What We Learned Investing $500 Million
In the last few months, we hit a milestone: investing $500M of charitable capital into companies in 54 countries who aim to create social, economic, and spiritual transformation within their organizations and communities. We also celebrated our eighth birthday as Impact Foundation.
As Mark Twain said: “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” The past 8 years have been full of learning: some lessons came easily, others were hard-earned. Allow us to share a few with you.
Welcoming new team member, Ray Jarrett
Ray Jarrett serves at Impact Foundation as a Products & Services Ambassador. He guides our donor/investors as they make transformational investments with their Impact Accounts.
Welcome new Impact Foundation team member, Neil Ahlsten
Neil brings his experience in venture capital and technology to Impact Foundation to help founders and investors work together to create exceptional businesses that share the gospel, make disciples, and create a God-honoring culture.
Welcoming Geoffrey Morsman to the Impact Foundation Team
Geoffrey brings his detailed accounting skills and background in banking and investing to Impact Foundation to serve as Assistant Financial Controller. His passion for people, serving, knowing, and helping them makes him a great fit for the team.
Welcome to The Table: Learning and Investing for Transformation.
As women investors become a growing impact investment segment, Impact Foundation is piloting a new series, The Table, for women to gather, learn, ask questions, and invest charitable capital together.
Reforming Education and Supporting Educational Equity
Using mentoring, coaching, and urban education reform, Clever Characters empowers adults who impact children—parents, school staff, and community-based mentors.
They strive to help adults support the social-emotional and mental health of students, through training experiences and short educational videos.
The Gift of Being Mentored
As someone who is usually called upon for expert advice or to solve complicated problems, it has been such a blessing to invested in by a successful, seasoned business leader. I met Grif through Ardent Mentoring and I highly recommend their services. Co-founded by Lloyd Reeb and Ryan King, Ardent connects social entreprenuers to world-class mentoring.
Transformational Prayer: A Personal Journey
PRAYR is more than just a faith tool—it's an avenue for building strong Christ-centered communities. Ministries are excited to use PRAYR to rally their members, coordinate efforts, and provide consistent peer-to-peer support where you know you are being lifted in prayer. It streamlines communication and facilitates groups, ensuring that prayers remain prominent and those who are in need are never forgotten.
Peregrine Turbine Technologies
Peregrine's technological innovations bring real value to the power decentralization effort across the globe, and the company believes that distributed generation is the model of the future.
Providing Hope for Education: Hartwell University
In 2021, after prayer, research, and development, Matthew Flippen and a team of expert educators launched Hartwell University, an affordable, online private Christian University to address teacher shortages.
Hartwell is equipping, encouraging, and preparing a growing number of future educators.
The Totalfit Approach: Unleashing the Power of Meaningful Fitness
Totalfit recognizes that we cannot train our bodies like machines. By engaging the body, mind, and spirit simultaneously, we can unlock the desired destination of optimal health.
Connecting the Dots on the Other Global Pandemic
Girls First Finance (GFF) supports young women's education and professional development worldwide, starting in Africa, through student loans and personal empowerment tools. Girls can apply for affordable higher education loans through the GFF mobile app. The eligibility criteria ensure that vulnerable girls are not excluded from consideration due to poverty. The pilot phase of the app launched in Kenya in 2022 and will expand to other African countries and regions after 2023.
Machine Learning Technology to Protect Kids Online
Canopy is the best way for busy parents to keep their kids safe online.
Filter out inappropriate content on your kid’s smartphone, schedule breaks from screentime, and know if your kid has left home or school. And that’s just the beginning. Canopy gives families everything they need to thrive in the digital world.
Values are a Pathway to Advancing God’s Kingdom in the Marketplace
As we look through a redemptive lens at the world around us today, the fabric of our leadership and investing can point others to the greater reality of God’s presence and purpose in the world. In this article, Kingdom Capital shares how important it is to realign to the SHIELD Values they declare and to involve these values in all of their key decision-making moments and people interactions.
Telling His Story
While working as youth pastors in Colorado Springs, John and Sarah Bolin created The Thorn as a way to communicate to students their value to God. Today, The Thorn amazes crowds of 20,000+ with a dynamic theatrical portrayal of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Sunshine Approach: Economic transformation in emerging markets
The Sunshine Approach business model uses subsistence farmers’ harvests to make premium food products sold in the finest retailers around the world. Those exports provided the income for the farmers to be paid fairly and the proceeds from the sales of those products are given under a reverse tithe commitment (90% donated to projects to uplift the poor, widowed, and orphaned).
The Next Transition
Acumen was built on and it’s our mission to provide business owners and CEOs a resource to solidify their leadership skills and provide a positive influence on those they lead. We believe doing so will help leaders experience more success both professionally and personally.
Working Through Grief
There’s nothing more anxiety-provoking than watching an employee or colleague suffering from grief and not knowing how to confidently respond. Workplace Healing’s Human Recovery Plan is an easy-to-use, 24-7 solution that provides corporate leaders, managers and care teams with the empathetic muscle necessary to support grieving employees.
On a Mission to Solve the $330B SME Credit Gap in Africa
Fintech in Africa represents one of the great growth frontiers today, with major VCs, global companies, and financial companies all pouring money in. Africa is now home to at least seven fintech unicorns (companies valued at $1B+). And more importantly, fintech in Africa represents one of the most impactful kingdom opportunities to build a trustworthy and faith-driven financial backbone for Africa and the world.
“God Won’t Forsake Me”
Guest Post by Hope Global Investments, an investment vehicle of HOPE International that enables accredited investors to provide debt financing to HOPE microfinance institutions around the world for follow-on lending to local small-and-medium enterprises.