FREE Social Impact Investment Webinars in March
"Why are you fighting the biggest, baddest fights of our lives with only 2-3 tools of the 50 tools in the toolbox? Not using financial innovation and impact investing as an environment and climate justice leader is like walking down the streets of NYC in a blizzard in the middle of winter in shorts, blindfolded, barefoot, with your arms tied behind your back. You could do it, but why would you want to?"
-Dr. Stephanie Gripne, Founder and CEO, Impact Finance Center
Impact investing aims to channel capital into enterprises that can create positive social and environmental change, which tends to be sidestepped in traditional business models. Dr. Stephanie Gripne, a Visiting Scholar at The Tishman Center and the Founder and CEO of Impact Finance Center, is an expert on this topic. Impact Finance Center is a multi-university nonprofit academic center that identifies, trains, and activates individuals and organizations to become impact investors.
As part of her collaboration with the Tishman Center, Dr. Gripne will be teaching a series of webinar courses on impact investing in March. These webinars would be helpful for people working in the nonprofit, social innovation, and fashion sectors, activists working on divestment campaigns, impact entrepreneurs, and anyone generally curious about alternative business models and approaches to financing.
All four webinars are free and open to the public. Please read on to learn more about each course and sign up!
Climate Financial Innovation and Impact Investing
Monday March 16th
930am - 1130am
Course Description: Climate change is both the single greatest threat and opportunity that humanity has ever faced. According to Nature, $2.4 trillion (approximately 2.5% of the world’s economy) is needed annually for investment in the energy system alone to limit temperature rise to below 1.5 °C. Such investments could catalyze over 65 million new jobs and $26 trillion in economic impact by 2030. Because 85-90% of the capital will need to be provided by the private sector, we need to increase the pace and scale that individuals and organizations aligned with climate need to become educated and activated.
This class will introduce the concept of Full Spectrum Capital and how we can use Impact Investing and Financial Innovation Institute, Investor Accelerators aka Impact Investing Giving Circles and Investor Clubs to identify, educate, and activate full spectrum climate capital to increase the flows of aligned capital that will increase worker and community ownership while solving our climate crisis.
Financial Innovation and Impact Investing for the Divest-Invest Movement
Monday March 16th
1 pm - 3 pm
Course Description: So, you convince your University Endowment or Family Foundation or Pension Fund that they want to divest from fossil fuels. What next? The following advanced introductory class is designed to introduce you to and outline the next steps decision makers need to take on their journey to develop fossil fuel free portfolio including the following: their Investment Beliefs, Review their Investment Advisor, Establish Evidenced Based Attribution Evaluation, Review the Portfolio for Environmental, Social, Governance impacts, and a suite of other tools.
In 2010, as a result of concern for climate change, student-led campaigns emerged on campuses across the U.S. pushing university endowments to divest from fossil fuels and invest in clean energy and the communities most impacted by climate change through their various assets (stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments). This student initiated effort became the fastest divestment movement in history by 2015. By December 2019, a total of 1,200 institutions and over 58,000 individuals representing $12 trillion in assets worldwide had been divested from fossil fuels.
The following class will introduce the concept of Full Spectrum Capital and how we can use Impact Investing and Financial Innovation Institute, Investor Accelerators aka Impact Investing Giving Circles and Investor Clubs to identify, educate, and activate full spectrum capital to increase the flows of aligned capital that will increase worker and community ownership while solving our climate crisis.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Financial Innovation and Impact Investing
Tuesday, March 17th
930 am - 1130 am
Course Description: As individuals and organizations make commitments to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, there is an opportunity to catalyze additional investments to increase impact. Less than 1% of the $70 Trillion managed by US asset management firms in the U.S are managed by women and people of color according to the 2017 U.S. Government Accountability Office, despite the fact that there are 186 women and people of color asset management firms. Shifting the assets of individuals and organizations into women and people of color firms is an important rung on a long ladder to solving the wealth gap.
The following class will introduce the concept of Full Spectrum Capital and how we can use Impact Investing and Financial Innovation Institute, Investor Accelerators aka Impact Investing Giving Circles and Investor Clubs to identify, educate, and activate full spectrum climate capital to increase the flows of aligned capital to women and people of color managers that will increase worker and community ownership solving our wealth gap.
Fiber, Justice, and Fashion Financial Innovation and Impact Investing
Tuesday, March 17th
1 pm - 3 pm
Course Description: Fiber, Justice, and Fashion Financial Innovation & Impact Investing is a movement and a process of fostering change across the textile supply chain (i.e. crops, fibers, and garments) of producers, manufacturers, and retailers towards greater wealth for workers and communities, and protection of the environment. The fashion industry is currently one of the most harmful industries to communities and environment, polluting the water, air, and soil across the world (through over production of fashion, synthetic fibers, agriculture pollution, etc.). The US has tripled their consumption of garments since 1960, resulting in a powerful opportunity to create massive change in how the industry does business.
The following class will introduce the concept of Full Spectrum Capital and how we can use Impact Investing and Financial Innovation Institute, Investor Accelerators aka Impact Investing Giving Circles and Investor Clubs to identify, educate, and activate full spectrum capital to increase the flows of aligned capital into the Fiber and Fashion Supply chain that will increase worker and community ownership while solving our climate crisis.
Impact Investment Center also extended an invitation to The New School community to their other upcoming course:
Corporate Financial Innovation & Impact Investing 2-day Executive Ed Course, taking place on May 19-20th at the Amalgamated bank, which will cover impact investing strategy, process, governance, and investment efficiency through a new framework for evaluating both philanthropy and investing. Enter TISHMAN for 50% off of registration for this course.