Why This | And Now for Something Completely Different

Business as we know it has not been working. Inequality continues to grow. Many people do not have access to opportunities or tools to improve their current economic situation. As of 2016, the average net worth of a Black family was about 10 times less than the net worth of a White family, according to the Brookings Institution, with no ubiquitous pathways to improvement.

Impact investing has shown strong promise as a vehicle for change. The ability to directly invest in businesses doing good work, while providing a strong financial return, produces opportunities to generate real change. Most of the current opportunities are more accessible to people of wealth or only available through vehicles that negatively screen businesses doing less bad. It turns out, it is a good business decision to care about the long-term future of our world and the multiple bottom lines therein.

We need new models to harness the potential impact investing is showing, so more people can participate in the opportunity. The deep research on impact and ESG investing shows that long term horizons are beating companies that only focus on short-term returns, all other effects of their business be damned.

Why Us | We vs. Me

As business seeks more responsible standards, companies that create inclusive, socially impactful wealth for all people have the opportunity to grant additional access for change. Democratizing the models of impact investing generates newfound opportunities and pathways for more individuals.

Directly investing in things that are doing active good can help change the world, one company at a time. Uncharted Power is one of the companies that is creating real change – run by an incredible woman working to bring power and infrastructure to communities that do not have access to the grid.

When communities are improved in a collective, inclusive, clean way, the effects can trickle up to society at large.

Why Now | “Good Trouble!”

The Bubonic Plague led to The Renaissance – a more energized, youthful, creative, and inclusive world. The COVID-19 pandemic, the struggle for racial injustice, and ongoing climate crisis are collectively our current plague. And, an opportunity.

Now is the time to change the business landscape and make the future a better place. Business holds a unique and deep responsibility in this global dynamic. Equity and real returns, like communities of wealth have experienced for generations, can be made available to everyone through innovative investment vehicles, like holding companies.

These models need to be consistent philosophically with the ideals of our younger generations, who have unique access to information and are decidedly more inclusive in their thinking. My 22-year-old son said his entire generation has increased anxiety and, he continued, “It’s the Boomers’ fault.”

The time for action. I, for one, want to do what I can do make the future a better place for future generations.

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

— John Lewis speaking atop the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Selma, Alabama – March 1, 2020