News & Insights

In May, members of the Good Capital Project team traveled to Jordan on the invitation of the Jordan country team of the United Nations on a fact-finding mission to study at close quarters the SDG investment landscape of Jordan. Over the trip, the leadership of the UN country team and GCP members, met a broad range of stakeholders at central government, local government, central bank, leading private corporations, international development agencies, accelerator programs, and entrepreneurs with the intent to understand the current initiatives underway to bolster the investment ecosystem, and the impediments to attract and retain private investments in Jordan. 

As responsible investing gains momentum, the world’s most influential asset managers are expanding the application of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles as a strategic investment tool. Asset managers, such as Blackrock and Wells Fargo, are about to launch their first-ever ESG funds for retirement savings plans, in a validation of the remarkable growth in demand for responsible investment options.

Universities are ramping up impact investing curriculums. Education is a vital component to progress impact investing from a niche sector to the mainstream financial markets. Universities across the United States are developing curricula to train the next generation of financial professionals in the increasingly popular field of social impact investing.

GCP is now in the prototype stage. We are developing – in partnership and collaboration with other stakeholders – prototypes of initiatives to address some of the challenges that surfaced during the discovery phase.

We believe the financial services industry has the tools to solve some of the world's biggest challenges. Total Impact is an event is for all investment advisors and wealth managers who want to gain actionable, executable information on impact investment and investors who are interested in aligning their portfolios with their social values.

In the months leading up to Total Impact we will be interviewing key leaders in the space who have partnered with us to help grow the impact investing space through this event. This week we spoke with angel investor John Moore, who serves as the Executive Chair of ImpactPHL.

Good Capital Project and Total Impact featured in a recent Philadelphia Enquirer article. 

In the months leading up to Total Impact we will be interviewing key leaders in the space who have partnered with us to help grow the impact investing space through this event. This week we feature our conversation with John Morris, Managing Partner & Board Member of Intentional Media and a member of the Good Capital Project Design Lab.

There is a critical and pioneering role for lawyers to play in advancing the field of social entrepreneurship and impact investing. As social entrepreneurship and impact investing become mainstream, as companies and investors look not only to financial performance, but also to social and environmental impact, there is a growing need for new legal systems, new legal structures, new legal thinking and innovation.

For any industry to grow, eventually lawyers need to be involved to create the legal framework and structures that allow an efficient market to flourish. There needs to be a rule of law, set of market norms, and legislated regulatory framework which is necessary for an industry to achieve scale. Otherwise, the sector will become the Wild West.

Our goal is to reimagine the future of higher education. We utilize a design-thinking approach, which means we start with the ‘answer.’ In our case, the ‘answer’ for the vast majority of people who enroll in higher education institutions is they want a good first job, or a better job.

My journey started about 15 years ago when we were asked by our clients to consider evaluating social risk within the context of fixed income investment portfolios. This resulted in a negative-screening process to eliminate companies involved in tobacco production, religious issues, international affairs/human rights, alcohol, and carbon emissions. We wanted to eschew certain segments of the market in an attempt to incorporate social values while investing to create better returns.

We interviewed private wealth manager Jesse Clinton, who serves as Senior Partner and Managing Director of VERITAS Private Wealth Group at Snowden Lane. Jesse shares his insights about the ever evolving impact space, his personal interest in impact, and the tools and resources advisors should know.

NBA Hall of Famer, philanthropist, and investor David Robinson sat down with us to discuss his journey from investor and philanthropist to impact investor.

Debra Schwartz is the managing director of impact investments and serves on the executive leadership team at MacArthur. A former investment banker, Schwartz also leads the creation of new impact investment products and platforms that foster easier, more efficient, and more productive connections among multiple impact investors and social-sector organizations.

Gloria Nelund is Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of TriLinc Global and a pioneer in the development of social impact products. She previously served as CEO of the U.S. Private Wealth Management Division at Deutsche Bank.

Brian Trelstad is a partner at Bridges Fund Management focusing on operations and Bridges Impact+. He previously served as the CIO of Acumen Fund and was a co-founding board member of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE).

On July 11th, ImpactPHL and The Philadelphia Citizen hosted Citizen Speakers - Business for Good. Over 150 innovators, entrepreneurs, and social impact stakeholders gathered to discuss how businesses can influence positive social change in local communities. The panel included entrepreneurial leaders from Landit, B Corporation, Sundial Brands, and La Colombe Coffee. After thought-provoking panel discussions and Q&A, the event ended with Emmet Dennis, Chief Community Officer of Sundial Brands, inspiring attendees to work towards an impactful legacy. “All great entrepreneurs go after problems that we are not going to solve in our lifetime. Our legacy is to build a framework for our children and their children to follow.”

This article was originally posted by Alliance Bernstein, here by Dan Roarty

Tackling global poverty requires more than just charity. Investors can contribute to the effort—and find good sources of return potential—by focusing on companies that behave ethically or provide solutions to key poverty-related challenges.

The SDG Compass provides guidance for companies on how they can align their strategies as well as measure and manage their contribution to the realization of the SDGs.

GRI is an international independent organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate the impact of business on critical sustainability issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption and many others.

IRIS is managed by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing. The GIIN offers IRIS as a free public good to support transparency, credibility, and accountability in impact measurement practices across the impact investing industry.