Nick Flores, The CAPROCK Group
Back in 2017, I started receiving questions about my personal portfolio from industry peers.1 Like me, none of them had a $10+ million balance sheet, so they asked how/where they might invest with impact. I shared Beth Bafford’s helpful article and said I’d soon write a similar blog.
I apologize it’s taken so long — and must emphasize this communication is not a solicitation or offer to sell investment advisory services. It is for informational purposes and doesn’t constitute a complete description of available investment services. Please ...
Keith Bisson , Coastal Enterprises, Inc.
I had the honor to represent Coastal Enterprises (CEI) on the panel “Investing in Climate Solutions for the Environment and the Economy” at the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) Conference, November 12, 2020. The other panelists were Trenton Allen, Managing Director and CEO, Sustainable Capital Advisors; and Cathie Mahon, President and CEO, Inclusiv, the federation of community development credit unions. Dana Lanza, CEO, Confluence Philanthropy joined us as moderator. OFN is the national association of Community Development Financial ...
Catherine Berman, CNote and Donna Gambrell, Appalachian Community Capital
Now more than ever, foundations, philanthropic organizations and banks are talking about economic, racial and social justice. Considering that inequity is baked into our institutional practices and norms, it’s a welcome shift in the conversation.
However, to borrow the words of Rodney Foxwell and Antony Bugg-Levine, we need to stop making excuses about why it’s hard to fund Black-led organizations. Instead, we need to invest in them more. In the finance world, that means institutional philanthropy needs to fund Black-led Community ...
Patricia Farrar-Rivas, Veris Wealth Partners
I grew up the daughter of an Air Force officer and a homemaker. We did not have a lot of money, but as a military family our housing and healthcare and other essential needs were all taken care of. When my parents divorced, my mother supported us by cleaning houses. She put all she received in the settlement towards buying a house. I would remember that years later as I began to build my own wealth and made personal home ownership my first financial goal.
I never made much money in my early career in nonprofits, but I was devoted to my ...
Intentional Endowments Network
The session hosted by the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) at Confluence Philanthropy’s 2020 Belonging Town Hall on September 28th welcomed a diverse representation of stakeholders from the investor, advisor, and asset management communities to explore how endowments can approach the conversation on racial equity with their advisors, delving into one of the Action Steps outlined in IEN’s new resource - Investing in Racial Equity: A Primer for College & University Endowments.
One of the ways in which investors can leverage their assets ...
Tamara Larsen, Agility
I was honored to have the opportunity to participate in Confluence Philanthropy's Belonging Townhall. Akasha Absher, Lisa Hayles, Ivy Jack, and I participated in a panel that we titled "Stirring Up Some Good Trouble." The panel was inspired by the Honorable John Lewis, legendary civil rights leader and U.S. Representative from the 5th Congressional district in Georgia. Lewis passed away earlier this year.
The panel was an opportunity for open discussion led by experienced black female professionals with an audience of ...
Sonia Kowal, Zevin Asset Management
I came to my work in impact investing because I was bothered by the inconsistencies between the green lifestyle I was trying to lead and the investments I was making in my professional life. I came to realize that no matter what I did at home in terms of recycling, supporting environmental or social causes or being a conscious consumer, these positive behaviors and consumer choices were dwarfed by the negative effects of the investments I was making as an equity analyst and portfolio manager at a large conventional asset management firm.
I ...
Edie Farwell, Confluence Philanthropy
From September 21 to 27, participants from businesses, governments, not-for-profit entities, and interested individuals from around the globe participated in the world’s largest climate summit of 2020, Climate Week NYC. Over 400 events took place throughout the week, framing a diversity of conversations around resilience, rebuilding from the coronavirus pandemic, the pursuit of a net zero future, and the critical challenges we will face over the next decade. Confluence Philanthropy addressed these challenges by highlighting and exploring the ...
Ivan Frishberg, Amalgamated Foundation
Morgan Stanley’s announcement that they are joining the Partnership For Carbon Accounting (PCAF) is evidence of the gradual shift in the banking sector towards meaningful climate action. It is also a big victory for values based banking and for all those clients and customers who have decided to put their money where their values are.
Almost two years ago, Amalgamated Bank announced that we would work with other North American banks to develop a ...
Matthew Patsky, Trillium Asset Management
Most middle-school-aged children are focused on their small life bubble: impressing their friends with their new sneakers or making sure they do their math homework on time. When I was young, I realized that I was a little different from most children. Instead of coming home from work yielding comic books, my father, who worked in a factory near our hometown of Enfield, Connecticut, would grab The Wall Street Journal from the reception area of his workplace, as we couldn’t afford a subscription. He would bring it home so I could sift through ...
Kristin Hull, Nia Impact Capital
I grew up without money, and so earning a living—rather than investing—was a primary pursuit for me. While I recall my parents arguing over who would pick up the food stamps, both were very entrepreneurial and scrappy. They worked several jobs—from serving as the maintenance person at apartment buildings, to grading English papers, to selling cleaning supplies as a door-to-door Fuller brush man. Hard work to make ends meet was a learned and lived value.
I ended up with an early start in the finance industry when my dad started a trading ...
Vanessa Fajans-Turner, BankFWD
Last September, climate leader and 350.org founder Bill McKibben authored an article in the New Yorker that summarized the consequential role that major banks play in either supporting or undermining the fight against climate change:
“On the spectrum of shifts that the climate crisis will require, bankers and investors and insurers have it easy. A manageably small part of their business needs to disappear, to be replaced by what comes next. No one should actually be a master of the universe. But, for the moment, the financial giants are the ...
Ivan Frishberg, Amalgamated Foundation
A lifetime ago, back in February, we were kicking off the ‘Decisive Decade’ with Confluence’s ten-year anniversary gathering in Puerto Rico. From many perspectives, it’s very clear why this is a decisive decade, but to drive the point home, former Governor of the Bank of England keynoted the Confluence Climate Solutions Summit. He launched his climate advocacy work with a speech bemoaning the ‘lost decade.’ This refers to the decade just passed, during which the admonitions of scientists and activists went largely unheeded and emissions kept ...
Tom Mitchell, Cambridge Associates
It was an honor and a pleasure to join the Confluence Philanthropy Advisors Forum, where our opening panel offered some excellent perspectives on the current environment and both the crisis & opportunity for values-aligned investors. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to elaborate on the discussion and share some ideas that are driving the actions of clients focused on sustainability and impact at Cambridge Associates, and to unambiguously state that all of us who enjoy the privilege to work in investments and philanthropy can and must do ...
Ian Simm, Impax Asset Management
Confluence Philanthropy's recent virtual Advisors Forum included a panel discussion I participated in which focused on the opportunities for values aligned investors. The lively discussion explored a range of important issues related to the transition to a more sustainable economy, including the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the investment industry and whether the ESG framework will need to evolve as a result of the crisis.
Over the past decade, ESG has emerged as a powerful force in investment thinking: not only are many asset owners ...
Michael H. Shuman
As the country emerges from the long shadow of COVID-19 and millions of essential businesses teeter on the edge of bankruptcy, communities will face agonizing fiscal decisions. Caught in the vice between escalating basic needs and shrunken tax revenues, they will be pushed to make deep cuts in essential programs, everything from job training to school lunches.
Philanthropy will be called upon the fill the gap, just as Uncle Sam has. But writing checks is not enough. If philanthropists gave every penny of their grant-giving capacity next ...
Dan Chu, Sierra Club Foundation
True, lasting, climate progress is measured not only by reductions in carbon, but also by how climate solutions can more fairly distribute wealth and jobs, and reduce the exploitation of natural resources and human labor to create a more equitable and just world for all.
As a member of the Confluence Philanthropy board, I am excited about its new mission statement:
To transform the practice of investing by aligning capital with our community’s values of sustainability, equity, and justice.
This mission statement recognizes that ...
Erika Karp, Cornerstone Capital
It feels like a hundred years ago that I first walked onto the vast trading floor of one of the world’s largest global investment banks. All I could think was, “Cool.” I was enthralled by the energy and intensity. There seemed to be important work being done and new insights being shared as salespeople, traders, and analysts moved the capital markets.
Back then, as a new associate in the institutional equities business, I couldn’t possibly have known the path that I would ultimately take. And over the past thirty years, I have felt ...
Dana Lanza, Confluence Philanthropy
Dear Members and Friends:
As the unprecedented events of the past few days evolve Confluence has engaged deeply with those of our members attending the Third Annual Advisors Forum and Climate Solutions Summit. Throughout the event we are discussing the real economy investing imperative, and, for supporting frontline activist groups. They are the protectors of our democracy right now.
We encourage everyone, each individual and every institution, to give what you can to support these groups. We can all give something.
Many ...
Brent Kessel Abacus Wealth Partners
I was born and raised in apartheid South Africa and lived there until I was ten. As I grew, the terrible inequity I witnessed taught me that I didn’t get where I am due to discipline and hard work alone, that the luck of my birth and parentage and immigration played a huge role. Had I been born with dark skin (like 90% of my country people), I’d have had a very different life in front of me.
Having spent my first decade as a witness to such inequity, coupled with an upbringing by a psychotherapist mother and business enterprising father(s), ...
