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Invest for Better Circle Toolkit: Guidance for Circle Leaders
Amplifying your Philanthropy through Impact Investing
There are many resources to help you on your impact investing journey. We’ve curated a list of some of our favorites.
Impact Investing Membership Organizations
- Confluence Philanthropy Affinity group available to foundations, grantmakers, and individual donors who want to participate in and/or accelerate the field of mission-related investing.
- Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing around the world.
- Intentional Endowments Network is a non-profit peer-learning network that aims to support the development of intentionally designed endowments.
- Social Venture Circle (SVC) is the world’s largest and most active early stage impact investing network.
- Mission Investors Exchange is the leading network for foundations seeking to grow and deepen their impact investing practice.
- The ImPact is a member network inspiring families to make more impact investments more effectively through the Pact.
- Toniic is the global action community for impact investors. Serves individuals, family offices, foundations, and funds through membership services.
- Women Moving Millions is a global philanthropic community committed to large-scale investment in women and girls.
Research, Policy, and Education Groups
- Boundless Impact Investing offers investors in-depth analysis of critical sectors of impact investing, financial diligence on the best investment opportunities, and a private social network to engage experts and share insights with peer investors.
- Criterion Institute is a nonprofit think tank that works with social change-makers to demystify finance and broaden their perspective on how to engage with, and shift financial systems.
- High Water Women is an organization founded by women in the hedge fund and investment industries with a focus on economic empowerment of women and children, values-based investing, and enriched educational opportunities for low-income youth.
- Impact Finance Center is a multi-university nonprofit academic center that identifies, trains, and activates philanthropists and investors to become impact investors.
- Impact Investing Alliance is a field building organization committed to raising awareness of impact investing in the United States, fostering deployment of impact capital and working with stakeholders to help build the impact investing ecosystem.
- Invest with Values is the trusted resource for investors learning to align their money and values in ways that generate financial return along with positive social and environmental change
Tools for Investing
- Impact Base is the searchable, online database of impact investment funds and products designed for investors.
- Toniic Impact Portfolio Tool is an Excel-based tool that enables impact investors to document the interrelationships between asset classes and the impact of a portfolio of investments.
- GIIN provides examples of investors and their investments
Tools for Figuring Out What You Own
- SEC’s Edgar database Here you’ll find links to a complete list of SEC filings
- Morningstar Here you can find what stocks are held in your mutual fund or ETF
- As You Sow Free online tools that screen mutual fund holdings against specific environmental, social, and governance issues.
- The Mutual Fund and ETF Performance Chart Free online tool that displays all sustainable, responsible and impact mutual funds and ETFs offered by US SIF’s institutional member firms. Allows investors to compare cost, financial performance, screens and voting records of competing funds.
- The Heart Rating Evaluates mutual funds selected by Natural Investments based on their social, environmental and corporate governance performance, their degree of community development investing, and the fund companies’ engagement in shareholder activism.
- Real Impact Tracker Provides ratings and certifications on 50 Asset Manager Funds as well as an opportunity to send a form letter asking for improvement
Blogs and Newsletters
- Max Impact blog highlights and discusses issues affecting social entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, non-profits, intermediaries, funders, government bodies and multilateral institutions within impact and sustainability.
- Impact Alpha Investment news for a sustainable edge.
- On Impact Weekly impact investing news digest from the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
- Mission Throttle Journal Stories, insights, and observations from the field.
- Green Money Journal Covering sustainable business and impact investing.
- B The Change Informs and inspires people who have a passion for using business as a force for good in the world. Published by B Lab and the community of B Corps.
- Mission Investors Exchange newsletter Monthly newsletter featuring the latest innovations in impact investing
- Nexus Global E-Newsletter with updates about Nexus
- Global network and programs
- SOCAP Impact Investing Monthly Monthly newsletter featuring the best in global impact investing news
- TBLI Daily Values-based investment news
- Breaking Good Breaking news in social good, curated by the Case Foundation.
- The Money Doula The Money Doula covers a variety of topics including aligning our assets with our values and investing for the world in which we want to live.
Invest for Better Circles
Invest for Better (IFB) Circles are small communities of women who are committed to increasing their personal knowledge and participation in values-aligned and impact investing, and in helping their peers take charge of their assets and make change.
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Toolkit: Guidance for Circle Leaders
This toolkit is intended to help IFB Circle leaders launch and manage a group. It provides practical guidance on how to form a Circle, how to build a community of trust, and how to structure and manage Circle sessions. To make it easier for you, we provide sample materials for agendas, worksheets and educational resources.
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Webinar: Making the Most out of an Invest for Better Circle
To help guide new leaders in this process, we held Invest for Better’s first ever webinar on managing a Circle on December 4, 2019. Participants heard from a panel of Circle leaders who shared best practices, provided key insights into getting the most out of the Toolkit, and answered questions in real time.
Tools for Philanthropists
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Workbook: Amplifying your Philanthropy through Impact Investing
We’ve created a workbook for donors interested in impact investing. Many donors are experienced philanthropists, but new to using their investments as a force for social change. Aimed at helping the philanthropist who is a newbie impact investor develop plans for both learning and action, the workbook guides users through 6 questions to help identify possible ways to use investing to increase their impact on the people, places, and issues they care about. The workbook includes a concise primer on impact investing along with numerous examples of impact investments. It is intended to serve as a starting point for developing an impact investing strategy to augment one’s philanthropy, and could be used in planning discussions with financial, philanthropic, and other advisors. Get the workbook>