We’ve begun our synodal pilgrimage and our first encounter in Chiapas is exceeding expectations. We have been graced by solidarity and buen vivir and remarkable encounters with the Jesuits, Tseltal communities, and Yomol A’tel cooperatives and social businesses.
Investing with a consciousness of what your money is doing pushes us to ask a few questions. Where does money most commonly get invested? What is the structure of the relationship between invested money and other things I care about? If I don’t like the conventional investing options, what are my alternatives? If I believe […]
I learned a new word last week from Luke: pleonexia. So I thought I would share the discussion that ensued. In philanthropy and investing, I often hear family/board members carry the weight of: I need to invest our assets so the mission (grant-making) can continue into perpetuity Too often, what’s crouching right alongside that desire […]
Three topics have been swirling for me recently. First, I do not feel like I’m doing enough anti-oppression work. But some philanthropists in the Northwest are giving me hope. They have started rolling up their sleeves and published a great report about their investment committees and racial equity work they are doing. Their report is […]
If conventional investing is “returns-first” then what does “mission-first” or mission driven look like? What are the strategies we might use to help transition our money? Distinct from conventional impact investing, I try to help us push into the leading edge of impact-first investing. The kind of asset stewardship that might lead toward a regenerative […]
Once in a while you find a report that validates a bunch of your hunches. In this case, a group of foundations in the Northwest U.S. have come together to wrestle seriously with what racial equity means for their investment committees (& the social mission actualization of their asset stewardship). What emerges is a report […]
This morning I was on a call with Brendan O’Sullivan-Hale, the Canon to the Ordinary for Administration and Evangelism at the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis. He pointed me to this General Convention document that starts with this great quote from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry: The wealth of the church…must be at the disposal of God […]
Let’s reflect on the structural power dynamics embedded within our current investment and business system. The Problem: Capital Supremacy (“Finance-First” Investing) In our current economic paradigm, Capital’s interests are often structured (through ownership & governance) as above all other interests. In other words, while customers, producers, workers, communities, the environment, future generations matter to an […]
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 […]
Tomorrow morning, I present at the Univesidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. It’s part of their Masters program in the “Creation and Development of Social and Solidarity Economy Businesses” – as part of the International Center for Research on the Social and Solidarity Economy -or CIIESS. I’m humbled to have gotten to know Alberto Irezabal the […]