INVEST FOR BETTER MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER JULY 2023
Invest for Better
Invest for Better is a nonprofit campaign that provides resources for women to become effective impact investors.
Invest for Better Expands into Europe
Through a partnership with?Better Finance, our investment Circle model and content will be piloted in four European countries later this year. This work was made possible through a generous grant from the?Climate Finance Fund?(CFF), a philanthropic platform that helps mobilize capital for climate solutions. Over 800 women (and some men) will take part in IFB-like Circles in France, Germany, Spain, and Poland this Fall.?
The initiative came together because CFF recognized that Europeans needed more information about how they could put their investments to work to reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Better Finance, a Brussels-based non-profit, was identified as an excellent partner because of their focus on supporting European citizens as financial service users and due to their broad reach across the continent.?
Members of the Better Finance team participated in a few IFB Circles and examined our curriculum, particularly the content developed for our newest Deep Dive on?Investing for a Sustainable Environment. They created a modified version of our model and adapted our content so it meets the specific needs and unique investment environments of each of the four pilot countries.
We are very excited about this collaboration, and grateful to the Climate Finance Fund for their support. This image, which came from the CFF website, is so appropriate to our work and this effort because it shows that we are all in this together. And it reminds us that we are all needed to make the immediate and dramatic changes that are required to counter climate change, achieve sustainability, and build long-term economic models that support equity, people, and planet.
Catalysts & White Labels
Our partnership with Better Finance is an excellent example of one of the ways IFB is achieving scale. We have developed both Catalyst and White Label structures to enable others to build upon – and expand - our work.?
Catalysts are organizations and individuals who want to deliver an exact or modified version of our Circle model to a different demographic, geographic, or other specialized audience. In addition, we are exploring white labeling our content to help financial advisory firms, investment platforms, finance/investment educators, and a range of other players in the financial services industry easily integrate values-aligned messaging and content into their materials.?
Want to know more? Please reach out to Janine Firpo, who is leading these efforts at?[email protected].
From Our Community
"I’m Jeanne Wolz, a life and business coach, a mom to an imaginative toddler, a former public-school teacher, and a recovering perfectionist. After a journey from working 17-hour work days to 10-hour work weeks and still feeling unaligned, I decided that it was time to stop listening to “the experts” on how to create a meaningful and nourishing work life and start listening to myself. I’m interested in how to decouple ourselves from capitalist definitions of self-worth and success, and what can happen when we rewrite our lives from a space of deep inner wisdom."?
Jeanne grew up around conversations about money. The strongest messages she received as a woman in her family was to be “good with money,” which meant to save it. Though her uncle was a stock broker and even encouraged her to invest as a teenager, most of the discussions she overheard in her family about investing were between men. The conversations were also usually about how to make as much money as possible–and since that was never a big goal for her, the conversations never felt relevant. This led to feeling she didn’t belong in a room holding her own with people that were having deeper investment conversations. So, she shied away from the subject. Even after she was married, Jeanne did not feel that she knew how to exist in the investment world.?
Then she had an “aha” moment was when she realized that as a self-employed person, she needed to take responsibility for her own retirement. By this time, for Jeanne, investment was no longer about becoming rich, but rather about moving up her retirement to have greater control over her time. The only path forward that she could see though was to invest blindly in the stock market and that option was at odds with her values. Jeanne was at an impasse. That is when she found IFB, which she recognized as a way to dive deep into values-aligned investing in partnership with other women. Through IFB, she also learned how to use investment as a way to help create the world she wanted to see.?
After completing her Core Circle experience, Jeanne leveraged IFB’s partnership with ValuesAdvisor to find a new financial advisor. She is kicking off that relationship now. She feels empowered. “If it weren’t for IFB, I would not have the confidence to have the money conversations that I am having now. I can hold my own in my discussions with my financial advisor, and that is huge! Even my partner notices the change. He watches me and says, “Wow, look at you!”
If you would like to share a story about your money, your work, or your leadership with the Invest for Better community, please let us know. We would be happy to consider it for a future edition of the newsletter.?
Are You Ready to Lead?
Women are inspired to lead an Invest for Better (IFB) Circle for many reasons. They want to begin, or deepen, their own impact investing knowledge. Or, they want to build a community of support and a network to share investment ideas. Serving as an IFB Leader is also a great way to strengthen facilitation and community-building skills, because IFB partners with experts who share their expertise in these areas. Together, IFB Leaders are part of a movement that is redefining women’s relationship with money so we can step into our financial power and use our assets to create a more sustainable and equitable future for ourselves and the generations to come.?
We are recruiting leaders for our October 2023 Cohort. Leader training starts in August. Why don’t you join us as a Leader?
领英推荐
July Calendar
Date: July 11th at 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET
Title:?Hypatia Women CEO EFT (WCEO)
Patricia Lizarraga, Managing Partner, Hypatia Capital
Did you know that only 2% of the $12.6 trillion invested in U.S. based open-ended mutual funds is managed exclusively by women? That is a shockingly small percentage. As women, we have the opportunity to grow those numbers by showing our support for the women who have been courageous enough to enter this very male-dominated world.?
Patricia Lizarraga?is one of those women. She is a Managing Partner at Hypatia Capital, an asset management firm that has been focused on investing in women in leadership since 2007. The company has offered both private equity and hedge fund opportunities to accredited investors. Last year, as a result of Patricia’s leadership, the firm stepped out into new terrain when they launched the?Hypatia Women CEO ETF?(WCEO). This fund, which is available to any investor through the stock market, invests in all publicly traded companies that have a female CEO.?
Join us as we hear directly from Patricia about why she felt it was so important to develop this product, what it takes to bring a new public fund to market, and how investments in a fund like this can have impact on multiple levels simultaneously.
This event is exclusive to Invest for Better members.?Register through Mighty Networks.
Date: July 19th at 10:00 am PT/ 1:00 pm ET
Title: How to Build True Wealth?
Laura Oldanie, Founder, Rich & Resilient Living
Within the Invest for Better community, we often talk about our money stories and what it means to use our assets to support the world we want to see.?Laura Oldanie?goes even farther. In her personal life, writing, and work, she is exploring what it means to have a holistic view of wealth. In other words, what are the resources, assets, and building blocks beyond financial capital that fill our lives with meaning, richness, and resilience.?
Laura is a Green Living & Money Coach, a socially conscious investor, and author. She is also part of the Financially Independent Retire Early or F.I.R.E movement. Her book,?Growing Free: Financially Resilient and Economically Empowered, shows how Laura and people like her have been able to achieve a version of wealth that includes, and extends beyond, money to create a life that is a rich tapestry.?
This conversation will open your eyes to a completely different way of thinking about the life choices you make and how you want to leave your imprint on the world.
This event is free. Invest for Better members can?register through Mighty Networks, and non-members can?register via Eventbrite.?
Date: July 26th at 10:00 am PT/ 1:00 pm ET
Ask the Expert: Investing Through CDFI Loan Funds?
Lisa Richter, Managing Director, Avivar Capital?
Lisa Richter, our expert for this month’s Ask the Expert session, has been involved in socially responsible investment strategies for close to 30 years. In both her current role as Managing Director of Avivar Capital and her prior role as Co-Founder & Principle at GPS Capital Partners, Lisa and her teams have been providing financial advisory services to individuals, foundations, and institutional investors, who are ready to move their money in support of positive impact. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) have been core to Lisa’s work from her earliest days in the field and they continue to be central to her investment strategies.?
Come to this session to learn about the private debt opportunities CDFI Loan Funds provide or to ask any questions you have about finance and investing.
This event is exclusive to Invest for Better members. There will be no video recording.?Register through Mighty Networks.
If there are specific topics or speakers you would like to hear about – or from – in the months ahead, please let us know.
Just Released in Paperback
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Invest for Better is a non-profit educational organization. We are not registered investment, legal, or tax advisors. The information we provide is offered for general educational purposes only and is not intended to replace financial planning, legal, tax, accounting, or investment advisory services. Specific investments are described for informational purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or endorsement. Since investing is risky, you should always perform your own research and/or seek professional advice before making your investment decision. You can find our complete disclaimer?here.?