Rehana Nathoo joined the Case Foundation in 2016 as part of the Social Innovation team. She serves as Vice President of Social Innovation, focusing specifically on the Foundation’s efforts around Impact Investing.

A self-identifying New Yorker, Rehana previously worked at the Bank of New York Mellon to help design the firm’s Social Finance program. specifically working closely with the Wealth Management business to build internal expertise around Social Finance, and creating a prototype for the firm’s first Impact Investment Fund.

Most recently, an Adjunct Professor of CSR and Social Finance at NYU Wagner School of Public Service, and also worked and honed her skills a program associate at The Rockefeller Foundation, helping to manage the thought leadership efforts around Impact Investing and Innovative Finance.

Rehana and I have a wide ranging conversation, but dig in deep on the Case Foundations newest project, the Impact Investing Network Mapp. Fueled with publically available data, it's the first attempt to put all of the data around impact deals into one visual tool.  It's a bold new project, currently in the final leg of its open feedback period, after you listen to the podcast, make sure you go check out the map. Play with it, dive into it. What do you love about it, what's missing, and what potential do you see?  For me, I'm excited to see where impact deals are happening outside placed like the Valley and New York. Maybe we'll find some unlikely hotspots of impact. I'm also excited to see the definition of an "impact deal" continue to evolve and be solidified. I'm of the firm belief that there are far more "impact" companies out there that "non-impact" - and this map will be a tool to help increase and expand the public awareness of the space. 

Show notes and resources

• Rehana Nathoo LinkedIn | Twitter | Medium
• The Case Foundation
• Case Foundation - Impact Investing Network Explanation 
• The Impact Investing Network Map | Demo
• Rehana Nathoo at the Wharton Social Impact Conference 2017
• The Impact Investor
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Rockefeller Foundation - Impact Investing

 

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For the past several years, John has been Director of Impact Capital at Santa Clara’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and has also been a mentor to social entrepreneurs at the Global Social Benefit Accelerator.  In 2011 he authored a report on impact investing entitled Coordinating Impact Capital: a New Approach to Investing in Small and Growing Businesses and recently co-authored a chapter on equity investing in New Frontiers of Philanthropy (Oxford Press-2014).  He is now pioneering a new investment vehicle – the Demand Dividend - that presents investors with a ‘structured exit’ alternative to equity.  In addition, he is co-founder and Director of Toniic, a syndication network of impact investors.

John manages investments through Redleaf Venture Management, a venture capital operating company founded in 1993.  John's earlier background includes twenty years of executive level positions at Hewlett Packard, Silicon Graphics, Convergent Technologies and Unisys.  He was one of the founding executives at Netscape Communications. He led investments at AdRelevance (JMXI), Mosaic Communications (TWX), NetGravity (DCLK), RedCreek Communications (SNWL), and Wireless Online.  John serves as a board member at PACT, an NGO based in Washington D.C.  He received his bachelor’s degree concentrating in international economics from UCLA and completed executive programs at Wharton and Stanford business schools. Over the last 15 years, he was a managing member of the UCLA Venture Capital Fund and still serves on the UCLA Sciences Board of Visitors. Other recent advisory committees include the World Economic Forum, and HUB Ventures. 

John has a vast wealth of knowledge when it comes to financing early stage companies, and he is now applying his skill set to helping social entrepreneurs build investment ready companies at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University. It's not often you get to have discussions with someone who launched the first micro VS firm back in 1993, and is now applying lessons learned from tech investing in Silicon Valley to the companies and entrepreneurs who are trying to build businesses addressing climate resilience, bottom of the pyramid customers, and is financing them through innovative means. Rather than always taking equity, there are alternative ways to fund social enterprise startups that align long term goals of both the investor and the company, and create a more sustainable model, and John is at the forefront of these methods.

 Show Notes and Resources:

• Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship
• Impact Capital
• Redleaf Venture Management 
• Climate Resilience
• Toniic
• Demand Dividend 1 | 2 | 3
• Investors Circle
• GIIN
• Arabella Advisors

 

 

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"The capacity for truly independent thought is first of all rare, and second of all lonely. And so to pursue that as an investor is critically important, yet really, really difficult."

Matthew Weatherly-White is the co-founder and Managing Director of the CAPROCK Group. A multi-family office based in Boise,ID with over 2 Billion dollars under management.

Matthew has accomplished a ton, but maybe most interesting about him is his philosophical approach to investing, and the numerous mental models he applies to the endeavor.

If you’re interested in exploring philosophical questions within Impact Investing, this is the episode for you. From applying mental models to your investment approach, to evolution, tribalism and Adam Smith, to shareholder activism, opting out, and why true impact investors are still so rare, and what it takes to develop the required skills to be one - this episode is designed to make you think deeply about impact investing, and how the markets, and the people working in them, operate as a whole.

"If the enemy of the good is perfect, then capital doesn't flow for fear of being wrong or unprofessional, or years later being looked back at with derision."

Shaping The CAPROCK Group’s initiative in Impact Investing, Matthew is a sought-after speaker and thought leader in the discipline. In addition to keynoting the 2013 European Commission's Annual Award for Social Innovation, Matthew has guest-lectured on sustainable business management and non-financial value creation at Harvard, Tuck, Kellogg, Booth and the American University in Paris business schools, has presented at conferences throughout the US and Europe, serves as a strategic adviser to several Impact Investing funds, and has been quoted in Barron's, International Business Daily, Bloomberg Business Week, Forbes and The New York Times. More recently, he successfully shepherded two pieces of legislation through the Idaho Statehouse, the first authorizing Pay For Success Contracting and the second awarding legal status to businesses structured as Benefit Corporations.

Prior to co-founding The CAPROCK Group, Matthew was a partner in The Owyhee Group, a boutique advisory team within Smith Barney. During his fourteen years with the company, he was a member of Citigroup’s elite Leadership Development Program and helped craft the firm’s Private Wealth Management platform. Matthew graduated from Dartmouth College, has competed internationally in five different sports and continues to serve as a Director for the Lee Pesky Learning Center, an organization he helped launch nearly 20 years ago. When not working, Matthew can usually be found outside, running, skiing, mountaineering, cycling... and generally encouraging his daughter to enjoy wilderness with the same irrational exuberance as her father.​

Show Notes and Resources:

• Caprock Group
• Integrated Impact Investing
• Matthew's Vlog on the Vatican Bank experience
• IPAR
• Bloomberg - Masters in Business Interview
• The Most Fascinating Impact Investor You've Never Heard Of
• Social Justice Fund 
• Devin Thorpe | Your Guide to Impact Investing
• Jed Emerson
• SOCAP
• Jed Emerson SOCAP talk
• Deval Patrick
• Bain Capital
• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
• Book of Five Rings
• Sapiens
• Meditations

 

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Kusi joined Global Partnerships June 2015. He is responsible for identifying and researching social impact and financial return potential of new investment initiatives, refining existing investment initiatives as well defining GP’s overall investment strategy. He also GP’s lead for agriculture and health sectors. Prior to joining GP, Kusi worked three years as a management consultant for Bain & Company in South America and five years as an Investment Officer for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

In both roles he has published numerous papers on private sector development and impact investing. He also has extensive experience presenting at international forums such as the UNCTAD Global Conference on Trade and Investment, Latin America’s Impact Investing Forum and World Bank Groups FPD Forum. He holds a B.A. with honors in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPA/ID from the Harvard Kennedy School where he won both Center for International Development (CID) and ICICI Bank fellowships; and an MBA from INSEAD Global Business School in Singapore where he was Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellow. Kusi is also co-leader of the Harvard Kennedy School Network for Washington state, a member of the Impact Hub global community, and serves as an adviser to various social entrepreneurs around the globe.

In this episode, Kusi takes us through a deep dive into his career path of economic development and impact investing, and discusses the great work Global Partnerships is doing to expand opportunity for people living in poverty in Latin America, the Caribbean and East Africa.

Show Notes and Resources:

 

• Kusi Hornberger | LinkedIn
• Global Partnerships
• INSEAD
• Harvard Kennedy School
• Cook Stoves | More Info
• Doing Good Better | William MacAskill 
• Crazy is a Compliment | Linda Rottenberg

 

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Mark Horoszowski is co-founder and CEO of MovingWorlds.org, a global platform that helps people volunteer their expertise with social impact organizations around the world, on their own or through corporate-sponsored programs. Since its launch in 2011, MovingWorlds.org has already helped unleash over 5 million dollars worth of professional skills to social enterprises around the world and is the originator of the term, Experteering. Mark holds a Master's in Accounting and a BA in Business from the University of Washington, serves as a volunteer co-chairing the American Cancer Society's National Volunteer Leadership Team, and is a contributor at Huffington Post Impact.

Moving Worlds is also a B-corp that has taken investment from the impact investing group,  Investors Circle, and has gone through the challenges in taking a social enterprise from idea, to market, and scale.

In this interview, Mark and I dive deep into the hard and soft skills that are most needed in emerging markets, and the ones that can have the biggest impact in your impact career. Things like accounting, sales and marketing, and technical know-how are highly coveted skills abroad, and MovingWorlds gives individuals the opportunity to volunteer their unique skillsets to help social enterprises around the world solve their grand challenges.  Most importantly, Mark and I discuss the need for empathy when helping others, how to develop empathy, and how to make sure your impact is lasting, even after you’ve returned home from experteering.

Volunteering can change the direction of your career, and open doors you never would've imaged possible. It has played such a large role in Mark's life, and mine as well, so I cannot stress its importance enough. It's something I continue to do through organizations like SCORE and Maine Startup and Create Week, and I highly encourage anyone listening to find ways you can volunteer. Whether you go on an experteering trip with Moving Worlds, or just find an organization or cause in your local community. Volunteering can have a massive impact on not only your life, but the people you’re volunteering for. I believe the quality of our life is greatly influenced by the quality of people in our lives, and volunteering is a great way to exponentially increase both.

 

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Jean Case is the CEO of the Case Foundation and Chair of The National Geographic Society Board of Trustees. Currently an actively engaged philanthropist, investor and pioneer in the world of interactive technologies, her career in the private sector spanned nearly two decades before she and her husband, Steve Case, created the Case Foundation in 1997. A passionate believer in all things digital and the amazing potential of technology to change the world for the better, the Case Foundation is recognized for its innovative efforts to address significant social challenges, harnessing the best impulses of entrepreneurship, technology and collaboration to drive exponential impact.

In addition to her role as CEO of the Case Foundation and Chairman of the National Geographic Society Board of Trustees, Jean also serves on numerous other boards around the globe, all focused on the forefronts of innovation, diversity and the education of our emerging leaders. Jean has also repeatedly been recognized for her incredible work by a wide variety of organizations, receiving accolades such as top Business Women, "Most Admired Nonprofit CEO, and "one of the 9 Most Generous Tech Entrepreneurs" by Fast Company. Jean is also an active contributor to civil causes and Government. In June 2006, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to chair the President's Council on Service and Civil Participation, and the Case Foundation is known for their work promoting an inclusive society.

This conversation is a absolutely fantastic, as Jean and I talked about diversity in social entrepreneurship and impact investing, failure, innovation in government, the rise of conservation technology, the impact of millennials and much, much more.  To anyone looking for a role model on how to think about impact, how to lead, or how to leverage your work for the greatest good, Jean is your woman.

 

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@jeancase

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@CaseFoundation

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Songbae Lee is a Senior Investment Officer at the Calvert Foundation, which is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), connecting individual investors with organizations working around the globe, developing affordable housing, creating jobs, protecting the environment, and working in numerous other ways for the social good.

Maybe the coolest part of Calvert Foundation is their community investment note run through Vested.org - an investment vehicle open to anyone in the world with just $20. The investment is applied to Community Development Partners working with Calvert to lend to entrepreneurs who are growing their companies and projects focused on social good. And because I know many of you are wondering about it - yes, there is a financial return on investment. O

Prior to Calvert, Songbae worked abroad in numerous developmental finance roles, helping bring financial services to the under served, and using finance as a means to improve the quality of people’s lives. A main function of his job is to conduct due diligence on potential borrowing companies, as well as oversee Calvert’s international portfolio.

Songbae is the kind of guy you could talk to for hours, learning something insightful from him every five minutes. This episode is wide ranging, and is the most story packed interview to date. Filled with valuable advice on how to pursue your career in impact investing, the skills you need to develop to succeed in any professional endeavor, as well as stories of microfinance in domestic and foreign applications, what is was like working in the financial industry during 2008, how other parts of the world view American finance, and personal tales of failure, exploration and success.

 

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Twitter: @calvert_fdn

http://www.calvertfoundation.org/

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/songbae-lee-0b617b

 

Jack Knellinger is the Principal and co-founder of Capria, the world's first VC accelerator focused on training the emerging wave of new impact investing fund managers.

Capria focuses on bringing in teams from developing nations, and teaches them how to operate fundraise and launch their impact focused VC firms in countries that traditionally don’t have experienced investors or a breadth of investors looking to invest in companies that are focused on social or environmental good. Capria also has a really intriguing model which does things such as allowing these emerging investors to put their investments on Capria’s balance sheet, which is incredibly helpful for these first time fund managers.

Led by an experienced team who also runs Unitus Seed Fund, Jack and the team at Capria are doing incredibly important work to spread the influence and implementation of impact investing globally. If you have any interest in launching your own fund, impact investing in parts outside the US, or are intrigued by the idea of an accelerator program for VC fund managers, this episode is a must listen.

Just one quick little side not for everyone listening before the start of the interview...Seattle has got a lot going on in the world of impact investing and for those of you who are unaware, I highly suggest poking your head around either in person or online and getting familiar with the work being done in the area. I think there are a lot of people and companies and names that over time will rise to the top and be some of the most recognizable in the industry.

 

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@CapriaVC

 

Jack Knellinger

@Knelly

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackknellinger

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2016/06/23/capria-emerging-managers-fund-impact-investing/#168b742531d0

Clara Miller is President of the Heron Foundation, which helps people and communities help themselves out of poverty. Prior to assuming the foundation’s presidency, Miller was President and CEO of Nonprofit Finance Fund which she founded and ran from 1984 through 2010. In addition to serving on Heron's board, Miller is on the boards of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and she is a member of the U.S. Advisory Committee to the G8 on Impact investing, named in 2014. From 2010-2014 Miller was a member of the first Nonprofit Advisory Committee of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Ms. Miller speaks and writes extensively and has been published in The Financial Times, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Nonprofit Quarterly and the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and her newest essay is titled Building a foundation for the 21st Century.

In 2015, Miller and Heron were named Investor of the Year by Institutional Investor Magazine in the category "small foundations."​ In 2014, Miller and Heron received the Prince's Prize for Innovative Philanthropy from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the “Shining Star Award” from New York City performance space, PS122. She was awarded a Bellagio Residency in 2010 by The Rockefeller Foundation and was named to The NonProfit Times “Power and Influence Top 50” for the five years from 2006 through 2010.

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Clara Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clara-miller-4b261614

This Podcast is sponsored by Maine Startup and Create Week. This years conference is June 20th to 26th in Portand, ME and is going to be amazing! This year’s conference is focused on design and innovation. They’re bringing in some of the best minds to discuss and teach how entrepreneurs can use the skills that accompany great design and design thinking to help build better companies, products and solutions to the world's most pressing problems? Panels will cover topics ranging from a mixture of Biotech, Agricultural tech and innovation and environmental technology to health-care, disruption of the insurance industry, industrial 3D design and lessons from failed startups.

Keynote speakers so far for this year include Mike Perlis (president and CEO of Forbes Media), Heather Stephenson (Head of Brand Strategy at Super) and Peter Roper (Head of Mobile Brand Strategy at Google).

Last years conference drew over 4000 attendees and had 215 volunteers contributing over 10,000 hours.  Check out Mainestartupandcreateweek.com for more information. If you want to volunteer, attend or think you know a good speaker for the topics at this years conference, let them know.

 

Enter Michael “Luni” Libes

Michael Luni Libes is one of the most brilliant early stage impact investors. He’s also been known to play ahead of the curve (tablets and smartphones) and see the trends and revolutions coming, albeit sometimes he gets there too early. He also sees things differently and has been at the forefront of early and seed stage impact focused support and investing and for years. He’s a serial tech entrepreneur turned impact investor and ecosystem builder.

His company, Fledge, is an innovative model for all forms of accelerator and incubator programs, and are one with a model that allow companies to continue to receive support from the accelerator once their cohort graduates. Fledge’s innovative for-profit investment thesis allows companies to focus on the most important metric to their success - getting customers - while using a small portion of their revenues to gradually buy back equity from its investors. This models provides investors with a 4x return on their investment, and makes the ROI comparable to tech investing.

With the launch of Aviary, Luni has now built three major required pieces of a startup ecosystem. A pre-accelerator, an incubator/accelerator program, and now a seed stage impact investing fund. In this episode, Luni will give you the blueprint for how you can join him and start building an impact focused startup support ecosystem in your city.  

Admittedly Michael “Luni” Libes is one of the biggest reasons for my entry into the field of impact investing. He was an early influence when I first got involved in the space back in Seattle, and was one of the people that gave me the opportunity to start learning and developing my understanding of impact investing and conducting due diligence on social good startups. It is because of all of these reasons that I am so excited to bring you this episode and share with you a glimpse into how seed stage impact investors see the world of social enterprise and startups.

Aviary.vc

Fledge.co

Spring.is

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Michael Libes: ttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lunarmobiscuit

www.lunarmobiscuit.com

This Podcast is sponsored by Maine Startup and Create Week. This years conference is June 20th to 26th in Portland, ME and is going to be amazing! This year’s conference is focused on design and innovation. They’re bringing in some of the best minds to discuss and teach how entrepreneurs can use the skills that accompany great design and design thinking to help build better companies, products and solutions to the world's most pressing problems? Panels will cover topics ranging from a mixture of Biotech, Agricultural tech and innovation and environmental technology to health-care, disruption of the insurance industry, industrial 3D design and lessons from failed startups.

Keynote speakers so far for this year include Mike Perlis (president and CEO of Forbes Media), Heather Stephenson (Head of Brand Strategy at Super) and Peter Roper (Head of Mobile Brand Strategy at Google).

Last years conference drew over 4000 attendees and had 215 volunteers contributing over 10,000 hours.  Check out Mainestartupandcreateweek.com for more information. If you want to volunteer, attend or think you know a good speaker for the topics at this years conference, let them know.

 

Enter Benjamin Stone:

Ben started his career in 2004 as a corporate litigator at a big international law firm in NYC, until 2008 when he and his college buddy (also an attorney) decided to start and scale Indego Africa, a social enterprise and lifestyle brand now partnering with more than 1000 women entrepreneurs in Rwanda and Ghana. Ben then spent some time at American Express leading programs to help small business owners in the U.S. prosper. He now serves as Managing Director & general counsel of the impact investing firm MCE Social Capital, which was just honored as an ImpactAssets top 50 firm for the fourth year in a row.

In his free time, Ben serves as vice chairman of Indego Africa and is a term member on the Council on Foreign Relations, where he often guest writes for the Development Channel, their blog on international economic development. Last year he co-founded Dollar a Day, a web platform that makes it easy for people to discover and support amazing nonprofits. Ben is also a regular speaker on a social innovation, careers, leadership, law, and entrepreneurship.

MCE Social Capital  is powered by its innovative Guarantor model, and with a special commitment to empowering women, MCE Social Capital (MCE) makes loans to organizations helping people living in poverty improve their lives.

MCE is a nonprofit impact investing firm that recruits trail-blazing individuals, foundations, and other entities to back loans to MCE from institutional lenders. MCE uses its Guarantor Model to fund loans to qualified Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and other financial providers that serve a high percentage of women, operate in rural communities, and offer health, education, or business training programs in the developing world. Since MCE commenced operations in 2006, it has issued over USD $100 million in loans to more than 50 organizations reaching hundreds of thousands of people in over 30 countries across four continents.

 

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MCE Social Capital

http://www.mcesocap.org/

MCE Social Capital Guarantor Model

http://www.mcesocap.org/take-action/become-a-guarantor/

Indego Africa HBS Case Study

https://hbr.org/product/The-Indego-Africa-Project/an/911011-PDF-ENG

Ben Stone

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminstone1

Indego Africa

https://indegoafrica.org/

 

Ben’s talks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-vwwoZ1V3M

Dollar a Day

https://dollaraday.co/