Invest with Values

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

Impact Investing News

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Not All Money is Created Equal: Investment Banker Nancy Rosenzweig on How to Raise Capital as a Social Enterprise, and How to Invest with Impact

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Nancy Rosenzweig hails from a rich background in social enterprise. Having been a member of SVC for 25 years, she was part of a special group that sought to bring values and business together early on. She launched her career in management consulting (self-described as a Robin Hood!), where her firm would earn revenue from […]

Does B Corp Work for Multinationals and Publicly Traded Companies?

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Large companies, including multinationals and publicly traded companies, have many opportunities to take part in the growing B Economy. Some of these pathways include becoming a Certified B Corporation, incorporating as a benefit corporation, helping promote the movement to others, and using the B Impact Assessment and/or B Analytics to encourage key stakeholders to improve […]

Regulation Crowdfunding Turns Three!

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Regulation Crowdfunding, the law that ushered in mainstream crowdinvesting, turns three today. And while it might not be growing by audacious leaps and bounds, it’s not a slacker, by any means. Regulation Crowdfunding, a centerpiece of the 2012 JOBS Act also known as Title III, allows small businesses and startups to raise up to $1.07 […]

ComCap19 – Community Capital Conference

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ComCap19, presented by the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3), offers a unique educational and networking opportunity for all those working toward equitable, resilient, and engaged communities. Join community leaders, ecosystem builders, entrepreneurs, investors, citizens, and practitioners from across the country to share community capital models, mechanisms, and best practices to grow their local economies […]

Delivering Impact at Scale: An Interview with TriLinc Global’s Paul Sanford, Chief Investment Officer

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The following interview initially appeared in the report titled Private Credit Solutions: A Closer Look at the Opportunity in Emerging Markets, published by the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (“EMPEA”). To download a full copy of the report, click here. Why is the EM debt opportunity attractive to TriLinc and its investors? TriLinc’s thesis is […]

Opportunity Zones: A Summary of the New Guidance for Investors

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Paving the Way for Impact Investors & Fund Managers to Deploy Capital into Opportunity Zones: A Summary of the New Guidance by Chintan Panchal Since the Opportunity Zone legislation was enacted in December 2017, it has received a great deal of attention, primarily because of the potential for the tax incentives associated with this legislation […]

Jeffrey Hollender on the Green New Deal and Why It’s the Best Vision for Change

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Jeffrey Hollender is currently CEO of the American Sustainable Business Council, which has a membership network representing over 250,000 responsible business leaders committed to public policy advocacy. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation, which he built into a leading natural product brand known for its authenticity, transparency, and progressive business practices. […]

What Do Investors Think of B Corps?

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What Do Investors Think of B Corps? Many entrepreneurs want to know whether becoming a Certified B Corporation and/or a benefit corporation will hurt their ability to raise capital. The evidence says no. According to research compiled by B Lab, 120 venture capital firms have invested more than $2 billion in Certified B Corporations and […]

Using social impact investment to help the money gifted to your donor advised fund go further

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Donor Adviser Funds (DAFs) represent a growing proportion of philanthropic capital in the UK with £1.3 billion in UK charitable assets. They are an attractive alternative to setting up a charitable foundation which can be costly and time-consuming. More and more philanthropists are realising this, but fewer are aware that they can also be an […]

Pan-African investor network unveiled

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The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) was unveiled this month, which has been described as a unique network for social investors to fund innovative organisations tackling the continent’s social, environmental and economic challenges. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the AVPA will be modelled the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) AVPA […]

Scaling Impact Investment in Forestry – GIIN report

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Scaling Impact Investment in Forestry is the latest report released by GIIN. It assesses asset owners’ motivations for and needs when investing in sustainable and impact forestry, a sector which offers both the commercial viability and the scale necessary to stem the effects of climate change. The report also describes the key features, revenue sources, […]

Working Toward a Regenerative Economy

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Integrated Capital Fellows explore how to activate capital to create lasting, positive change while building connection and community. A new clarity is emerging, one that recognizes that the stewardship of money includes a duty to the greater whole. This clarity has engendered an entirely new form of activism, one in which money is used creatively […]

EMPEA Impact Investing Council

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Industry Alliance TriLinc’s Chairman and CEO, Gloria Nelund, is a founding member of the Emerging Market Private Equity Association (“EMPEA”) Impact Investing Council. TriLinc shares the belief of EMPEA and their members that private capital can deliver attractive long-term investment returns and promote the sustainable growth of companies and economies. Led by Patricia Dinneen, EMPEA Senior […]

Socrate’s recipe for systems change: know thyself

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Systems change calls for more collaboration among public, private and civil society actors. But how can you collaborate if you’re not transparent about your impact and financial returns expectations and how much risk you are willing to take? How can we drive transparency in the venture philanthropy, social investment and impact investing sectors? We asked […]

Modern Philanthropy Through Impact Investing

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This month, Cathy Berry of The Sandy River Charitable Foundation shares her organization’s impact investing journey. LOCUS is grateful to have friends like Cathy at The Sandy River Charitable Foundation, and we thank her for sharing their story. Philanthropy is motivated by the desire to make the world a better place. For my family, The Sandy River […]

New Guide from MMI and TIIP Helps Financial Advisors Integrate Sustainable Investment into Their Practices

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New Guide from MMI and TIIP Helps Financial Advisors Integrate Sustainable Investment into Their Practices “Fundamentals of Sustainable Investment: A guide for financial advisors” advances the conversation about sustainable investing and offers practical information and guidance for practice management  NEW YORK, NY, APRIL 2, 2019 – Amid growing investor interest in integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors […]

RSF at 35: Reflecting on Our Evolution

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In our Spring/Summer 2019 newsletter we take a moment celebrate our 35th anniversary and reflect on how our organization and our community has grown over the years. We visit with a longtime partner, Camphill Communities California, near the Santa Cruz foothills, to learn how they have created a life-sharing community for adults with developmental disabilities […]

Capital for Change (C4C) – Newest Invest With Values Sponsor

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Capital for Change Capital for Change (C4C) is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) with a 50-year history of providing more than $300 million in financing and technical assistance to preserve and create affordable housing for underserved populations, adopt energy efficiency and alternative energy measures to decrease costs and improve environmental impacts, and support small […]

Sizing the Impact Investing Market to be $502 Billion

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NEW REPORT: GLOBAL IMPACT INVESTING NETWORK FINDS THE CURRENT SIZE OF IMPACT INVESTING MARKET TO BE $502 BILLION Landmark research answers industry call for long-sought, fundamental reference point NEW YORK, April 1, 2019 – The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) today released its Sizing the Impact Investing Market report, an in-depth analysis of the current […]

Why Happiness? Why Invest? – The International Day of Happiness

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Should Happiness be part of the investing process? With today being the International Day of Happiness as declared by the United Nations, it is the perfect day to ask big questions and reflect.  There is a lot of talk about the Sustainable Development Goals being part of the investing process, the goals seem to focus on […]

Announcing The Wisdom Fund to Close The Lending Gap for Women

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Women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. Yet less than 5 percent of small business lending—only $1 in $23—goes to women. Pacific Community Venture and other CDFIs are joining with CNote to fix this disparity with the Wisdom Fund, a new impact investment opportunity launching today. Created in partnership with mission-driven lender […]

Building The Next Economy With WholeTrees [Ep. 151]

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Amelia Baxter believes that the 21st century built environment is filled with opportunities for trees. Baxter co-founded WholeTrees in 2007 to develop and sell products and technologies that would scale the use of waste-trees in commercial construction, increasing forest revenues, and offering green construction markets a new material for the 21st century. Amelia has led […]

Foodshed Investors Launches Nationwide Expanded Services Will Support Sustainable Local Food Systems

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Austin, Texas: Foodshed Investors (FI), an angel investor network and business consulting firm dedicated to increasing the supply of good, local food, is rolling out its services nationwide. This expansion will include growing their Accredited Investor Network, to provide a wider group of funders with access to a proprietary pipeline of sustainable food and agriculture […]

Catching the Impact Investing Bug

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This month, Travis Green, LOCUS Solutions Consultant, discusses how and why place-based impact investing “catches” between philanthropic institutions. While working with a group of community foundations taking leadership on clean energy, a Michigan nonprofit leader named John Kinch introduced me to the idea of the solar contagion. The idea: increasing the number of households with […]

My Experience as an MBA Intern at RSF

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Reflecting on my first day as an MBA intern at RSF Social Finance, I can remember how excited I was to spend ten weeks working with and learning from the top social finance professionals in its ranks. As someone with a background in private equity investing prior to business school at Stanford, I closely monitored […]

ImpactAssets Releases Eighth Annual IA 50 Impact Investment Fund Manager Showcase

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ImpactAssets has released its ImpactAssets 50 2019 (IA 50), a publicly available, online database for impact investors, family offices, financial advisors and institutional investors that features a diversified listing of 50 private capital fund managers that deliver social and environmental impact as well as financial returns.  IA 50 users can sort and filter across a […]

Weekly Impact Investment Market Update

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Impact Investing & ESG Impact Investing Gains Traction in Canada The 2018 Canadian Impact Investment Trends Report says total assets under management (AUM) in impact investments — companies, organizations, or funds that aim to create a positive social or environmental impact in addition to a financial return — rose to $14.75 billion as of Dec. […]

Are B Corps the Future of Business OR Just Another “Elite Charade for Changing the World”?

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Having just read the book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by former New York Times columnist, Anand Giridharadas, and mostly agreeing with it, I thought that it would be interesting to read a critique by Jay Coen Gilbert, the co founder of the movement for Certified B Corporations, which happened to fall […]

Impact Updates from the Wealth and Giving Forum

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“Seeking Impact” Five Years On As 2019 gets underway, we’ve been reflecting on progress in the “philo-impact” field since the Forum hosted its “Seeking Impact” Symposium in October 2013. It featured Howard Warren Buffett, representing the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, Ron Cordes, Founder of Opportunity Collaboration, and Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Danone (the French food […]

TriLinc Global Launches New Fund

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February 06, 2019 10:15 AM Pacific Standard Time MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TriLinc Global, LLC announced today its Regulation D offering of the TriLinc Global Impact Fund II, LLC. “We are very pleased to continue to offer investors with what we believe to be lower risk access to private investment opportunities available in select-high growth economies […]

Paul Polman: B Corps, Climate Change, and the Future of Capitalism [Ep. 145]

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Paul Polman was Chief Executive Officer of Unilever from 2009-2019. Under his leadership Unilever set out an ambitious vision to decouple its growth from overall environmental footprint and increase its positive social impact. Paul actively seeks cooperation with other companies to implement sustainable business strategies and drive systemic change. He is Chairman of the International […]

RSF Prime Increase

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On January 1, 2019, RSF Social Finance increased RSF Prime, its base interest rate for borrowers, to 5.50 percent. Other participants in the Social Investment Fund are affected as follows: the investor rate is now 1.25 percent, up from 1.00 percent, and the RSF revenue share will remain at 4.25 percent. RSF Prime is reset […]

Economist’s Invest For Impact event on February 12th NYC

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Investing for the Long Haul If some still view investing for impact as a vanity project, others are determined to make it a central part of the investment world. They see the possibility and practicality of ingraining intention and expertise on doing well by doing good into various lines of businesses. The third annual Investing for […]

Impact Investors are not Funding the Patagonias of Tomorrow—and That’s a Problem

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The impact investing community does not always agree on everything. But ask any impact investor who the figureheads of the environmental movement that they look to for guidance are, and they’re likely to answer “Patagonia,” without skipping a beat. Patagonia is a global apparel brand with roughly $1 billion in annual revenue and considerable environmental street […]

The Real Leaders 100 Top Impact Companies 2019

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Business can be a force for good and here’s the proof: 100 companies that are growing by doing good. The Real Leaders 100 Top Impact Companies, in collaboration with Big Path Capital and B Lab, is the first ranking of positive impact companies. The Awards rank the top companies applying capitalism for greater profit and […]

Jed Emerson: The Purpose of Capital [Ep. 142]

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  Originator of the concepts of Blended Value and Total Portfolio Management, Jed Emerson has extensive experience leading, staffing and advising funds, firms, social ventures and foundations pursuing financial performance with social/environmental impact. In addition to his writing, Jed currently focuses on working with families exploring how to ensure a long term legacy by managing […]

A Letter from RSF

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Dear Friends, Happy New Year! As we step into 2019, we would like to express our deep gratitude to and for our community of clients and partners—thank you for your ongoing support and inspiration. RSF’s work toward creating a compassionate and regenerative economy has never felt more needed or important. This sense of urgency is […]

Trends in Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact Investing

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$12 trillion and growing fast Welcome to GreenMoney’s January 2019 issue featuring the recently released “Report on US Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact Investing Trends”. Spend some time with these articles, based on the US SIF report, covering the multiple aspects of where the SRI industry has been and where it is headed. The numbers in the […]

Family matters: thoughts on a Philanthropy Impact roundtable

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Family foundations are taking active steps to engage the next generation and in many organizations, all generations are involved in influencing giving decisions and operations as a means to educate and prepare family members for a philanthropic career. As professional advisor to (U) HNWI, understanding these dynamics and influences between generations will play an important […]

Weekly Impact Investment Market Update

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Impact Investing & ESG An ESG Approach to Emerging Market Debt The growing interest in ESG factors reflects a developing trend that asset owners and investors are increasingly focused on sustainability alongside investment performance. BNP Paribas AM believes ESG factors are integral in emerging market investing. Institutions Increase ESG Focus in 2018 At the start […]

Why Low Minimum Funding Targets Hurt Investment Crowdfunding

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Many businesses raising money under Title III of the JOBS Act are setting “target amounts” as low as $10,000. I understand the motivation, but I’d urge issuers and the platforms to think twice. Background In Title III Crowdfunding (also known as “Regulation Crowdfunding” or “Regulation CF” or simply “Reg CF”), the business (known as the […]

The Year Wall Street Got Sustainable Investing

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The latest insights from Amy Domini On October 23, 2018 the Financial Times published an article stating that Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, had announced that “sustainable investing will be a core component for how everyone invests in the future.” He further explained that sustainable investing did not lead to […]

As money moves offshore, new questions about how foundations invest their assets

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Throughout philanthropy’s history, it’s drawn intermittent waves of intense criticism, and it certainly feels like we’re heading into one now. Outrage over wealth accumulation, an unbridled tech industry, money in politics and more is inspiring healthy scrutiny from many directions (including us).  Some of this criticism is not over funders’ influence, grantmaking practices, or relative […]

ESG Investing Outlook for 2019

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Incorporating Environmental, Social and Governance factors Amidst all of the important improvements in ESG data, all of the thoughtful research reports, and all innovative new investment options, another, deeper trend has taken root. As we turn towards 2019, we see increasing evidence that systems thinking is becoming more prevalent and influential throughout corporations and the […]