1-2-3 Start an Invest for Better Circle with Our New Toolkit
Are you looking for a support system to help kick start your journey to impact investing? Are you ready to dive deep into the learning process and better understand how you can invest for good across any asset class? Do you prefer to work in a circle of support that is comprised of all women?
Around the country, small groups of women have been coming together over the last year to learn about values-aligned and impact investing and how they can begin or do more of it. In Boston, one group of women calls themselves an Invest for Better Circle. In San Francisco, there is a Values-Aligned Investing Club. The name doesn’t matter as much as the fact that these women have found a community to help them confidently and purposefully activate more of their capital toward the social and environmental causes they care about – and get the financial return they seek.
Today we are delighted to be publishing the Invest for Better Circle Toolkit, a downloadable resource to help individuals and organizations launch their own circles/clubs/communities of women who want to learn more about values-aligned and impact investing options and are committed to purposefully moving their money. The Toolkit provides a curriculum for six sessions (with ideas for additional sessions), including sample agendas, readings, and worksheets. While the Toolkit was developed as part of the Invest for Better campaign and aimed at bridging the “aspiration gap” between women’s overwhelming interest in impact investing and their actual behavior, its curricula and resources are applicable to any community of aspiring impact investors.
The results of the first Invest for Better Circles are highly promising. Eighty percent of respondents said they are asking more questions of their financial advisors as well as talking more about impact investing with others. Sixty percent made one or more new investments and 50% shifted more resources into impact investing over the 12-month period of the Circle.
“After many years of being told what I should do with my assets, and how I should do it, I now realize I can be in the driver’s seat! A new world of thrilling possibility has opened up to me. I can marry my deep love of non-profits with profitable companies which are doing a myriad of things to better the world in meaningful and sustainable ways,” said one participant.
Volunteers are starting or exploring Circles around the country and beyond, including in San Francisco, Boulder, Dallas, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, Rhode Island, Maine, Scotland, and the Caribbean. We hope this new resource helps spawn the creation of many more. Our vision is to create a community of practice among the groups around the country, beginning with a webinar happening this fall, which will include leaders from existing Circles. Please stay tuned for more details.
If you are interested in starting or joining an Invest for Better Circle, please contact us.
The Toolkit is free for anyone to access, compliments of a title sponsorship by Bank of America and distribution sponsorships by Wetherby Asset Management and Athena Capital Advisors.
Ellen Remmer is a recognized leader in the field of strategic philanthropy. She is a Senior Partner at The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), the nonprofit philanthropic advisory firm that pioneered the field of strategic philanthropy advising and works around the globe to help donors achieve lasting social impact.
