Enith Williams, Reparations Finance Lab
This blog is part of a series stemming from the Racial Equity Investing Collaborative’s Leadership Summit, which was co-organized by six investor networks in May 2023: American Sustainable Business Network, Confluence Philanthropy, The ImPact, Impact Capital Managers, Intentional Endowments Network, and Toniic.
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, private foundations and companies pledged more than $200 billion to support racial justice initiatives. However, a Washington Post analysis found over 90 percent of that amount was ...
William Harris, WCCN
Imagine for a moment, trying to make a positive economic change in your life, without access to loans, a mortgage, credit cards or bank account. According to the Development Bank of Latin America, only 49% of women in Latin America have a bank account, and a mere 10% have access to credit.[1] Nevertheless, the economic gender gap is gradually narrowing, with one of the important tools being access for women to microfinance.
The microfinance movement has historically focused on women with up to 70% of borrowers being female, and empirical ...
Pawan Mehra, cKers Finance
In the coming years, electric vehicles, rooftop solar, and other digitally enabled climate assets are set to experience a rapid uptake among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as these businesses ride the confluence of three megatrends: sustainability, digitization and the formalization of credit. This provides an opportunity to develop innovative financing products that provide access to credit for SMEs tackling global, especially within developing countries.
The most recent emerging megatrend has been the drive towards ...
Dana Lanza, Confluence Philanthropy
In 2016, Confluence held our 6th Annual Practitioners Gathering in Boston, Massachusetts under the theme entitled, “Finance and Democracy”. So much has happened in the past seven years that 2016 feels like a past life. I remember walking the halls of The Charles Hotel in Cambridge feeling proud to have then President Obama’s Climate Policy team joining us as we looked optimistically ahead to the creation of a new Clean Energy Finance Center at the Department of Energy, and, at the strong potential for our first woman President and one whom ...
Kunle Apampa, Capricorn Investment Group
There is a consensus that private investment capital is critical to meeting the 2050 goal of Net Zero emissions, limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The relative scale of investment capital, compared to philanthropic capital or possible government expenditures, is also well understood. It is critical tha,t these different types of capital work together, but there is no question that in order to fundamentally shift the global economy and meet our climate goals, investment capital will be the primary driver.
While most understand this, the ...
David F. Sand, Community Capital Management
It has been said that a lot of science fiction is really a documentary from the future. If that is the case, we all know where the latest boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking us: sentient machines and software will gain the upper hand in our daily lives, telling us what we can and cannot do and —insidiously — what we can and cannot think or believe. George Orwell thought it might happen in 1984, Stanley Kubrick picked 2001; both crafted their tales of machine dominance by choosing dates far in the future. Those years have come and ...
Javier Hernandez, Avivar Capital
Impact investing offers the potential to create more equitable communities as well as a more inclusive financial ecosystem. However, change is not happening fast enough. Black and Brown communities remain disproportionately underinvested, fund managers of color remain vastly underrepresented, and entrepreneurs of color continue to face an uphill battle when raising capital to seed their visions.
To increase the flow of capital to marginalized communities, increase representation of fund managers of color, and level the playing field for ...
Amol Mehra, Laudes Foundation
The dialogue at the ‘Beyond Carbon Tunnel Vision’ session at Confluence Philanthropy’s 13th Annual Practitioners Gathering made one thing very clear – to properly address the full scope of climate change impacts, we also need to understand it as a social and economic issue, with profound implications for human well-being and social justice.
It is well documented that climate change will hit the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest, exacerbating existing inequalities and injustices. One such vulnerable region is that of ...
June Wilson, Compton Foundation
As participants arrived at our session, “Co-imagining a Reparative Economy,” Stevie Wonder’s song “As” played in the background. My co-facilitator, Donna Daniels of Heron Foundation, and I invited them to sit in a large circle. The session’s title frequently prompted the inquiry, “What is a reparative economy?” from folks as they trickled in. Our reply, “Yes, what is it?” set the tone for the type of conversations we envisioned.
We began by immediately getting the 23 participants on their feet. We asked them to “map” themselves within the ...
Renske Lynde, 1st Course Capital
On this 112th anniversary of International Women's Day there is much to celebrate about how the role of women in many countries has dramatically improved since the founding of the Day in 1911. However, we would be remiss if we did not also acknowledge that much remains to be done to achieve anything close to equality across the genders or equity within them. In this piece, we will discuss two intertwining challenges that carry significant implications for equality, equity, and economic empowerment. They are the fact that women remain highly ...
Steven Godeke, Godeke Consulting
Confluence Philanthropy convened twelve of its foundation and family office members along with their investment advisors for a two-day Net Zero Intensive at Amalgamated Bank in New York in early February. Our goal was to explore the challenges facing asset owners that want to commit to a Net Zero investment strategy and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon and just economy. Through facilitated seminar sessions, we learned from a range of experts and asset owner peers, shared experiences and sought to better define Net Zero.
Here are my ...
Sarah DeNicola, Confluence Philanthropy
It is clear that transformative change is needed on a massive and systemic scale. The systems change required to address the biggest challenges of our times, such as racism, wealth and income inequality, threats to democracy, and avoiding the worst outcomes of climate change, will require organizing and collaboration across sectors and movements. Yet, while we know that the philanthropic industry has great potential to leverage assets to support the movements and community organizations doing the work, the urgency to organize is not ...
Rupal Patel, Good Scout Capital
There is no denying that American capitalism has built the modern world. Consider that 7 out of the top 10 public companies in the world are U.S. companies, while out of the top 100, 54 are from these United States[1]. American capitalism celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit, its ingenuity, its hard work, and innovation; and the rewards have been there. Of the top 10 billionaires in the world, 6 fly the stars and stripes, and among all the world’s 2,668 billionaires, about 27% are based in the U.S[2]. This wealth was built by the legacy ...
Kavita Vijayan, ImpactAssets
The world of emerging impact funds is one of promise—with breakthrough ideas, fresh leadership, exciting new portfolio companies and disruptive business models. This sort of pioneering approach can be particularly powerful in the areas of climate solutions and racial equity investing, where innovation can often create outsized impact and financial returns as well as challenge long-entrenched investment practices.
So why is it more challenging for emerging fund managers and business models that show early promise of success to scale? We know ...
Susan Mac Cormac, Morrison & Foerster
On November 3, 2022, 51 law firms received letters about their ESG practice, and potential regulatory risks and enforcement stemming from ESG practices. This occurrence opened speculations across the country on whether ESG will feature more prominently in congressional hearings, and if this is the case, how can values aligned investors protect the objectives of the framework.
The anti-ESG movement is a well-organized attack and currently, pending anti-ESG state legislations are increasing, most of which are focused on state divestment from ...
Tanksi Clairmont and Angelica Wright, Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund at GRID Alternatives
A wide variety of perspectives and ideas were shared during Confluence Philanthropy’s Coffee Klatch in December, exploring approaches to investing in populations in climate transition, including tribal communities. Creating and building authentic partnerships and values-aligned investments with tribal communities and tribal-led organizations is important to shifting powers in the climate change movement. Philanthropic support and investment in Indian Country’s efforts is necessary as we work to dismantle the inequities of the energy crisis, ...
Stephanie Cohn Rupp, Veris Wealth Partners
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing is facing a barrage of attacks - from criticisms of “woke capitalism” to state bans on ESG investing including a Florida law that prevents the state’s pension funds managers from considering ESG criteria.
I have spent the last 22 years of my career in economic development, global Impact, and ESG investing. From my perspective, these condemnations and policies designed to protect the fossil fuel industry show a deep misunderstanding of ESG investing. ESG is not an ideology but a lens ...
Dr. Carmen Rojas, Marguerite Casey Foundation
We live in an unprecedented era of polarization, inequity, and division. The imbalance across power and resources is so extreme that the vast majority of people do not see themselves represented — hardly the ideal environment for advancing democracy and dismantling unjust systems. However, as leaders in philanthropy and people committed to solutions, it is vital that we allow space for differing perspectives and ideological conflicts as we pursue a vision that offers hope to all.
Philanthropy mirrors democracy in that accepting pluralism ...
Kathleen Simpson, The Russell Family Foundation
Confluence Philanthropy issued a Call to Action on June 2, 2022, to Confluence Members to support the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal by celebrating and making public a list of those members that are making public commitments to achieve Net Zero.
Climate science tells us that we need to reduce global emissions down to Net Zero by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5°C to stave off the worst effects of climate change. Financial assets must decarbonize along the same science-based Net Zero trajectories and pathways.
The Russell Family Foundation ...
Dana Lanza, Confluence Philanthropy
As environmental social and governance (ESG) markets approach $41 trillion globally this year, values-aligned investors and their managers face an aggressive complex of conservative and fossil fuel interests intent on fostering polarization about proven investment frameworks. In a clever spin, the “ESG Backlash” posits ESG analytical tools as a thinly disguised political attempt by radical liberal or progressive interests to take control of the capital markets.
What these spin doctors don’t acknowledge is that at its most basic, ESG is ...
