It’s helpful now and then to remember where we come from. For me, so much of my formation deepened as an economics major at Notre Dame. The department had been embroiled in conflict for over a decade by the time I arrived 2004-2008. But the decision to suffocate critical thinking, history and heterodox schools of […]
I remember hearing “the Catholic Church is like the Titanic: it can take forever to change course”. Or it takes the church 100 years to live into any meaningful change [referring to the changes made at Vatican II in the 1960s]. In that context, it feels momentous to be living during a time when the […]
I wrote this in 2020, but just found it and felt like it really meets some of what I’m up to right now as we finish the 7th workshop cohort & aim to build small teams within our broader Francesco / Catholic Impact Investing community. Let’s start with a definition I picked up from a […]
In our Livable Future Investing workshops, we like to start with a question that gets people talking about the heartbreak. We feel it’s important to connect with this grief, pain, as a way of opening up our empathy muscle to begin to strengthen the bonds of community and kind of culture we’re trying to create. […]
I’ve been listening to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this past week. In particular his August 1967 “Where do we go from here speech?” (video) at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. One of the parts that moves me is his synthesis of so much context that he’s living in the midst of. I’m not […]
Every few years, an investor or Finance Committee may rewrite their Investment Policy Statement (IPS). It can be a way to express your values. For example, it’s where many have chosen to divest from fossil fuels. It’s also often where you set “the mandate” for your Investment Advisor / Consultant / OCIO. Key Components might […]
An area of significant learning for me this year was my work supporting an Investment Committee through a significant decision around their endowment. What I didn’t realize, was that the leader of the committee had a certain point of view and as a result was uninterested in taking the time to ask the committee to […]
As I reflect on 2023 and prepare for 2024, I wanted to name a few inquiries that have begun to marinate inside of me. As Rilke says: Live the questions! Big Picture A couple macro trends I hope for over the next few years: On a more personal note Integrating with the big picture I […]
One of the highlights of 2023 has been the on-going companionship with Cristina, Alex, Lalo, Alejandro, and others from Yomol A’tel — a Tseltal cooperative ecosystem we spent 6 weeks visiting in 2022 in Chiapas, Mexico. They are one of a large number of social enterprises that emerged from the Jesuit mission centers in Latin […]
One of the highlights of 2023 for me was spending time and getting to know the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative (CIIC). CIIC has a beautiful story in John and Jake coming to know each other and building a relationship and inviting others “on fire” with impact investing to join together. I loved learning the stories […]