For Christians, All Investing is Impact Investing
Guest Author: John Coleman
Managing Partner, Sovereign’s Capital
Every day, the holdings of individual men and women in 401k plans, defined benefit plans, and more are quietly shaping the culture and agenda of businesses around the world. Right now, your dollars are at work for these purposes whether you know it or not.
But Investing is hard. And few individuals or institutions have the capacity to analyze every investing decision they make for its social impact. So, what can the average Christian institution or individual do?
Finding the Confidence to Pursue Impact
Guest Author: Maddie Pardue
Community Engagement Lead, KORE Venture
Wealth has been a shaping force in my life. Growing up it mostly took the form of a dark cloud, a looming cause of confusion and guilt that seemed to permeate most areas of my life. Its complexities isolated me and burdened me. Yet, two years ago this shaping force morphed from burden into hopeful opportunity. This is my story of what set me free.
The 4 Quadrants of a Faith-Driven Portfolio
Greg Lernihan, Chairman of Impact Foundation, shares about the power and sacrifice of faith driven impact investing and how stewardship of God’s resources sometimes leads to investment decisions that seem counterintuitive.
Fanfare: The fashion house on a mission to end slavery
Guest Author: Chorus Network
It’s a sad fact that there are more people in slavery today than at any point in history. In response, a new generation of impact start-up businesses is rising up to lead the way. These present an alternative for investors who want to generate financial returns and at the same time feel more confidence that their capital is working to solve social or environmental problems in direct and measurable ways.
My Love/Hate Relationship with the UN SDGs
By Ben McLain, Senior Impact Advisor of Impact Foundation
The SDGs are a worthwhile framework, but there are significant flaws, and it will require meaningful collaboration among faith-driven investors to ensure the SDGs are actually useful and beneficial to the Christian investing community.
Investing for Kingdom Impact
By Steve Doerr, COO of Impact Foundation
What is our role as “faith driven” investors? Should we think about the issue of financial return differently than those who are not faith motivated?
The ministry of investing and wealth creation
Guest Author: Patrick Kuwana (CEO of C3 Capital)
The figure of speech that ‘money speaks’ is very real; and necessitates that as followers of Jesus Christ we ask ourselves the critical question - ‘What is the money that God has given me to steward saying and who is it actively working for?’ This question becomes even more critical for us who have been called into the ‘ministry of investing and creating wealth’ through our profession.
Abound Capital: Innovative Financing in SouthEast Asia
The company’s namesake comes from the first chapter of Philippians, where Paul writes of his hope that the Philippian church’s “love may abound.” But how can a company focused on creating entrepreneurial abundance stay rooted to the seemingly antithetical call for love abundance?
What is the purpose of business? Milton Friedman wasn’t all wrong
The trend of corporate activism has caused me to examine the appropriate role of business, generally, and a company, particularly. In reading Friedman’s original text, I discovered he’s been misquoted. Friedman wasn’t completely wrong, but he also didn’t have the full picture.
Woke Activism & Biblical Stewardship
We all agree there is a lot of brokenness in our world, but is it corporate America’s job to solve them all? What role should I play as a consumer? As an investors? Am I part of the problem in advocating for companies to act for positive social change?
Hayden Harper Holdings strives for workplace leadership that honors God
How do we impact our own teams, in our most immediate sphere of influence as faith-driven and mission-focused leaders? Over the past 20 years at Hayden Harper, Mike has learned to seek God’s direction for fostering a workplace that reflects Him, and ask each person in the office to hold the company accountable to its founding mission.
Building Bridges of Opportunity
“We decided that day that we were going to take back everything the earthquake had stolen,” Julie says. They built a job-training center out of a tarp and plywood they’d found in the streets. They began cutting up rubber with razor blades. They went to work, every day, and others joined them. After 10 months, they’d created a prototype.
Ten years later, it’s a real company.
When We Work We Eat
The U.N. is predicting that because of COVID-19 and the global lockdown, there could be 265 million people starving by the end of the year. This news is truly devastating, overwhelming. It is another crushing blow to an already distressing 2020.
AND YET, it should not surprise us. A world on "lockdown" can't work. If we don't work, we don't eat.
Think Native: Leveraging Technology for Human Flourishing
Imagine you just received a life-changing medical diagnosis. You stumble out of the doctor’s office thinking, “What do I do? How will I get through this?” Then imagine immediately finding yourself connected with someone who walked through the exact same journey. That’s just one kind of powerful connection the peer support platform Think Native facilitates daily.
LivFul: Justice Through Health Innovation
“When will I feel safe? When will things go back to normal? When the curve flattens? When a vaccine is created?”
As the world continues to reel in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic fallout, those in the developed world are particularly shaken by this microbial threat and all the uncertainty surrounding it. But in many parts of the globe, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, these kinds of dangers are normal parts of daily life.
Abide: Sharing God’s Comfort During COVID
A pandemic, racial injustice, economic uncertainty, prolonged isolation — it does not take long to come up with a list of factors contributing to the current increase in mental health crises across the United States. Jokes about “quarantinis” lose their humor as studies continue to point to an increase in substance abuse, domestic violence, depression and hopelessness in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and the events sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Looking for Redemptive Movies to Stream?
We all find ourselves in need of hope. As you search for something uplifting to stream, here are a few suggestions from Impact Foundation portfolio companies.
To Build Rural Economies, Offer Farmers Choice
By - One Acre Fund, oneacrefund.org
At the 2018 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), Rwandan President Paul Kagame said, “We have everything we need to succeed. We must start treating farmers as clients. They need the latest skills and services to increase their productivity.” At One Acre Fund, we agree. Treating farmers as clients ultimately will build our rural economies and support our the region’s farmers in becoming sustainable entrepreneurs.
So what does it meant to treat farmers as clients, rather than beneficiaries?