Building bridges between finance and social justice, Morgan Simon is a widely-recognized leader in impact investment, influencing over $150 billion in investment capital over the past seventeen years. Morgan co-leads Candide Group, which supports two clients, including members of the Pritzker family on behalf of the Libra Foundation. She is also co-founder and chair of the non-profit Transform Finance. Morgan previously served as the founding CEO of Toniic, a global network of impact investors, and as the founding executive director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition. She has worked with the United Nations in Honduras, in corporate reform with ForestEthics, and in domestic microfinance with the Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment. She currently serves on the boards of the Restaurant Opportunity Center, The Working World, and CARE Enterprises. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Morgan serves as an adjunct professor at Middlebury College’s graduate school program. She lives in the Bay Area and is the author of “REAL IMPACT: The New Economics of Social Change.”
If you only have two minutes, click here for a highlight from the interview
Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Morgan include:
- Morgan’s path to shift economic systems to be more just, moving from activism in immigrant communities in downtown LA to shareholder activism through university endowments to work in impact investing through a constellation of leading finance & social justice organizations
- A review of the 3 Transformative Finance Principles intended to democratically guide and inform non-extractive impact investments and how they are applied in practice as a tool to center impact in every asset class for systemic transformation
- How picking out eggs at the grocery store relates to investment decisions
- Balancing the mindset & practices of financial return with the mindset & practices of impact return
- The genesis of Morgan’s book, the coupling of ethical principles with impact investment, and asking the right questions as the field rapidly scales
Resources:
- Investor, Activist Seeks To ‘Transform Finance’ For Good
- Harvard Business School Case Study: Pi Investments
- Academic Guide for “Real Impact: the New Economics of Social Change”
- GMJ: Where’s the Community Accountability in Impact Investing?
- Impact Investing: Morgan Simon, Toniic CEO, Offers A Road Map To New Kind Of Financial Backer
- Redefining Community Impact – Andrea Armeni
- 2,934 hours // Buen Vivir Fund
- So, you want to write a book? Here’s what you need to know
Videos/Audio:
- Morgan Simon Interviewed by Cheddar at the NYSE
- SOCAP17 – Morgan Simon, Managing Director, Candide Group
- SOCAP17 Purpose of Capital: Morgan Simon’s Remarks
- SOCAP16 – The Transformative Edge of Impact
- Introduction to REAL IMPACT
- FLII CA&C 2017 – Fortaleciendo acciones que disminuyen brechas – Morgan Simon
- Responsible Endowments Coalition Exec. Director Morgan Simon
- Andrea Armeni: Transforming Finance To Finance Transformation
- Regan Pritzker: Teaching, Learning, & Tipping the Scale Toward A Just Transition
- The Working World’s Model Works: Non-extractive Finance with Tailor-made Business Support
- Morgan Simon Bioneers Presentation
- “INCREDIBLE DIVERSITY” – Morgan Simon on social entrepreneurship in Oakland
- Real Impact: Bringing communities into impact investing (podcast)
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Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.
The full and original article can be viewed on LiftEconomy.com
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