary is Ed Dugger III, a pioneering impact investment leader with many years […]
Legendary Impact Investor, Mitch Kapor, Talks with Better Ventures About Doing Right with Technology
Mitch Kapor and his wife Freada — along with Kapor Capital and Kapor Center for Social Impact — are giants in the field of impact investing and philanthropy. They are a serious force in Oakland as philanthropists and investors, and they are paving the way for so many others, including Better Ventures, who recently hosted […]
The Powerful Intersection of Mindful Finance and Impact Investing
7 Questions for Solomon Halpern, President of Highlander Wealth In this increasingly complicated world we all receive advice from many channels, including our phones. Financial planning and investment advice is no different. We believe it’s important to step back, quiet the noise around you, and think holistically about your money – how you save it, […]
SOCAP16 – where it comes together
SOCAP16 takes place September 13th-16th at Fort Mason, in San Francisco, CA. Join more than 2,500 changemakers, impact investors, social entrepreneurs, and related thought leaders at the world’s largest conference dedicated to increasing the flow of capital toward social good. From emerging leaders to established players, SOCAP brings together global innovators, investors, foundations, governments, institutions, […]
Trust is a leading indicator for Responsible Investing
A recent Harvard Business Review article coauthored by Doug Conant, Campbell Soup’s former CEO and Stephen MR Covey, discusses the “Connection Between Employee Trust and Financial Performance” and references a model developed by Trust Across America-Trust Around the World, a program whose focus is creating tools to help organizations build trust. The quantitative and holistic […]
Sustainability: From Planning to Advice to Investments
Sustainability is all the talk in wealth management these days. But how does one judiciously go about incorporating sustainability parameters into client portfolios? Earlier this year, we co-presented a seminar for clients in Seattle on sustainable wealth planning, management and investing. We learned a lot from each other about what clients know, what they’re confused […]
Powerhouse Social Impact Investor, Nancy Pfund, Talks with Better Ventures About Making a Difference with Venture Capital
Without a doubt, Nancy Pfund is one of the leading impact investors of our day. While not yet a household name, “over the last decade, Pfund has quietly built a reputation as the go-to venture capitalist for companies looking to make a social impact” (NY Times). With early investments and tremendous successes in clean energy […]
The Mousai House: A Cooperative Vision for a New Creative Economy
We asked Jennifer Bryant—a DC-based writer, organizer and radio host—to highlight an emblematic example pointing towards what Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard calls a cooperative solidarity commonwealth, which she details in her essay in Volume 2 of our “New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals” series. Bryant’s exposition of The Mousai House gives us a glimpse into a […]
Exit Opportunities for DPO Investors
When considering an investment in a direct public offering, potential investors may want to understand how they can get their investment back, i.e. their exit strategy. Organizations raising capital via a DPO should expect questions from potential investors on this subject. An investor’s sale of their investment is itself regulated by securities laws, so in […]
How does The Commons work? Animating David Bollier’s next system
David Bollier, in his paper for our “New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals” a series exploring viable political-economic alternatives to the present order, suggests that a commons-based framework could provide a critical template for de-commodification, mutualization, and the organization and control of resources outside of the market. We’re excited to share with you our latest animation that illustrates some of the principal features […]
WHAT’S JEWISH ABOUT IMPACT INVESTING?
BY AVI DEUTSCH Contrary to popular belief, eating is not inherently Jewish. In fact, nearly every Western religion employs this basic human need in the service of religious practice. It is not the eating that is Jewish, it is how we eat that makes it meaningful. The same is true of investing- it is definitely […]
Webinar: Toward a Caring Economy
Our political-economic system is not working: families are struggling, the middle class is diminishing, one in five U.S. children lives in poverty, we have unacceptably high rates of homelessness and incarceration, rising underemployment, collapsing environmental systems, and a host of other problems. What would it look like if the system in all of its dimensions […]