Cooperative Economics | "Impact-First" Investing | Transformative Leadership

Omidyar and Returns Continuum

Today, after a small group reunion from our March Livable Future Investing workshop (of Catholic asset holders, inspired by the Economy of Francesco vision), Evan Gill from Catholic Charities USA started telling me about Omidyar’s Reimagining Capitalism work.

I’ve heard the name Omidyar at least a dozen times the past couple years, but had just filed it away in the back of my head as “another big Foundation to get to know someday…”

I’m grateful Evan pushed me to look at their website. When I did, I asked her for more of the background and she proceeded to tell me about Matt Bannick, former Managing Partner at Omidyar and some of the thinking behind the Omidyar foundation.

She then drew my attention to page 12 of this report and this Returns Continuum Framework

That led me down the road of this longer Tideline report: Unlocking more Catalytic Capital – Investment and Impact   which reviews in their appendices 6 frameworks for Catalytic Capital. 

Lots to take in and digest. 

My main takeaway is that the work we’re doing now builds on lots of others wrestling with these tensions around returns and impact and I’m grateful for some of the writing on  Omidyar has on their website: https://omidyar.com/reimagining-capitalism/

I believe it points to similar conclusions that I’m hearing more and more are coming to. 

For example two weeks ago I met with Amelia Evans from MSI Integrity and her work Beyond Corporations. https://www.msi-integrity.org/beyond-corporations/

And her new initiative called “Equitable Entities” that lines up nicely with our Shared Ownership network — and desire to build more strategic capacity and the intersection of these different constituencies. 

I’m grateful for Evan, Catholic Charities and the growing collaborative of Francesco Investors that continue to gather to build community to reach further towards the transformation that so many of us seek to make real

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