Morgan Simon has been pushing the definition of impact in the oft used phrase “impact investing” for many years. Her definition and principles have helped Elizabeth Garlow and I immensely and many of the Catholic asset stewards we work with. I was grateful to record a conversation with her this afternoon, where she surprised me in how encouraging she was of faith investors. Here’s a quote from the very end of the conversation (minute 25 if you want to just start there):
What I saw in working with religious investors — was a deep love for people — and an ability to manifest that love through investment practice. That in itself was spiritual work.
~Morgan Simon @ Minute 25
She then continued on and concluded that this work from religious investors….
It makes a stronger field for everybody.
Morgan Simon, Funding Partner of Candide Group offers a beautiful look at what her 20 years as an impact investor has been like and what she’s learned. She summarizes the key principles from her book “Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change” — and which she’s gleaned from her time starting as student activist at Dartmouth, to her stewardship of Candide, which done more than 100 deals and deployed more than $170 million in transformative impact investments.
Most powerful for me was the last few minutes where she describes the power she feels when working with faith investors — ones that really bring their love for humanity to the work. She tells a story about how we need to lead with our authentic selves — and paints a picture of how some investors offering to be subordinate to others, can create catalytic opportunities.
You can listen to our conversation at: https://francesco.buzzsprout.com/ as well as below.
(Note: they also tell me it should be available in “directories” for podcasts wherever you find your podcasts — but I haven’t been able to validate that myself yet…. if you do find this in Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Stitcher or similar — please let me know!)
Without further ado here is the conversation: