Armando Bernasconi is CEO at Quality Connections, an RSF borrower that helps individuals with disabilities become independent, productive community members via employment, job training, and practical life learning. Interviewed by Enrique Perez | Marketing Manager Enrique: Who or what sparked your passion for addressing employment barriers in the disabled community? Armando: My mom and dad […]
The Prudent Woman
The world of investing abides by various rules. Some are defined and articulated in formal legislation and regulations, while others are based on customs, common practices, and opinions expressed by jurists in court cases. The expectation of “prudence” in financial management is one such case.¹ This piece is a special collaboration by Leslie Christian and […]
RSF 2016 Annual Report
It is with great delight that we share with you the 2016 Annual Report by RSF Social Finance. Last year was a full one for this organization, and our collection of client stories and financial results showcases just that. We hope the vignettes and visuals inspire you to seek new ways to engage with money and explore […]
How did a recovering attorney find her passion in local investing for impact?
by Teri Lovelace, LOCUS President Ever felt like your chosen profession or career didn’t quite reflect your inner values? You know that feeling when you’ve made choices but you’re not exactly “planted” in the right pot. You feel it inside, that small nagging discontentment urging you to do more for a greater good, but the […]
Introduction to MFIs Part III: Microfinance Intermediaries
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 […]
Three Days in Vermont
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 […]
Your Guide to Fossil Fuel Free Investing – Webinar Now Available
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 […]
Trillium’s Statement on U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement
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 […]
Investors Urge Texas Lawmakers to Stop the Advancement of Anti-LGBT Legislation
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 […]
Trillium’s Sustainability Reporting Shareholder Proposal at Middleby Receives 44.6% Vote
May 17, 2017 // Boston, MA – Shareholders sent a strong message to The Middleby Corporation’s (Middleby) management as 44.6% voted in favor of Trillium’s shareholder proposal, filed on behalf of our clients, on sustainability reporting and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. Specifically, we requested Middleby shareholders vote in favor of our shareholder proposal which […]
Benefit Chicago Announces Its First Loans
by Katharine Tengtio on May 16, 2017 Sweet Beginnings, a honey-based production company that offers employment to the formerly incarcerated, is one of the first organizations to receive financing from Benefit Chicago. Today Benefit Chicago announces its first beneficiaries. Benefit Chicago is a collaboration between MacArthur Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, and Calvert Foundation to mobilize $100 […]
Women & Money
“Everyone has to make up their mind if money is money or money isn’t money and sooner or later they always do decide that money is money.” —Gertrude Stein My Legal Tender project was inspired in part by the Great Recession. Each day, I listened to NPR and almost never heard the female pronoun. All […]
Introduction to MFIs Part II: Microfinance Networks
This blog is the second in a series we are doing on microfinance. Before you read this, I suggest you see Part I Introduction to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). Here in Part II, I make an introduction to microfinance networks. What’s the difference between microfinance networks and microfinance institutions? Keep reading for an explanation. There are […]
Trillium’s Statement on Signing of “Religious Liberty” Executive Order
May 4, 2017 // Boston, MA – Today, the Trump Administration issued an executive order on so-called religious liberty titled “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty”. The executive order suggests that the Administration may be considering allowing individuals and organizations greater freedom to discriminate against the LGBT community, resulting in economic consequences. In […]
Announcing Capital Aggregration
Today we announced Capital Aggregation, our service to more actively aggregate and facilitate capital to meet the evolving needs of the communities we serve. Currently, growth-stage organizations seeking larger capital rounds face a complex, time-consuming process. At the same time, institutional and accredited investors are increasingly challenged to find impact investments that meet the needs […]
Conversations With Our WIN-WIN Borrowers
Najada Kumbuli looks at ‘Kazi na Zola’, the solar energy kits that are being distributed in Tanzania through the support of Calvert Foundation borrower Off Grid Electric International Women’s Day in March of this year marked the fifth year of our Women Investing in Women initiative (WIN-WIN). It was a celebration that was particularly important […]
Introduction to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)
by Songbae Lee, Sr. Investments Officer on March 14, 2017 I joined the Calvert Foundation investments team in 2012 to manage our microfinance portfolio. Given how long it took me to sort out all the different players, I thought I’d try to make it easier for other microfinance newcomers by writing a series of blogs on the […]
Information for PepsiCo Shareholders Regarding Trillium’s 2017 Shareholder Proposal
April 26, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management and The Sustainability Group of Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge, have sent a letter to shareholders of PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) urging them to vote in favor of our shareholder proposal regarding Pesticide Pollution. The proposal appears as item #5 on the company’s 2017 proxy card. […]
Trillium, Green Century, & 350.org Launch New Investor Guide to Fossil Fuel Free Investing
April 19, 2017 // Boston, MA – Today, Trillium Asset Management, Green Century Capital Management, and 350.org announced the release of a new guide for investors on fossil fuel free investing titled Make a Clean Break: Your Guide to Fossil Fuel Free Investing. The first version of the guide was launched in 2013 and updated […]
Impact Investing: The Core of Jewish Philanthropic Responsibility
Editor’s note: Spring is a season of significance for the three major monotheistic religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a three-part series of articles, members of Calvert Foundation’s Jubilee Assembly explore how impact investing embodies elements of their faith traditions. Rabbi Yishmael (second century CE) said, One who wishes to acquire wisdom […]
Trillium & NRDC Launch Paper on Reducing Corporate Food Waste
April 18, 2017// Boston, MA – This week, Trillium Asset Management and The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a new paper “Assessing Corporate Performance on Food Waste Reduction: A Strategic Guide for Investors.” The paper provides investors with key insights about assessing the risks and opportunities associated with food waste and why it should be […]
RSF Quarterly: Power of Women’s Capital
In this spring RSF Quarterly, we lend our focus to understanding the role that leaders in social finance and at social enterprises play in empowering women and girls. We start this issue by interviewing Amalia Greenberg-Delgado, Global Programs Director for Asylum Access, an RSF grant recipient, who enlightens us on the plight that refugee women […]
Calvert Foundation’s Investment Platform
We’ve moved Vested.org back to our homesite, invest.calvertfoundation.org. We encourage you to sign in, look around, and see for yourself. This change comes as a response to ongoing feedback from our investors and a desire to make the investment process simpler, quicker, and accessible all in one place. You’ll see that while the address might […]
Trillium Webinar Now Available: Large Cap Core Strategy Update
Trillium Asset Management’s March 7, 2017 webinar titled, “Trillium’s Large Cap Core Strategy: Navigating a Changing Economic Landscape with ESG Integration and Impact” is now available for download here. Speakers: Stephanie R. Leighton, CFA, Partner, Portfolio Manager Cheryl I. Smith, Ph.D., CFA, Partner, Portfolio Manager Susan Baker, Vice President of Shareholder Advocacy Paul A. Hilton, […]
Trillium Successfully Withdraws Greenhouse Gas Shareholder Proposal at Tractor Supply Company
March 20, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management is pleased to announce that we have successfully withdrawn our 2017 shareholder proposal filed at Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ: TSCO). The proposal asked the company to “…adopt quantitative, time-bound, company-wide, science-based goals for reducing total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from products and operations.” Trillium withdrew the […]
RSF Social Finance Launches Integrated Capital Fellowship for Financial Activists
New program teaches powerful strategies to leverage diverse capital as a tool for long-term change San Francisco, March 13, 2017—In its latest initiative to revolutionize investing and giving, RSF Social Finance today opens applications for the Integrated Capital Fellowship. This intensive program will give financial practitioners the tools and strategies they need to help values-driven […]
Do women invest differently?
On the five-year anniversary of WIN-WIN, we use our investor survey findings to explore whether women invest differently than men. This year, our CEO Jenn Pryce and I are celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) in Nairobi, Kenya. We are on a ten-day trip visiting our borrowers in the field, and look forward to sharing more […]
Trillium Successfully Withdraws Shareholder Proposals at Chipotle
March 9, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management is pleased to announce that it has successfully withdrawn two shareholder proposals, filed on behalf of our clients, at Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG); one on sustainability reporting and one on minimum wage reform. Trillium has withdrawn its shareholder proposal on sustainability reporting, co-filed alongside […]
Advisor Perspective: Opening My Eyes To Impact Investing
Katherine St. Onge, Senior Officer, Investor Relations, talks with advisors during an impact investing tour in Denver, CO. Before my time here at Calvert Foundation, I spent most of my career as a financial advisor with some of the big-name financial planning firms and traditional wirehouses. I remember during my first year as an advisor […]
Happy Birthday, Ours To Own Baltimore
by Beth Bafford, Investments Director, and Rodney Foxworth, Invested Impact on February 21, 2017 This month we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Ours To Own in Baltimore. Ours To Own is an investment initiative created to engage individual investors in the creation of local economic and community value in the Charm City with the belief that small […]
Sustainable Investors and Businesses Urge Congress to Support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
February 8, 2017 // Boston, MA – On Monday, Trillium Asset Management and more than 100 sustainable investors and businesses signed a letter urging the Administration and Congress to continue support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Jointly organized by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and the American Sustainable Business Council, the letter […]
A “Farmer First” Approach to Land Access
Think “local food,” and your mind’s eye produces various images of farmers in vast fields harvesting strawberries as the sun rises. Or you visualize a weekend farmers market offering colorful arrays of fruits and vegetables. These images strike at the idea of a food movement that has grown more diversified and equitable. But barriers persist, […]
Trillium Webinar Now Available: A Post-Inauguration Update
Trillium Asset Management’s February 1, 2017 webinar, “Post-Inauguration Update: Economic Directions, Investor Rights, and Advocacy Priorities Under the New Administration” is now available for download. Please find a link to the full recording and accompanying slides here. Speakers: Cheryl Smith, Ph.D., CFA, Partner, Portfolio Manager Jonas Kron, Esq., Senior Vice President, Director of Shareholder Advocacy […]
Trillium Develops New Product Specific Impact Reports
New reports seek to create dialogue around leveraging investments for impact February 1, 2017 // Boston, MA – This week Trillium Asset Management publicly released for the first time proprietary impact reports measuring a range of ESG metrics on our key investment products. These reports are based on a prior beta version that Trillium introduced […]
Information for Whole Foods Market Shareholders Regarding Trillium’s 2016 Shareholder Proposal
January 30, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management has sent a letter to shareholders of Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM) calling for support of our Food Waste Reporting shareholder proposal on the company’s 2017 proxy. The letter provides an overview of the importance of the issue as well as the four main reasons why we believe […]
Harvesting Capital for Maine’s Food Economy
By John Meyers With eight thousand plus farms in Maine, New England’s northernmost state is also its most agricultural. Since 2007, agricultural sales in the Pine Tree State have grown an astonishing 24 percent. But before you celebrate, consider this: financing small farms and food businesses in Maine remains restrictive. Commercial financial institutions continue to […]
2017 Rate Increase Announcement
On January 1, 2017, RSF Social Finance increased its “RSF Prime” base interest rate for borrowers to 5.00%. Other participants in the Social Investment Fund (SIF) are affected as follows: the investor rate is now 0.75%, up from 0.50%, and the RSF revenue share will remain at 4.25%. The decision to raise rates is a […]
Defend the Sacred: RSF Winter 2017 Newsletter
In this latest RSF Quarterly, we listen deeply to members of our community as they recount stories of struggle and newfound strength. This issue’s Clients in Conversation is international and features Native people’s voices from as far north as Alaska, down to the South African region of Pondoland. Despite being halfway across the world from one […]
Investors Call for Continued Support of Paris Climate Agreement
January 11, 2017 // Boston, MA – In November 2016, Trillium Asset Management joined over 300 investors and companies as signatories of the “Business Backs Low-Carbon USA” letter urging the incoming administration and elected leaders to support the Paris Climate Agreement and public policy helping to advance a low-carbon economy. Yesterday, ahead of the incoming […]
Reflections on Ten Amazing Years
Dear Friends, For the last ten years, I have had the honor of serving as RSF’s president and CEO. On the eve of my departure, I reflect on what we have accomplished as a community of staff, board, clients, partners—and what makes RSF so special and unique. I love RSF. It’s a rare bird; one that you […]
Bloomberg Covers Trillium’s Shareholder Proposals on Minimum Wage Reform
December 30, 2016 // Boston, MA: Bloomberg recently published a story on four shareholder proposals filed by Trillium Asset Management on minimum wage reform in its Sustainable Finance newsletter. This Fall, Trillium re-filed shareholder proposals at Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. and TJX Companies alongside Zevin Asset Management. The shareholder proposals asked each company to adopt […]
New $1 Billion Clean Energy Fund Launched
One year after the United Nations climate change talks in Paris, Microsoft found Bill Gates has announced the launch of a $1 billion fund to invest in new forms of clean energy. A group of approximately 20 billionaire business leaders and institutional investors from around the world called the Breakthrough Energy Coalition partnered with Mission […]
Failure of Amendment 1 Sparks Florida Solar Boom
As we reported in our last blog, Amendment 1 – The Florida Solar Energy Subsidies and Personal Solar Use Initiative – failed to achieve the 60% of voter support needed to pass a state constitutional amendment on November 8th. Proponents said the amendment would have given residents the right to choose to install solar systems […]
Post-Election Landscape: The Value of Shareholder Advocacy to Inclusivity, Climate Change, and Economic Equality
December 8, 2016// Boston, MA: Given the many potential and real challenges to our work from the incoming administration, we believe it is important for investors to provide clear policy direction that supports sustainable economic growth. Three critically important areas that Trillium will be working on include: Inclusiveness, climate change, and economic equality. Much of […]
Standing in Solidarity: CEO Matt Patsky Visits Standing Rock
December 5, 2016 // Boston MA: For 34 years, Trillium has advocated for the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. We have worked with Native American leaders to bring their concerns to corporate decision-makers, pressing major corporations to take action on policies and practices that demonstrate a pattern of exploitative behavior towards Indigenous communities. During late […]
Leveraging Microfinance for Agricultural Lending
Calvert Foundation has approved a new $4 million loan to MCE Social Capital (MCE). This loan is a great example of leveraging our long history of lending to the microfinance sector to explore new areas of portfolio growth in a risk-mitigated approach, in this case, agricultural lending. MCE is a nonprofit impact investing firm based […]
US SIF FOUNDATION PUBLISHES 2016 BIENNIAL REPORT ON U.S. SUSTAINABLE, RESPONSIBLE AND IMPACT INVESTING TRENDS
Boston, MA // November 14, 2016: Trillium Asset Management sponsored the US SIF Foundation’s biennial Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends 2016 which was released today. The report found that sustainable, responsible and impact investing assets now account for $8.72 trillion, or one in five dollars invested under professional management in the U.S. […]
The Aftermath of the 2016 Presidential Election
We believe that after the dust has settled, more people will understand that the work of sustainable investing is vitally important. More people will bring their commitment, their energy, and their assets to join this movement. In many important ways, the 2016 election cycle has echoed the extended legacy of the financial crisis and subsequent […]
RSF’s Work: An Inside Look at Our Integrated Capital Approach
[embedded content] To build a thriving social enterprise sector, we need to rethink the purpose of capital and take a holistic approach to funding social entrepreneurs. This is a model RSF calls integrated capital: the coordinated use of different forms of financial capital and non-financial resources to support an enterprise that’s working to solve complex […]
Trillium Co-Sponsoring Upcoming BSAS Sustainable Investing Seminar
Boston Security Analysts Society’s 4th Annual Sustainable Investing Seminar will be held on Thursday, November 17th. Cheryl Smith, CFA, Partner and Portfolio Manager at Trillium will be moderating a panel titled, “A Fresh Perspective on Engagement” with Pat Zerega, Senior Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Mercy Investments and Gergoge Serafeim, Jakursi Family Associate Professor at Harvard […]