 Hello I've had at least three people come up to me this afternoon and tell me that they thought I was Exaggerating about the blue angels. So have you enjoyed the show? Yeah Another person said was this cheaper than fireworks is this why we had them yeah One of the things about the blue angels being here during so cap one of my the pieces that I think so cap is so much about is how we are Living in the face of culture that tells us one thing when we know in our hearts that we want something else and I love the blue angels and I hate what they stand for and Having the blue angels here this week. It's just kind of a big reminder that Our excitement doesn't always go where our hearts go and to pay attention So I just thought I would share that little piece of my heart with you about that One other quick thing that I want to tell you about or to remind you about is the entrepreneurs who are have been nominated for gratitude awards The time to vote for them is now and The URL where you can do that. I believe I have it right as bitly Gratitude 15 Gratitude awards 15. Thank you I heard a small voice from our next person coming to the podium Lindsay smiling who's gonna come and talk to us about this afternoon's program. So thank you all for being here Thank you for my everyone The afternoon, but some of my favorite plenary sessions are in this one So thank you so much for being here after a long day. We're gonna kick it off We've had some amazing speakers today. We've got a visitor from the north So I'm excited to welcome the Honorable Brad do good the Ontario Minister of Economic Development Employment and Infrastructure as Minister his focus is on creating jobs promoting Ontario as a smart place to invest building a culture of entrepreneurship and Growing a strong innovative economy. That's inclusive to people of all abilities Prior to this post he served in a number of cabinet roles including Minister of Training Colleges and Universities Minister of Economic Development and Innovation Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Minister of Labor. It's pretty much done all of those He also served municipally as a city counselor in Scarborough in Toronto for nine years Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the Honorable Brad do good That introduction may be longer than my comments, but Lindsay, thank you so much and Lindsay's left the stage here, but I've had an opportunity to meet her in the past I would a dynamo in this sector. Give her a big round of applause. She's really done a fantastic job one of those great people to get to know and For me, it's always a pleasure to go anywhere as a politician where I don't have to wear my ties So I'm actually enjoying the fact that there's no tie-on today Unfortunately, I'm having a bad day. My Toronto Blue Jays apparently lost to the Texas Rangers this afternoon So that might be a good thing for anybody here from Texas, but if you're from Canada, it's not not the best news We'll win tomorrow though. Delighted to be here today This is an area of absolute priority for us in Ontario. I'm the Minister of Economic Development Employment and Infrastructure I look at this as an opportunity to really maximize growth in our economy I think it's great That a lot of the social enterprise that we have going on in Ontario now is contributing to building stronger communities But as economic development Minister, I'm looking at the number of jobs that are being created in this sector and it's huge We've got 10,000 social entrepreneurs now operating in Ontario. That's about a hundred and sixty thousand jobs That have been created just through this sector alone. It's Fantastic for our economy. It's a great place for us to be and when I come to the Silicon Valley Ontario is second in North America for information communication technology firms But when we come to the Silicon Valley, I mean the Silicon Valley as we all know is first in almost all of those Categories, but it's nice to come somewhere where I can actually say that Ontario has a bit of a role leadership in In this space, so it's something we're very very proud of my role today is to introduce the panelists And I believe they're ready to come up here now in no particular order. We have Rory Eakin managing director of Circle Up Michael Grossman Direct you can clap for him as we go. Come on now. It's been a long day I know Michael Grossman director of liquid assets New Island capital and Nick Flores director impact investing Car proc group. I think we're in for a bit of a treat here We're in for a discussion about one of those sort of an inside discussion about how these deals get done where where we bridge opportunities for social entrepreneurs With investor priorities and opportunities, so I'm really looking for I've never been in on one of these deals as a politician I probably never will be but I'm looking forward to seeing on How all of this has taken place and we've got some fantastic Experts here up on the panel that I think are going to do a fantastic job. So take it away folks. Thank you Thank you all for joining and today We're gonna have a really good discussion around a key challenge that is faced by the impact investing community so I'm Katie Fitzgerald from Circle Up and I'll go I'll give a little bit of background on that but first To really touch on what we're talking about here today So it's not a surprise that a lot of that funds attract more capital than direct investment But impact funds have been slower to develop So we're going to touch on a few questions or try to shed light on a few questions related to that The first being how do you really evaluate an investment into an impact fund and the second being? How can GPs and LPs better navigate that conversation? To do this we'll use the Circle Up grow fund as a case study And we have will hear from a couple investors that considered an investment into the Circle Up growth fund So Michael Grossman from New Island Capital and Nick Flores from the Caprock group And you also hear from Rory Eakin on the evolution of the Circle Up grow fund Which didn't start out as an impact fund but evolves to include an impact angle So shortly you'll hear from both Michael and Nick on how they came to their decision and how they thought about the Circle Up grow fund And then we'll we'll go to Rory before we we dive in there Brief background on Circle Up just to provide some context We are an online investment platform and Very much a curated platform So we accept a very small percentage of the company is that we see we have to date helped 115 entrepreneurs raise over a hundred and thirty million in aggregate on the platform And we currently have over 200 entrepreneurs that are actively raising at the moment And representing an aggregate at 250 million in curated investment opportunities for investors that is open on the platform at this time We wanted to help even more entrepreneurs so in late 2014 We decided to raise a fund so the Circle Up grow fund Which is the subject of the conversation today The two investors that we have on this panel don't need a big introduction They're well-known well respected So that we can get in and we have Only 20 minutes to cover a lot of ground So maybe Michael and Nick if as a part of your first answer you could give a brief 30 second background on yourselves But otherwise we'll we'll jump right in so Michael starting with you Can you just describe your objectives as an impact investor sure thanks New Island capital is a institutional scale investment advisor that is Is captive to one family office we invest on behalf of one family we invest Entirely for social and environmental impact and also we invest for profit Our family that we whose money we invest lives off the return that we generate So we're not a philanthropy we do this in order to make money and we feel that we should generate a Inappropriate risk adjusted return as well as help create impact You know if you think about the the companies on the Circle Up platform and people who invest in them They're happy to pay a fair price to that lady who's growing You know organically produced cooperatively tended quinoa in Bolivia But they never like paying their financiers a fair price and we feel that we should be paid Just like any other ethical supplier a fair return That's our objective and So new line a new island capital ultimately decided to make an investment into the circle we did you talk about how? How that fit with your objective so it fits really well So I mean we are an instant like I think like I said we are an institutional scale source of capital So for us we we try to do large transactions and for us a large transaction is somewhere Ideally between five and twenty five million dollars Obviously our investment circle up fund is smaller than that, but we We love a firm like your fund because it as the ability to invest in the kind of businesses We would like to but we can't because a transaction cost being too high for us to do small investments So if you look at the both why we're excited about this investment both The market opportunity to the kind of companies you curate the kind you invest in the ability to operate within different parts of the capital Stack and also frankly the team that you brought to the table with a lot of experience looking at the kind of investments that you're That you are proposing Thank you Sure, so my name is Nick floris the cap rock group is a multifamily office Unlike New Island capital we serve roughly 90 families and probably about Ten foundations many of the foundations are connected to the families that we work on behalf of We have probably about three billion dollars in a um one-third of which has an impact mandate and Your second question sort of in terms of our investment objectives we share New Island's for-profit motivation and One of the reasons why we chose to take a pass on the circle up growth fund bit of a contrarian view here I've known Rory for quite some time. We would have loved to have found a way to make it work But we evaluate all opportunities first and foremost through a financial lens So we look at things like the return profile the correlation with other assets in our clients portfolios Liquidity yield all those sorts of various things So I just want to make that clear that our orientation as a traditional multifamily office with impact investing expertise is that we evaluate everything first through the lens of financial The next screen that we take is to sort of look at the impact strategy And here we adhere to the gins definition of an impact investment two core tenants of which are Intentionality as well as measure ability or measure a commitment to measure The environmental or social benefit that the investment ultimately seeks to catalyze And I'll just try to keep my remarks brief on this point because we only have 20 minutes And I know a lot of you want to probably get to the beer hour That is really where sort of the consideration for the circle up growth fund stopped for us Because I think as Rory will likely admit at the beginning. They didn't really have that intentionality I think it started to we grow and evolve as a result of the conversation with New Island capital, but And although there have been societal benefits, I think that result from The capital that you all provide we felt like it wasn't interwoven Into the investment strategy like we like to see it from a lot of the funds in which we invest And so I think because of that we felt like the impact that you all drive was more incidental than intentional And that was really the reason why we passed on the opportunity for impact clients Yeah, it's interesting so our view is I mean I hate to say it almost the exact opposite We start with the impact lands Right does this achieve an impact and you know Impact is a as a capital provider. We are a We're a utility right we other people create impact we provide an input for them to create that impact And so it's not for me to judge others impacts You know so if I can get myself comfortable with that this is creating a better world And I believe that natural and organic foods is generally something that creates a better world Then we'll start looking at the finances right and we will you know the same thing We're very rigorous and very disciplined about the financing of it, but we do seek to have You know the first step for us will be does it make does it make the world a better place in line with the values of our shareholders? In terms of measurement That's not something you know again lucky. We're Great great great good fortune of having of working for some one individual so we can tell stories We don't have to measure And it makes it a lot easier. I mean it really really does I would imagine for you as well as your Investees it very much so because we the one of our fundamental beliefs is a concept of convergence So as financial return increases impact increases and as impact increases financial return increases So we'll ask our our investees to measure things that they're measuring already Because it's the kind of things that they're measuring to manage a business So yeah in the kind of like that that big gears book thing. That's not um No, if that's any gears person who's that's not on your desk Yes, absolutely, so It's fascinating to hear to so thoughtful investors on the space and just thanks for having us and to have this dialogue Because it was a really interesting Case study for us in many ways. We started out to raise this fund Not with an impact lens in fact One of our philosophies was to raise and we think about scale a lot at circle up to raise as much capital for the Entrepreneurs on the site as we could we didn't want to lead with that Lens and that term of impact for fear of being able to turn off potential strictly financial motivated investors we wanted to aggregate as much capital as as Could move towards those entrepreneurs in the risk-adjusted way for a financial return But in talking with a number of folks including Caprock and New Island We were being asked the question. Well, what is the impact of the work and and being asked Could we codify that in some of our agreement? So With New Island in fact there was saying well, here's how we think about impact. Does a majority of the capital go towards things like be corpse or Natural organic foods or local sustainable food enterprise systems and we went back into our data from the last two years of it just on the platform naturally and We found that that was in fact where a majority of the capital was going so We were able to make commitments to some of our LPs then in the fund without Being forced into in a difficult trade-off of changing our strategy. So with the circle up growth fund Nick's exactly right. We did not have that Ex-anti intentionality around it, but Michael's a good point when we looked at the data We felt we we could honor what New Island seeks to do with its capital in terms of Helping a number of entrepreneurs. We wouldn't otherwise do and so We don't know how it'll come out Can I pick up on something that you just said help a lot of entrepreneurs that you otherwise would not so how did New Island's Participation change perhaps the investment strategy if at all, I mean by with the fund overall So it didn't change that what's one of the core things towards all of our LPs is it didn't fundamentally all to all toer the investment strategy the fund which Is is to align with the overall platform So we had a thesis on the fund that a lot of investors on the platform are making Their own doing their own diligence and investing and we wanted to fund to mirror the platform to the extent it could but To have a fund overall with participation from investors like new I was able to amplify the effort And I'd like to also say there's something like we're at a point right now Where I and you might not be aware of this but where there's something that's happening that I think is really exciting Both for us and for you and for the industry at large, which is we are talking independently of the circle up relationship We're talking to one of your portfolio companies at a fairly large debt facility Right, and yeah, and so you took a company that couldn't get necessarily capital and you incubated it You grew it you spend some time and now it's a company that can actually have a conversation with somebody like us about doing a fairly large Growth facility for them to grow their business and that opportunity doesn't exist without circle Maybe it does, but I mean likely it doesn't and So that impact is also really for us really exciting because this transition from early early stage to growth And then from growth to stability as a my principal business is lending and as a lender Finding opportunities where there's somebody who's Thoughtful intelligent capital who's worked with the companies to get to a stage where they can actually Extend their impact by extending their financing is is when we like to intervene. So it's we're really excited about them Roy you mentioned that you saw Impact kind of naturally playing out with the companies that circle works with on the platform Do you think circle has is that any advantage there and what might create that advantage? Well We we only do consumer products and retail. So there is one element here that because the industries we focus on Naturally There's a momentum in that space for more impact oriented consumers are shifting their buying behavior So what makes a good investment from a financial perspective is also Riding tailwinds of the impact community including many of the consumers and investors and folks in this room now so example Some of the portfolio companies that we've developed through this fund now include b-corps include Smarty Pants vitamin, which is a gummy vitamin company, which is a one-to-one match on With vitamin angels providing nutrients as part of their mission Throughout the world that's gone on to raise subsequently from a private equity firm That's strictly looking for to maximize value for their shareholders outside the impact lens But it's riding the same consumer trail and tailwinds So I liked this conversation because I think there's no easy answers and adding an impact Lens makes it so much more difficult in the fund world because you've got all these vectors of financial return and risk and And track record as Nick mentioned and impact and what that means to everybody But I think you consumer does help in that sense because it's an active area right now It's a little bit further along than maybe some other industries Well, I feel like where you all sit to is really fascinating because you mentioned you'd rather not lead with impact And we've heard from a number of fund managers to which are actually already on our platform that they have not led with impact and in fact have sort of Suppressed some of their impact intentions and or goals because they feel like that will convey to the market that they may Be concessionary return seeking when in fact they're not and I think in the next In the coming years, we're going to face a real challenge because I think there could be Perhaps because of Silicon Valley perhaps because of that perception that somehow impact seeking funds and firms are somehow concessionary a real blurring of the lines and so while I hear you loud and clear that you're able to sort of ride the Tailwinds of this impact space I think other managers might actually face a headwind from that and be forced to Sort of grapple with the decision do we want to portray ourselves as impact or would we rather again sort of suppress that message Do you advise one way or another with with that sleeve at 30 31 third? Well, we advise the fund managers that we work with and that we're contemplating an investment To play up the impact whether it be so sure environmental benefit that they have Because that absolutely is a critical component for impact clients of why we would invest But by no means are we sitting there saying well fund manager ABC you should or should not do this Michael Nick you guys have both shared that you are looking for financial return as well as Having an impact the company that you invested having an impact in society. How do you? You know there are also different definitions of impact as we're hearing and so and return expectations could also vary by investor So how do you balance those two and does having a broader definition of what impact means help there? You want to go first? How do we balance the two again? I would just say that our emphasis is on the financial first and some of the other attributes that I mentioned up front And in terms of how we balance it it largely depends on the client And I think that's where our models are vastly different We have some clients who are very much impact agnostic all they want to ensure is that to your point a lot sounds like a lot a Lot like the family with whom you work. They just want to make sure that their money is going towards something good We have others that are very thematically oriented toward climate change a number of other issues and So it really depends on the client unfortunately, but I will just say our first focus again is financial And so we really try to make sure that when constructing client portfolios We keep that in mind and that we never sort of lose sight lose sight of that objective um We don't feel that there's a conflict between impact and financial return in fact As I think as I indicated we believe that the two go together and we seek to invest or lend in those areas where the two are demonstrably go together So I don't think it's I don't think it's a trade-off at all You know sometimes the challenge is identifying where the impact is and Keeping our feet on the ground because it's easy to get excited about things and and being honest with ourselves and understanding You know we use terminology Green shades to make these distinctions of what kind of investments are so light green medium green dark green And everyone wants to do only dark green stuff because we all want to make the world a better place And that's why we're doing this But there are you know managers or or in portfolio companies or teammates that are doing good solid work and stuff to Support them with our capital Talk to cap rock Yeah, I would say I would say think really long and hard about what how your impact intentions are Interwoven into your investment strategy Yes, because I agree with you there does not need to be a trade-off and we like to see and prefer to invest in funds and or companies where they're interwoven We agree with you that they are mutually Mutually complimentary probably redundant but Yeah, and really think not only through how you what those intentions are and how they weave into your investment strategy But more importantly how you will demonstrate to us and hopefully other LPs How you're delivering on that intention so we're big proponents of data to tell that story, but I think it's really important that entrepreneurs and fund managers alike think through sort of how they're going to demonstrate Convincingly that they're doing what they set out to do because we'll certainly look for it My take was asked questions and learn I mean so much of this was figuring out the dialogue in the right Framework for the where the investors trying to optimize for and what they're care about so it really was in our experience more of a an opening and finding the right fit with different types of investors But it's a and it's a moving and evolving ecosystem overall Definition of impact and people's concerns are certainly shifting and growing and measurements and all sorts of different elements So ask the questions my takeaway and I guess the one bit of advice I'll give us is And this is going to sound counterintuitive if you consider what we're trying to do, but be patient, right? I mean Environmental impact is easier to achieve than social impact social impact takes time sometimes generational time and So deploy capital intelligently rigorously and slowly and do it right so that the second time you do it You can do it larger than the first time Everyone's in a hurry to do one great big fund And I think one of the great things about this growth fund is that it was a reasonable size to start with it was a bite size That you guys could handle and deploy Late afternoon people They're gonna clear the stage here for a minute, and I'm gonna fill her fill her up I am really thrilled to have Tim Freund like I'm on the board and also the president of impact assets Which is the hat I'm gonna wear to cover my bald head today I'm gonna talk a little bit and tee up John strer who's the new CEO of Calvert investments Calvert as I said a few remarks last night, I mean this is an institution that has been in the Arguably the impact investing space truly for 40 years, so I always try to Kind of think as we approach and I've been doing this for about 18 years now Like we have to think in decades is as impatient as we are as much needs to get done We also have to be in touch with the shoulders upon which we stand and I very much think Calvert investments is such a place When I was there starting in 97 They were already doing a ton of micro finance ton of community development Financial and institution investing they were doing venture investing in social ventures all across the United States in the world And this is 18 years ago, and they've been doing it for five or six years already So I just I can't can't sing their praises enough John I met him the beginning of this year when he took over his the CEO He had just left AMG funds, which is a $60 billion asset management Firm and he's taken over the reins and totally impressed me in terms of his leadership and vision and the refresh I think he's going to they've done a lot over the last 40 years I think they're gonna do a lot over the next four I'll just say that and he's gonna come here up here and talk about that. I really special Thanks to him too for the the work. He's done in the collaborative stance with impact assets and bringing some of our new Investment notes to market in the next month. So please join me in welcoming John Sturer the CEO of Calvert investments All right, thanks a lot. Thank you very much, Tim. I appreciate it's great to see everyone Yeah, and I wrote down two lines from the the program Introduction so that I could try to deliver the comments that you came for one is impact through the capital markets And the other is how to effectively drive change I'd just like to talk about that a little bit. What change are we trying to drive and what role do you all play in that? Now the change we're trying to drive is to get major corporations worldwide To move their behaviors in a way that's consistent with the evolving social norms That we're all helping to influence This is the group of people really that is on the leading edge of that. You're the social entrepreneurs You are the innovators You're on the ground and you're helping to codify the kind of social norms Change that we need the kind of change that will create a more sustainable Environmental system for the planet the kind of change that we need that will solve some of the tremendous Social injustices that our global capital markets suffer from so you're the leading innovators You're driving the change now How do we at Calvert use the global capital markets to help impact investor behavior and Further drive the change that you're starting on the ground What does it mean to work in the global capital markets alongside of the world's largest financial institutions? Where trillions of dollars are moving daily between companies and what role do we all play in Trying to solve climate change in social injustice We find it at Calvert necessary to compete on their terms in the respect that we need to produce the financial Results that are competitive with all major investors But we also must find the public companies that are behaving differently That are changing their operations and they are treating people on the ground with care and justice And that are moving their operations forward to have a much less impact on the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions And help solve the devastating problems associated with climate change as we hear about impact investing going mainstream It's good news, but it's also very concerning Because we must also really understand what companies are doing throughout the world on one hand It's terrific to have a global information system that can inform us about what's happening in Indian Pakistan and throughout the world so we can see global supply chains But we need to know the reality of what the companies are doing and we cannot depend on the financial Industry to provide us with metrics that tell us about that We need a social fabric of people like yourselves to help define the standards and tell us what's happening on the ground We must maintain independence and Objectivity as we seek to use the global capital markets to move our common agenda forward Critically we need impact investors and networks of impact investors like those of you in this room for Calvert's part We're investing in you through our high impact program And we are asking large global corporations to do more business with small and medium-sized enterprises Globally, we're asking major global corporations to think about how they impact local communities How they treat people from those who need protection as indigenous people To the poorest people in the world as well as people with unique cultures that don't necessarily agree with the Western ways So this is a major effort that we're all involved in together now Let me talk a little bit about what 2015 looks like because I think when we look back at 2015 We have the potential to see this as a transformative year Not only for your work, but that of the global capital markets And I just like to cite the work that they pope did in writing the encyclical and getting major publicity For the needs of the poorest people in the world and for the needs to solve the impacts of climate change I'd also like to share with you the activities of 10 days ago in New York as we worked to pass the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 There's a tremendous event very different from what we've ever seen at the United Nations before Where we had the leaders of the largest nations not just the finance ministers, but the Angela Merkels the Barack Obama's And everybody from around the world coming together with public companies I was in a meeting with with those people with Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook With Paul Pullman from Unilever our special guest was Bono from U2, and he said metrics three times So really we have a unique situation in 2015 where we see a confluence of events coming together to focus world leaders Public policy players private enterprise on driving sustainable development goals worldwide it's extremely encouraging, but I just want to to close and reaffirm how important it is for the people who care the people who are really trying to drive change to have Independence in objectivity and not let this become completely co-opted by those who are coming into the space Most recently. What can you all do? Well at Calvert We are very engaged as an activist in trying to move public companies forward when we see behaviors by corporate Management that we think need to be changed we contact them We speak with them directly and when necessary we file shareholder resolutions and take it to a vote This is the role of the investor in the capital markets. We vote our proxies not just for management We vote our proxies for the people in an effort to solve these major problems And you are the people as I said at the beginning who are helping to redefine The social norms that we're asking the companies to live up to we need you to join them Join the movement. We need you to engage. We need you to vote your proxies We need you to contact company management alongside of the players like Calvert the more voices the better And we are getting success. We're at a tipping point and we need everybody Particularly low those of you in this room to join in so thanks for being part of a fantastic movement Appreciate it. Thank you on the first day when we were here on Tuesday before the conference officially opened we had a session about entrepreneurship and Had our gratitude award entrepreneurs, and then we had some folks who have had many years of experience and successful social entrepreneurship On our stage and in the middle of that we had a wonderful presentation talk inspirational moment with a dear friend of mine Becca Stevens from Nashville, Tennessee, and we didn't want only the people who were here on the first day to meet Becca She is the person who started this old farms, and if you've been by our marketplace You will see the products from this old farms and you can hear about the stories that come out of the work that she's doing at Magdalene and this old farms and Becca's going to come to the stage and talk for a few minutes and then she's from Nashville and another Nash Villian who I'm particularly happy is with us this year Chuck Cannon will be coming to the stage to sing for us a little bit again And we want to welcome my good friend Becca Stevens to the stage Thank you So not too long ago, I was invited to be a speaker at a human trafficking conference And I think I was invited for three reasons and the first one is because how you make this go on there It is the first one is because I'm the founder and I've been a part of this work at this old farms for years and years And we've grown into the largest social enterprise for women survivors of trafficking prostitution and addiction It's run by the women. There's probably 70 Employees that manufacture products. We have a great line people love it and they wanted to hear about it and hear about this good news Second reason I was invited is because the model began with housing first for women Who are coming off the streets and out of prisons who are first rate between the ages of seven and eleven on average Who first hit the streets about 14 to 16 years old? And we have this old-school model. I know here It's really popular to have the new new newest amazing idea, but Sometimes old is the new new And this is an old-school model that says love heals We invite women to come in for two years free with no authority living in the house And it's been a great model over the years and women have come in about 80 percent of the women who come in Stay clean and sober Two and a half years later. Thank you for clapping. That is so nice And so we've started sister communities around the country where we can partner and become a national network for women Who are trying to find safe places? We always have at least a hundred women on our waiting list I've had two calls today since I've been here from women in other states who need help need Sanctuary are running away and need a place to go and The third reason that I think I was invited was because we are looking at a global issue And we've had a global response the universal issues of sexual violence against women are born on women's individual backs and it takes Small communities to do this healing, but we need to have Supply chains and distributions that are global to find markets so women can make living Wages and make restitution with their family in that old saying rape the women and kill the villages true And you heal the women and you heal the villages So I did my talk I Did my talk Felt really good about it people were gonna buy the products we were gonna be able to stay open yet another week When a young woman came up to me right after the talk a Young woman like most of the women that I serve ran away from home Was stuffed into a trunk taken to Texas where she was kept for about 18 months before she found a way out She was at this conference after finding a safe house and she comes up to me after I finished speaking and whispers in my ear Tell me again. What love is All this stuff you're saying What does it mean And I've been thinking about her words the last couple days while I've been here and thinking about all this Language and all this amazing talk y'all are brilliant and doing beautiful things And I think what does it mean? What are we doing? What does it mean to take our ideals and our hopes for this world and how we want to be in it and Live into it with dignity and compassion and love And I think I've gotten it down to what it means for me It means first that I do believe that love is the most powerful force for social change It impacts it helps us with supply chains. It helps us grow Exponentially love can do that it can transform it can do all of those change making things we desire And I think love is this ideal That we are willing to put into practice in our daily lives I have learned more about love in the drudgery of this work of social enterprise in the daily task than I ever could By just pontificating about it and finally I think what it means for me is That it's who and what I choose to let break my heart She has inspired me and you guys have inspired all of us here Jovita Laurie who are both still in the residential program Franny and Abbey and Rosalie who have helped orchestrate our being here and directing it It's inspired me to say I'm just getting started This beautiful young women and the two women that she lives with in her house are coming this weekend To Thistle Farms to start their training as the first regional sales team We have 1700 women that are part of shared trade 70 women employed in Nashville And we're gonna double it and we are gonna have an impact and we are gonna be re-inspired We get to go around the country and keep one person at a time reminding people that we can be Inspired again by love to do this great work. We have all felt called to do and live into Not too long ago. I went to Florida with one of the residents who shared that story who spent 26 years on the street We got to Florida and she said even though she had seen the inside of prison walls and the underside of bridges and the backside of anger And the short side of justice she had never seen the ocean so we went straight there And I got to be with her when her feet first hit those sugar sands And when she stepped into the ocean She just raised her arms and lifted her head and said has this been doing this my whole life Now as long all those 26 years that woman was walking the streets that tide was going in and out As long as the moon's been spinning around the earth that tide has been going in and out, but longer and Deeper than that tide is love and it is more powerful and when we come together and when we hope we can do great things Thank you for welcoming us into this conference. Thank you for having us. Thank you for letting us dream bigger Again, we love you Hey y'all Let's keep that little message going. Can y'all help me out here just a little bit Let's do this It all comes down to love it all comes down to love Talking heads talking to us on the television Silver screen preachers and politicians see they got the answer first. You got to squeeze us send money There's a tax on Jesus fix it with a prayer fix it with a dollar Anybody out there want to holler? Oh Oh self-help guru. They got a best-seller Ricky legs got a Bank teller 1900 looking to the crystal the NRA says you're gonna need a pistol They made a little pill, but it might cause cancer just to cheap through when you're looking for the answer. Oh Oh It all comes down to love Oh Suits on Wall Street to make another million dealer on the back street talking to your children and your cry for help Nobody listens. You lie wicked night and wonder if what's missing who can put an end to all the confusion Looking to your heart for the one solution I heard Becca say Why am I here and Boy, that's a really burning question for me Why am I here? Why is the guy standing here with a guitar and a room full of people who're trying to make a business? I'm confused just like you are But here's what I know Here's what I know Nobody buys anything unless they're moved emotionally keep that in mind Trying to make money tigs most of our lives It's been on to make husband's Strangers to wise until this kids don't recognize him when he comes through the door It's enough to make you wish money don't matter no more She's got a minimum wage job 30 hours a week Now on her man just left her with three hungry miles She's got a feed so she's stealing some milk from the grocery store It'll make you wish money don't matter no more We're all underpaid and we're all overwhelmed Oh how I wish love was the coin of the round Where everyone's rich or when nobody's poor Yes, sometimes I wish money just don't matter no more. How about you? And you can make it the measure of how much you're worth and you can store all your treasures Down here on earth. You can buy a big boat that won't sell heaven sweet That's safe harbor where the money don't matter no more We're all underpaid and we're all overwhelmed Oh how I wish love was the coin of the round Where everyone's rich or when nobody's poor In the place where the money don't all the Christians and all the Buddhists and the Muslims and Jews and the atheists the agnostic the Rastafarian the Zoroastrian the Presbyterian Episcopalians Pentecostals and even Sikhs and Hindus The doctor the lawyer the preacher the whore We all gonna end up where the money don't matter no more We're all underpaid and we're all overwhelmed Well, how I wish love was the coin of the round Where everyone's rich or when nobody's poor When we all get to where the money don't matter no more. Remember the first day Well, here's a little story about what went wrong. I'm doing this for you You let the fox watch the hen house your clucking chicken little stories getting scary You let the dog watch the kitty cat You let the kitty cat watch the canary You let the kids have the keys to the candy store. You let the hippie keep an eye on the bone You let the fox watch the hen house. There ain't no mystery bow. Oh when wrong You let the banker Guard the money But you did not watch the banker. You let the oil man watch the oil field He bought a shiny brand new oil tanker. You let the corporation pick the politician You let the politician watch the corporation and now you're sending round your internet petition About the broke down situation You let the fox watch the hen house your clucking chicken little story got scary You let the dog watch the kitty cat. You let the kitty cat watch the canary You let the kids had the keys to the candy store. You let the hippie keep an eye on the bone You let the fox watch the hen house. There ain't no mystery bow. Oh when wrong You let the jiggle old date your daughter You let the Cougar watch your teenage son. You let the smuggler guard the barter You let Jesse James hold the gun You got the tax man's hand in your pockets too deep. You let the lawyers tell you right from wrong Now that the terrorist guy's a rocket. I guess everyone can sing along You let the fox watch the hen house your clucking chicken little story got scary You let the dog watch the kitty cat. You let the kitty cat watch the canary You let the kids have the keys to the candy store. You let the hippie keep an eye on the bone You let the fox watch the hen house There ain't no mystery about a woman wrong You let the fox watch the hen house And now all your eggs Gone thank you so much. Have a good time tonight alright, so You heard this morning that we're talking about impact that comes from other places that you you might not have expected it And what I think one thing we really underestimate in this area. We're talking about capital markets We're talking about impact through capital markets Is that there's a lot of people making impact through those capital markets in a different way through? activism through campaigning and we have someone here with us tonight who brings down the house every year at personal democracy forum who is a Celebrity in this world of activism and organizing and I just think I'm so impressed with her and Really wanted the SoC app audience to hear these other ways that people are having impact tremendous impact and making huge social and environmental change So please welcome Christy George from New Media Ventures and Terence Steinbrickner Kaufman from some of us I was just saying to Lindsay it was quite sadistic to put us after guy with guitar like we're not going to be able to sing for you but Knowing that we are the last thing between you and a drink. We will try to make it as interesting as possible I'm short. Yeah short and interesting. I'm Christy George. I'm the director of New Media Ventures We are a seed fund and network of angel investors focused on media and technology startups that create progressive change and I've been coming to SoC app for many years and speaking at SoC app and one of the things that I'm so excited about today is the integration of Politics and activism into the conversation around impact investing so we were Really proud a couple of years ago to have Taryn come into our orbit and to be able to support Her work at some of us and I think you are in for a treat in hearing how she's grown that organization from just her to quite a global behemoth so Taryn, why don't we just start tell us why did you start some of us? What is it? Why should people in this room care? Yeah, um, so some of us is Over 5 million consumers investors and workers around the world working together to Push companies to be more Responsibles and socially environmentally Politically getting money out of politics and so on and the reason that we're New is because the way we do that is online and in global internet access As you know is like a relatively new phenomenon historically And so the idea that you could get you know 200 000 consumers overnight to express Concern about an issue to a company from 180 different countries That's a new thing and that's what we do and the reason that I think this is so important is because major global corporations as you know are The most among the most important political actors in the world and in fact like of the top hundred world economies Something like half of them are corporations not countries And so when you're thinking like who are the people in the world who can change people's lives It's not just presidents and prime ministers. It's CEOs And often that change can happen much more quickly than political change And I came to this work because I came out of the climate movement and I worked in the lead up to Copenhagen in 2009 the big climate conference that was a total and complete failure and Took a sort of step back from that And was like well, I'm an american citizen the reason that we cannot get this global treaty That everybody knows is the right thing for the world Like everybody knows the policy solutions. This isn't a mystery It's purely a power problem But the reason we can't get that treaty is because of the u.s I'm an american citizen so I came back in 2010 and worked to try and get a climate bill passed in the u.s Also a total and complete failure as you might remember um And again the sort of the next step back is well, why why can't we get a global treaty because of the u.s Why can't we get a u.s treaty because of the stranglehold that the fossil fuel industry has on washington? There's no way around it. That's the answer Um, and so I'm gonna do what I can to try and hold corporations accountable because they really are the power players on most issues So is that the problem that you would say some of us is explicitly solving? Uh, yeah, I mean well, we haven't solved all the world's problems yet But the idea is that you know In some ways The economy and the marketplace is actually a more democratic forum than politics There's literally no politician in the world who cares what every single person on earth thinks of them Um, even the secretary general of the u.n. Like there's a lot of people on earth that they really just don't care about but pepsi like pepsi Literally cares what every single person in the world thinks of them and with not that much difference It's been how much they care, you know an american consumer might only be worth 10 times as much as to them as Like the poorest person in the world, frankly And so that the ability to mobilize people around the world To hold corporations accountable seemed really Potentially quite powerful and we've seen a huge amount of success In this in this strategy Can you give us a couple of examples of the consumer advocacy campaigns you run because I think what is um At least as grant makers what has been so exciting for us is how you are winning essentially campaigns Yeah, it's a it's a lot more fun than politics a lot of the time Um So one example that's really relevant right now in california that i'm excited about is I mean we have a drought as i'm sure You all know and it's not just here. It's up and down the whole west coast um And nestle is bottling groundwater in california and selling it for a profit right now And they're do they want to start doing that in oregon. They are i've also been doing it in british columbia. In fact in british columbia The water rate was i'm not making this up was two dollars and 25 cents per Let me make sure i'm getting this right per million liters of groundwater Is what they were paying the british columbian government And so we you know stopping nestle from doing this would be awesome in and of itself But it's also an entree into a larger conversation because nestle is a very relatable brand for consumer consumers And so we're running campaigns up and down the west coast In california we held a rally outside of a nestle bottling plant They got national press coverage a few months ago In oregon we're fighting the new state law that would allow nestle To do the same thing that they're doing in california and in british columbia. We actually had a big win After we got we had a petition that went totally viral calling on the state government to Change the way that they treat water rates And had 225,000 people signed it and we took it delivered it huge delivery Lots of press and the british columbian government agreed and is currently Uh changing in the process it'll you know, we don't know what the outcome is going to be yet But they entered a process they were not In because of our campaign and so that was really exciting and it said it's it's allowed us to start a bigger conversation With five million consumers around the world about water privatization issues One thing that i've heard people say about some of us that is interesting from an activism perspective is that People think of traditional activism as wholly oppositional And one thing that is also interesting about what you do is the way you think about Having a positive influence on companies as well. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I mean Companies are not monolithic, right? And there are lots of people inside every company who want to be doing good Or want the least to be doing better But they often don't have the power to make that happen and so What we actually see ourselves doing a lot of the time is providing those internal voices with Like more sort of External stuff they can point to you and letting giving them like a leg to stand on Well, if you've got 200 000 consumers who've expressed anger about this thing Then you can call a meeting about it and maybe some people will come whereas before you couldn't Or if you if you force the social media people and the comms people and to spend, you know To spend two days working on this issue It's going to get to a much higher level in the organization than it might otherwise So it's not like, you know, we don't Most people in the world work for big corporations, right? It's not like we think that all those people are evil or something But the way that the incentive structures are set up. It's it's not You know, it's not easy to to do good always so You started doing consumer advocacy campaigns But you have also done a lot of work in the shareholder activism world I suspect that there are people in this audience who have been quite active in that world Can you tell us how that manifests in the context of some of us? Yeah, um So I really think consumer organizing and shareholder advocacy go hand in hand And that's one thing actually that if you're going to take something away from this That's a big one for those of you work As you know in shareholder advocacy or in related fields Like I think there's sort of a division like we don't people in those worlds don't know each other the people in the consumer Organizing world in the shareholder world don't know each other very well But if you're a shareholder, you're trying to get a company to do something You have to demonstrate a financial risk Um and consumers are the ones who are the financial risk a lot of the time And so, you know, we look for issues where shareholders are doing work and we look to channel and express Consumers frustration around that in a demonstrable way. So you can say there's 200 000 people who are worried about this thing We also actually act as shareholders Sometimes so we file shareholder resolutions. We file the resolution on behalf of some of our members who own shares in amazon earlier this year and got amazon amazon is notoriously unresponsive to consumer campaigns But this was around the working conditions in amazon warehouses And filed a resolution asking for disclosure Around those conditions and got it on the the ballot and amazon was much much much more responsive to that Then they had been to other groups consumer campaigns And Another great example was kinder morgan is a canadian extractives Company that's trying to build a pipeline as many canadian extractives companies are and it's going through the land of the Tulal watt tooth first nation in alberta um And so we worked with that with that first nation and we crowd funded a tour from our members donated to um And we we accompanied the the leaders of the first nation group to Wall street and got them meetings with jp morgan with goldman sacks And with eight eight different institutional investors that represented 10.5 percent of kinder morgan's shares And those investors had only been told so far that everything was on track And that you know that was going to be approved and don't worry and everything's fine And they didn't know that the first nations groups were fighting the pipeline actually until we met with them um And since then it's actually been a whole reversal Again, it's going to be years before we actually know the outcome, but there's just a five a month delay announced um an alberta oil Oil newspaper not a progressive lefty rag at all Said that the whole thing had been a public relations nightmare for kinder morgan um So those are the kinds of things and and you know, we would love to work with more shareholder advocacy groups, so The i'm sort of interested in how you characterized one company as notoriously unresponsive And then there's sort of ways you can move them up the ladder toward responsiveness at some level It seems like there's Partly a question of people just didn't know in this sort of in this example It was like they didn't know these people existed is that typically what is the difference or there are other differences That move people at the end of the day. It really depends. I mean walmart is a totally different kettle of fish from You know a small company that has never had a pr crisis before. I mean you guys are all involved you're on boards of companies like you know the different pr Experiences different comms experiences, so it's often, you know as consumers were often like this is a really important issue And we got nothing right and then this is a really important issue. No, let's yell it louder Let's do it in this other way and then you get something that bites and suddenly you get You know somebody once told me like if you can just make it Something that the ceo has to think about like once a week Then and it you might you know like ceos don't want to have to think about your campaign once a week, so I think that seems like a pretty good shorthand. Yeah Um, I want to pivot a little bit to some of us's model So some of us is a nonprofit organization at new media ventures. We make for-profit investments debt equity investments as well as grants and You know people tend to think of roi in terms of investment And then think of grant making as simply giving money away and so i'm interested in how you think of Both some of us is revenue model, which I think would be helpful for people to hear And how you think of sort of return on investment in the context of a nonprofit. Yeah um My big top line here would be that it's maybe counter-intuitive But actually in some cases giving to nonprofits is a better investment than Investing in a for-profit company and by that I mean if your bottom line is impact and change, which I see many That's why many of you are here We There are nonprofits that are actually revenue generating and that require investment in order to generate that revenue And we're one of them. Um, so we've taken less than three million dollars in major donor and foundation funding since we launched And we're currently Raising online a million dollars a quarter in small dollar donations So if you think about that the our early investors of which new media ventures is one and their investment group The investors that work through them like Arguably those investors have already had a 10 to 20 times payoff In terms of revenue generated for progressive change Um, and that's just to date right that's going to continue to pay off for as long as we're raising money from small small dollar donors. So that's uh Yeah, think about it that way right like you could invest in something and get the money back and then try to give it Away for good, but you could also invest in the good thing. That's revenue generating to begin with um Yeah, how do you you know, there's a lot of hand wringing within this community? Since you mentioned impact as presumably the bottom line of every single person in this room About how exactly to measure that impact. Um, especially in the context of a campaigning organization You've got the campaign wins, but the kind of change you're seeking is quite long term How do you think about measuring impact or how and you know, how might that be instructive for all of us? Yeah, it's uh, it's really hard, right? Has anybody got a perfect solution because I'd love to hear it I listened to the panel earlier today talking about this And I think in many ways the impact investing community is ahead of the campaign and community in measuring impacts But I think we also have lessons to share And one of the lessons for me is to like you think if you think about your theory of change, right some The thing that you do that makes this other thing happen that makes this other thing happen That makes other thing happen that means that like more poor people have food Right or whatever it is whatever your theory of change is Um, it's often really hard to test that the thing you're doing which is giving money to Some company is going to result in more people having more food But you can test the links along the way of the chain You may not be able to test all of them But so like the one thing I would say is like keep your eyes open for the links that you can test So an example of this in campaigning Is we pour untold resources into getting people to make phone calls to congress, right? As a movement and actually You know, there's a lot of reasons to think that that works that that has effect But nobody's ever run a controlled trial to see whether it actually does and it wouldn't be that hard You could use a state legislature as a testing bed and you could generate They pick half of the state legislators randomly on some issue that they don't get lobbied on a lot And generate phone calls to that half and not to the other half and see if it affects how they vote And that's something that kind of thinking about like where are the links in the chain That you could test And making sure you actually test them I think the other thing I would say which I don't think the campaigning world does a great job of but I would I'm trying to change that is That you should be investing actual resources in measuring your impact Like if you invest 10 of all your resources in measuring your impact and that makes you 20 more effective Then you've won right you've won that game And it's not that hard to get 20 more effective, but if you like really work at it So I think that's you know, that's a way to think about it So you tell us as we're sort of wrapping up what you're most excited about now in terms of some of us's future And what we should expect from you Yeah, well, so actually, you know, this is a little wonky, but the thing that I'm most excited about right now is technology Our sector has not really adapted the digital, you know move on like you get a lot of emails Some of them are donation asks that's still the the the model that we all use in digital campaigning progressive campaigning And the world has changed a lot since that model was invented Like people are now reading all their email on their phone. Frankly, they don't really like email very much Whereas it used to be really personal And we're building a world-class technology team in house to try and figure out how you use whatsapp and how you use Apps on your phone to try and mobilize more people and just get millions and millions more people engaged Thank you for that. Um as we wrap up I was sort of thinking about my takeaways from your Points and I think I'm thinking a lot about one Keeping all of our eyes open for links that might reveal impact along the sort of chain of our work To also to consider nonprofit impact As potentially more efficient than some of the for-profit investments we might make And then last to create a campaign that keeps the CEO Thinking once a week and seems like we'll be able to solve everything Just join me, please in thanking taren steinbrückner kaufman and sharing some of her wisdom today. Thank you christie Thanks, rosalie. Thank you so much for hanging in with us to the end of the day We have a party planned over in herps and we'll be with you there for about an hour an hour and a half Before you head out to dinner. So join us over there for some drinks and appetizers. We'll see you there