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.

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.

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.

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.

Pavia serves on the Impact Foundation team as a Bridge Builder between our donor/investors and portfolio companies. She is tasked with stewarding the relationship post investment and making sure all parties have detailed information available throughout the lifetime of their investment.

Impact Foundation is excited to welcome Ben Howard to our team. Bringing 30+ years of experience in the entertainment business, Ben is working to deepen Impact Foundation’s investment into the Entertainment and Media sector — recognizing that the sector is a critical mission field for faith-driven storytelling.

After growing a successful feed company in the US, Dave Kier turned his focus towards building Heartland Foods: an international partnership changing the agricultural landscape of Zambia. The company includes a feed mill, abattoir, soy processing plant and central office which support ministry to reach the entire nation.

It is a question that we as venture investors have asked ourselves countless times. There is no one ‘right’ answer because businesses are built by people and no two are the same. And at the earliest stage, start-ups are led by one bold and brave individual, standing at the helm of every key decision: the founder.

We recently had the pleasure of collaborating with researchers from Miami University and the University of Tennessee on a thought-provoking article diving into the multiple roles that we juggle as faith-driven investors. Thank you to Brett R. Smith, Amanda Lawson, Jessica Jones, and Tim Holcomb for inviting Impact Foundation and our own Aimee Minnich to participate in this compelling research.

Read the full article in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Guest post by David Mummery: An engineer, technologist and entrepreneur, with significant and diverse experience of the tidal energy sector, David is driven by his faith and commitment to shape the future of how the energy industry operates globally.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.