Money And Meaning

"The global water challenge is really about balancing the micro and the macro. People, industry, agriculture–everybody needs water in the right place, in the right quantity, at the right quality, and at the right time. Doing that is unbelievably hard.” –Tom Ferguson Imagine H2O is an organization with a mission to empower people to develop and deploy innovations to solve water challenges globally. On this episode, Alex sits down with Tom Ferguson, VP of Programming at Imagine H2O, to discuss the scope and urgency of today’s water challenges, some of the most promising solutions, including technological innovations he is seeing on the horizon, and what investors can do to help scale solutions that work.

How can technology help extend access to financial services to the 1.7 billion unbanked people in the world? In the latest episode of Money and Meaning, Lindsay Smalling interviews Kiva’s Chief Strategy Officer, Matthew Davie, about some of their new solutions to the challenges of financial exclusion. Davie talks about Kiva Protocol and other new ways they are working to change the underlying system in order to expand access to capital in emerging markets.

Blended finance deals have the potential to drive trillions of dollars of institutional capital into high impact projects in emerging markets and could lead to massive progress towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In this episode, Joan Larrea, CEO of Convergence, explains how blended finance can accelerate solutions to poverty, hunger, and the other SDGs. She also talks about the future of the blended finance industry and why we need to really hustle to get on a billions to trillions trajectory if we are to achieve the SDGs on time.

TechSoup was the first nonprofit in the US to launch a national direct public offering (DPO). In the year since the launch of this growth capital campaign, they have raised over $8 million, with individual investments ranging from $50 to $1 million. In this episode, Alex Kravitz has a conversation with Rebecca Masisak and Ken Tsunoda about their unique approach to fundraising, lessons they have learned from the experience, and how the DPO has helped TechSoup grow and strengthen their community. Featured Voices: Rebecca Masisak, CEO, TechSoup Ken Tsunoda, VP of Development, TechSoup

Laura Callanan and her organization Upstart Co-Lab are working to convince investors that they have a tremendous opportunity to drive impact through investments in the arts, culture, and heritage-based businesses that make up the creative economy. Souls Grown Deep is a Foundation and Community Partnership dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the cultural traditions and work of African American artists from the South. Under the leadership of Maxwell Anderson, Souls Grown Deep has partnered with Upstart Co-Lab to invest $1M in opportunities that align with their mission. On this episode, Lindsay Smalling interviews Callanan and Anderson about their partnership and the opportunities that creative lens investing offers for investors, museums, creatives, and communities.

For the final episode of 2019, we bring you highlights from the SOCAP19 mainstage. The theme that ties each of this episode’s featured highlights together is that they all demonstrate the power of cross-sector collaboration. The clips highlight examples of ways that leaders from across the global marketplace have been working together in innovative ways to solve some of the greatest challenges of our time. Featured Voices: Neville Crawley of Kiva with Helen Avery of Euromoney Bonnie Glick of USAID with David Bohigian of OPIC Kat Taylor of Beneficial State Bank with Tim Freundlich of ImpactAssets Susan Taylor Batten of ABFE with Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation

The evolution of microfinance from radical idea to global industry was surprisingly fast, sometimes messy, and filled with successes and failures. Despite numerous challenges, microfinance grew into a global industry that has helped lift millions of people out of poverty. As impact investing continues to move into the mainstream, what can the industry learn from the early days of microfinance? This week’s episode, recorded live at SOCAP19, features a panel of leading microfinance experts and practitioners who share lessons they learned and offer insights into the current state, and potential future, of impact investing. Featured voices: Geoff Davis of Cicero Impact Capital Johanna Posada of Elevar Equity Arun Sharma of International Finance Corporation Monica Brand Engel of Quona Capital

Though no one can predict exactly how automation, robotics, and other emerging technologies will shape the future of work, we can be sure that workers will need to be able to quickly learn new skills in order to compete. In this episode, you’ll hear Jean Shia, Head of Portfolio and Investment at Autodesk Foundation, lead a SOCAP19 panel discussion among active investors in workforce tech. Each expert shares their unique approach to investing in the future of work, data and trends that are driving their strategies, and the solutions they are investing in to help ensure that workers are not left behind. Panelists: Jean Shia, Autodesk Foundation Amon Anderson, Acumen America Jason Palmer, New Markets Venture Partners Sonali Kothari, ETF@JFFLabs Elizabeth Garlow, Lumina Impact Ventures

In this episode, Javier Torres of the Surdna Foundation leads a conversation on what it will take to achieve racial equity with Black Lives Matter co-creator and Principal of the Black Futures Lab Alicia Garza and Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change. They discuss how, in order to achieve real, lasting change, the conversation must move beyond income and wealth disparity and begin to address disparities in power. They also share personal stories of why they do the work they do, how they are contextualizing their work in the current political climate, and what they want listeners to think, feel, and do after listening to this conversation.

Fran Seegull is the Executive Director of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, an organization spun out of the G7 Social Impact Investment Taskforce to raise awareness and grow demand for impact investing across America. In this episode, Lindsay Smalling has a conversation with Seegull that offers insight into the history and growth of the field, including many of the most important watershed moments and policy landmarks, and offers her perspective on the mainstreaming of impact investing. She also discusses both critiques of the field and the recent Business Roundtable announcement expanding the purpose of a corporation to be about serving all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

Invisibility and harmful stereotypes are two of the biggest challenges facing Indigenous people today. According to research conducted by The Reclaiming Native Truth Project, nearly 80% of Americans know little to nothing about contemporary Native peoples, which leads to systemic bias, racism, and neglect of Indigenous communities. In this episode, Lindsay Smalling talks with Crystal Echo Hawk and Nick Tilsen, two Indigenous leaders who head organizations working to change the narrative and the status quo in order to help Indigenous communities thrive. They discuss their efforts to bring about widespread narrative change, concrete examples of why it is such an exciting time to make big investments and big impact in Indian Country, and where their movements are headed in the future.  Echo Hawk, a member of the Pawnee Nation, is Founder and CEO of IllumiNative. Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, is Founder, President, and CEO of NDN Collective.

At the intersection of democracy, impact investing, and progressive media, you will find New Media Ventures (NMV). This organization is a nonprofit seed fund and angel network working to create positive change across America by investing in entrepreneurs and activists “wrestling with the biggest challenges facing our democracy.” By investing solely to maximize impact, whether into nonprofits or for-profits, NMV is working to address fundamental challenges to democracy and to correct systemic power imbalances. In this episode, Lindsay Smalling sits down with Julie Menter, Managing Director of New Media Ventures.

For any community development initiative to achieve the desired positive outcomes, impact investors must design with communities instead of for them. Opportunity Zones, even with the recent criticism, are still seen as a way to drive investments that will build wealth and create social impact in marginalized communities. How can the great community development work that is being done at the local level be connected with big top-down policies like Opportunity Zones? This episode, recorded live in Baltimore, features a cross-sector panel of community leaders, investors, and OZ experts exploring inclusive community development. Featured voices include Pickett Slater Harrington of Joltage, Candace Chance of the Baltimore City Intergenerational Initiatives for Trauma and Youth (B-CIITY), John Brothers of the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, Ben Siegel of the City of Baltimore, and Elise Liberto of Brown Advisory.

Despite bring the fastest-growing population of American entrepreneurs, founders of color are systematically under-recognized and under-resourced in America today. How can we begin to build new systems that will support entrepreneurs of color? What will it take to build an inclusive impact economy? This past June, SOCAP convened the first-ever SPECTRUM event in Atlanta to discuss these challenges and begin building an action plan to solve them. In this episode, we offer a selection of inspirational and insightful moments recorded live at SPECTRUM.  Featured voices include Marc Bamuthi Joseph of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jessica Stago of Change Labs, Frederick Hutson of Pigeonly, Jay Bailey of the Russell Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Nadia Brigham of Brigham Consulting.

Foundations traditionally have grant-making staff and endowment investing staff that operate entirely independent of each other. How can we move past this traditional “two-pocket thinking” to utilize the full spectrum of capital - not just grants and market-rate investments - to better align a foundation’s entire portfolio with their desired impact outcomes? In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Gripne of the Impact Finance Center and Teresa Ish of the Walton Family Foundation discuss the work they are doing in this space and why creating sustainable fisheries requires innovative financing structures.

The new Opportunity Zone legislation is expected to drive billions of dollars of investment into low-income communities around the country. Yet, with limited oversight, this capital has as much potential to harm communities as is does to benefit them. In an effort to set a precedent for transparency in this new space, the Kresge Foundation has recently committed $22 million to two Opportunity Funds in exchange for higher levels of reporting and accountability. In this episode, Rip Rapson, President, and CEO of the Kresge Foundation, and Kresge Social Investment Officer Aaron Seybert discuss the innovative way the foundation is working to shape OZ investment.

Cooperatives hold incredible promise to build wealth in marginalized communities and reduce the racial wealth gap but myths and misconceptions about alternative ownership models are common. Many lenders and investors are skeptical of cooperatively-owned businesses or find them too “risky” to qualify for investment. This episode, recorded live at a SOCAP 365 event in Baltimore, is a panel discussion about the promise of the cooperative model to create social and economic change, including frank observations about the challenges that often prevent these businesses from securing investment or achieving success at scale.

How can innovative financial technologies help marginalized and underserved communities manage their personal finances and build wealth over time? In this episode of Money and Meaning, host Alex Kravitz talks to Marcia Chong Rosado of Village Capital, an accelerator for social enterprises, and Ramona Ortega, Founder of My Money My Future, a platform providing personal financial guidance for millennials of color who have been overlooked by traditional financial institutions.

On prior episodes of Money + Meaning, we have explored ways innovative ideas generated by unlikely allies can create change across institutions and communities. But what about the systemic level? Could conversations between people of different perspectives and backgrounds lead to more equitable economies or systems of government? In this episode, host Lindsay Smalling has a conversation that addresses these questions with unlikely allies who are working on civic engagement and democratic initiatives from two very different institutions: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mitch Kapor is fond of saying, “genius is evenly distributed by ZIP Code, but opportunity is not.” So, in 2011 Mitch and his wife, Freada Kapor Klein, set out to tackle this issue by investing in seed stage tech startups closing gaps of access, opportunity, or outcome for low-income communities and communities of color in the US. After more than 100 investments over eight years, Kapor Capital has not only been able to generate gap-closing social impact but has done so while achieving financial returns in the top quartile among VC funds of similar size. In this episode, Mitch shares lessons learned from his journey into impact investing and tries to dispel harmful biases still embedded in the VC community.