Why Smart Aquaculture Makes Sense for Smart Impact Investors
Eat more fish for a healthy diet, but what about raising more fish for a healthy portfolio and planet? That’s the idea behind Aqua-Spark, an investment fund with a focus on sustainable aquaculture businesses around the world. The small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in which it invests “are working across the value-chain toward the production of healthy, […]
4 Ways To Expand The Impact Of Your Philanthropy
For many, the holidays and new year are an opportunity to open hearts and wallets to support the causes and issues that are most important to them. But what if you could double the impact of your philanthropic giving? Through smart tax planning and growing opportunities to put philanthropic dollars to work in impact investing, […]
The Innovator Connecting Impact Investing to The Creative Economy
Laura Callanan is a weaver. As Founder of Upstart Co-Lab, she is intertwining impact investors with the creative economy to strengthen communities and solve global problems. Since 2016, Upstart has been exploring how the $763 billion creative economy in the U.S. can become more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. By introducing a Creativity Lens, Upstart Co-Lab […]
Designing Corporate Impact: 4 Keys to Success for Autodesk Foundation
With an approach as new as impact investing, corporate leaders often have to blaze their own trails, sometimes with a few twists and turns. Take, for example Joe Speicher (pictured above). As a freshly-minted undergraduate, he headed to Wall Street with many of his brightest peers. But after what he describes as a “Eureka moment,” […]
Finding Opportunity in a Changing World
As social entrepreneurs continue to push the boundaries of capitalism and seek solutions to the world’s largest problems, Tom Bird offers this advice: “Build your ‘stone, sponge, crispness’ skillset.” Bird elaborates on that skillset in the interview below, but it’s a repertoire that has served him well. From a career in technology to decades on […]
The Economics of Sustainable and Impact Investing
It’s an obvious point too many impact investing skeptics still miss. Far from simply catering to progressive individuals looking to “invest their values,” environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors provide critical insight into a company’s viability and long-term economic performance. It’s not ancillary analysis, it’s critical fundamentals. If you like this, subscribe here for more stories […]
Why Women are Key to the Next Wave of Impact Investing
Why aren’t more women and minorities represented in angel and venture capital investing? It’s a vexing question Alicia Robb is addressing. The founder and managing partner of the Next Wave US Impact Fund, an early-stage investing fund focused on bringing more women into angel investing—with a focus on social innovation and impact investing—describes her personal […]
Farm Grows ‘Organic’ Returns for Impact Investors
It’s tough to find a better example of environmental stewardship and sustainable use than organic farming. Indeed, the responsible growth of food that sustains us is pretty much the ideal picture of what the impact investing ethos is, and aims to be. With only an estimated 1 percent of farmland in the United States certified […]
Why (And How) Should Successful Investors Make an ‘Impact’
Forget esoteric concepts of “doing good.” If you want to know specifically how impact investing positively affects people, communities, the environment and (of course) returns, look to EcoEnterprises Fund. The fund is one of the first venture funds dedicated to the impact space and can point directly to the number of jobs their investments have […]
Building the Case for Impact: New Alliance Unites Profit and Purpose
So, you want to spend a career building wealth without regard for its impact on the environment, economy and society, and then allocate a small portion of this later in life through grant-making to create a favorable legacy? Why not get it right from the beginning, a win-win for all stakeholders that generate positive impacts […]
