Thematic Dine Arounds 1. Mindfulness, Spirit, Faith & Impact Investing

CO Impact Days Dinner

March 12, 7:30 pm - Limit 10 at $75 per person wine included. Sign-up here: https://www.impactfinancecenter.org/corporate-strategics-impact-investing-1/thematic-dine-around-mindfulness-spirit-faith-amp-impact-investing

Panzano, 909 17th St, Denver, CO 80202

An Inquiry into the Intersection of Spiritual Practice and Investing

Introduction:

As part of an investing movement designed to cultivate, grow and safeguard impact, we are increasingly aware of the intense divisions in society, and the ways we may be contributing to or complicit in them. With growing inequality and polarization, alongside deep mistrust of our institutions and capitalist system, many feel called to examine and perhaps actively build and invest in an economy that is inclusive and regenerative. Our investment decisions can play a meaningful role in how that economy emerges. Faith, spiritual and wisdom traditions can help shape a new praxis for entrepreneurship and investing that supports shared prosperity and belonging.

For this praxis to emerge, we need spaces for dialogue that help bring it into being. This dinner will offer a space for individuals to come together to connect with each other and explore together the dimensions of where investment strategies/ approaches might intersect with emerging spiritual practices, such as mindfulness, ancient wisdom, religious ritual and faith practices etc.

Questions that this group will explore include:

Sensing:

What are some emergent patterns where we see paradigm shifts underway at the intersection of spiritual practice and investing?

What are the established faith, spiritual and wisdom traditions that have / are shaping your personal life, which could also transform your work and, collectively, our economy?

Being:

What does it mean to integrate those practices with the practice of investing?

Doing:

What processes have been developed, or could we develop, to translate and apply spiritual practice to the practice of investing?

What systems – particularly ecosystems – might exist or need to be cultivated to sustain and grow these communities of practice?

Leader:

Elizabeth Garlow, Impact Investment Officer, Lumina Foundation

Carl Palmer, Founder at LegacyWorks Group

Location: Four Square Ballroom

Please join us on Tuesday night to celebrate 30 social entrepreneurs, projects, nonprofit social enterprises, small businesses, startups, and funds that qualify for Opportunity Zones in Colorado, as well as others who are raising impact investment capital for them to do well by doing good. In addition to local entities, we've invited guests from around the country to also present their social ventures, with colleagues coming from Philadelphia, New Mexico, Minneapolis, Minnesota, East Bay Oakland, to name a few.

Drinks and light apps will be served.

Selected Social Ventures:

• 7D Imaging (for-profit) and the NYAGI Project (non-profit)

• ARISE Adoption Academy by Adoption Options

• Arc Thrift

• Art Restart

• Beta Hatch

• Bondadosa

• Butterfly Pavilion

• Camp Sidekick

• Capital Sisters International

• CareHub

• CareLoop

• Class Composer

• Colorado Enterprise Fund

• CoPeace™ PBC

• CSMlearn

• Eagle Valley Land Trust

• Emu Building Science, LLC (dba Emu Systems)

• Entrepreneurship For All (EforAll)

• Global Village Power, LLC

• gotHABIT

• Indigo Education Company

• InScribe Education

• KyndHub

• mindfullwe

• Mossier

• Nanno

• Partnership for Community Action

• Pathos Labs

• PERK: The Natural Beauty Lab

• PocketChange

• R3 Returns

• Simply Good Cakery - Extended Hands of Hope

• STEM Generation Inc DBA Science Fair Fun

• The Natural Funeral

• the Farm Board, Public Benefit Corporation

• TUSA

• We Sparkle

Mar 12: 2:45 - 3:45

Location: Duck Duck Goose

Opportunity Zones & Impact Investing

The following session will feature an explanation of Opportunity Zones and updates on the new guidance and how impact investors can participate.

Speakers

Ed Briscoe, Managing, Weave Social Finance

Carol Mihalic, Partner, Kutak Rock

Beth Pendergrast, Attorney, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP

Mar 12: 1:15 - 3:45

Location: Marco Polo

International Impact Investing: Case Study Chile

Join Luis Duarte of Zoma Foundation and Zoma Labs and Rubén Hernández of Devlabs to explore their capacity-building and impact investment work in Chile. Rubén of Devlabs will share experiences with entrepreneurs from southern Chile, where they implemented an accelerator, and micro venture capital fund to create successful technology companies in education, health, and agriculture, resulting in three multi-millionaires and high IRR for investors.

2:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Speakers:

Luis Duarte, Chief Philanthropy Officer, ZOMALAB, and President, ZOMA Foundation

Rubén Hernández, Co-Founder, Devlabs

Mar 12: 1:15-3:45

Location: Hopscotch

Women's Impact Investing Giving Circle

Please join Julie Gorte of Pax World Funds, Colleen LaFontaine and Renee Ferrufino of the Women’s Foundation, Nicole Bagley of Arca, Sapelo, and Brenn Foundation, and Dr. Stephanie Gripne to launch the first Women’s Impact Investing Giving Circle. Would you like to make your first 3-5 direct investments into women social ventures in Colorado, while learning about 40+ ways that you can activate your portfolio to support women? Are you an individual or organization who wants to learn about how to support social ventures (i.e. projects, nonprofits, small businesses, startups, cooperatives, and funds) led by and benefiting women in the state of Colorado? You can, with  less than a $5,000 tax-deductible donation that also supports The Women’s Foundation of Colorado in a social, fun, safe, low-risk setting? Please join us to learn about this innovative approach to identify, educate, and active individuals and organizations to support women social ventures.

2:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Speakers

Julie Gorte, Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing, Impax Asset Management LLC and Pax World

Funds

Colleen LaFontaine, Director of Development at The Women’s Foundation of Colorado

Renee Ferrufino, Vice President of Development at The Women’s Foundation of Colorado

Dr. Stephanie Gripne, Founder and CEO, Impact Finance Center, CO Impact Days and Impact Investing Institute

Nicole Bagley, Vice President, Arca Foundation, Vice President, Sapelo Foundation, and President, The Brenn Foundation

Mar 12: 1:15 - 2:45

Location: Duck Duck Goose

Program Related Investments & Mission Related Investments

According to one study, $4.4 billion has been placed through 5,000 program-related investments in the past 20 years. Foundation assets are reported to be close to $900 billion, with donor advised funds adding another $110 billion, adding up to more than $1 trillion. Foundations have the unique opportunity to leverage two types of capital in the impact investment space - the 95% endowment and the 5% spending requirement , to further their mission. We will tackle some common questions in this session:

1. What is a program-related investment (PRI)?

2. How is it different from a Mission-Related Investment (MRI)?

3. How do we know if an investment qualifies to be a PRI?

4. How should program and investment staff collaborate?

5. How should DAFs think about these tools?

6. Any burning questions you would like to ask.

2:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Speakers

Jennifer Kenning,CEO and Co-Founder, Align Impact

Chintan Panchal (Moderator), Founder RPCK  

Mar 12: 1:15 - 3:45

Location: Red Rover

BALLE 1 - Solutions Exchange: Breaking Through Barriers in Philanthropic Mission Investing

Many philanthropic foundations seek to deploy more of their endowment to mission and yet the journey from intent to application is complicated. In this interactive session we will outline BALLE’s framework of engaging intuitional capacity, strategy, culture and deal flow to remove barriers to mission investing, and the connection between mission and centering social and racial equity. This track will then offer participants the opportunity to dive into the content in a peer-to-peer exchange of sharing solutions and receiving guidance on existing challenges.

2:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Facilitators:

• Christine Ageton, Vice President of Experiential Learning and Funder Education, BALLE

• Leslie Lindo, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, BALLE

Presenters:

• Christine Ageton, Vice President of Experiential Learning and Funder Education, BALLE

• Rodney Foxworth, Jr., Executive Director, BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)

Mar 12: 11:45-1:00

Location: Four Square Ballroom

Lunch Keynote: If Angels Invest in Unicorns, Do Heroes Invest in Racehorses, and What About the Champions and Catalysts?

Venture Capitalists love to talk about “unicorns”, where a giant financial return is possible. But that myopic focus has created an investment culture that limits how much investment and philanthropic capital actually funnels into our communities and some of society’s most promising innovations. In this keynote session, Teresa Ish (The Walton Family Foundation) and Dr. Stephanie Gripne (Impact Finance Center, CO Impact Days, and Impact Investing Institute), join forces to look beyond the “unicorns.” Together, they will lead our audience through a theoretical case study of a sustainable fisheries investment to demonstrate how different alignments of capital and levels of expected investment return - i.e. 10x investment versus 10% versus 0% versus -50% versus -100% investment (aka philanthropy) - change the corporate structure, risk, liquidity, and most importantly, impact of the organization invested in. They will explain the need to diversify available capital (from a -100% financial return to a 10x return) in order for the full range of social ventures (i.e. projects, nonprofits, small businesses, cooperatives, startups, and funds) to be able to find an appropriate line of capital that will empower them to achieve their mission.

Speakers:

Teresa Ish, Program Officer, Environment Program, Walton Family Foundation

Dr. Stephanie Gripne, Founder and CEO of Impact Finance Center, CO Impact Days and Impact Investing Institute

Carl Palmer, (Introductory Remarks) Founder at LegacyWorks Group

Mar 12: 10:30 - 11:30

Location: Duck Duck Goose

Impact Investing 101 - Accounting Perspective

The following session will provide an overview of impact investing from an accounting perspective.

Stacey Hekkert, Managing Partner and President, ACM LLP

Rosie Sanchez,  Audit Manager at ACM LLP

9:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Mar 12: 9:45 - 10: 30

Location: Duck Duck Goose

How to Choose Your Bank

Impact Finance Center has outlined over 40 strategies you can use to align your resources with your values or the mission of your organization. Without question, one of the easiest and most important first steps you can take is looking at where your banking is and what types of activities your bank supports. In this session, Susan Graf from Amalgamated Bank (formally New Resource Bank) will outline what the criteria are for evaluating your existing banking relationships and explore how you would transition from a bank that is not aligned with your values and mission to one that is.

9:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Speaker:

Susan Graf, First Vice President, Senior Commercial Banker at Amalgamated Bank, Amalgamated Bank

Mar 12: 9:00-11:30

Location: Red Rover

Real Estate & Impact Investing: Housing (Affordable & Workforce), Medical Real Estate, Nonprofit Real Estate, and Schools

Workforce housing, affordable housing, medical real estate, nonprofit real estate, and schools are some of the growing sectors of impact investing. Whether that entails financing the mortgage or refinancing that mortgage to make it more efficient and effective, it is a key area of savings for municipalities, universities, schools, hospitals, and nonprofits. Ed Briscoe of Weave Finance and Stephanie Wilson of Access Medical will lead a session that explores how full spectrum capital, community ownership, and other tools like new market tax credits can be used to turn the impossible into the possible.

9:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Speakers:

Ed Briscoe, Managing Partner, Weave Social Finance

Stephanie J. Wilson, Principal, ACCESS Medical Development

Emily Nilsen, Sharing Connexion

Eve Picker, Founder, SmallChange.com

Mar 12: 9:00-11:30

Location: Hopscotch

Place-Based Impact Investing Part 1

Several metro areas and regions in the U.S. are developing collaborative impact investing initiatives, even impact investing ecosystems. This two-part session is a collaboratory for those areas – and others interested in the ideas – to build connections, share information and tools, and solve peer challenges. We’ll dive into local models for collaborative work, how they’ve attracted and retained stakeholders, keys for success, peer problem-solving, and more. The session’s facilitators bring deep experience in community philanthropy, community development and collaboration, impact investing and new economy work, and group learning.

9:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Speakers:

Tony Macklin, Philanthropic Consultant, Senior Advisor for Impact Finance Center

Cindy Willard, Founder, Full Potential Philanthropy, Senior Advisor for Impact Finance Center

Dr. Stephanie Gripne, Founder and CEO, Impact Finance Center & CO Impact Days

Mar 12: 9:00-11:30

Location: Marco Polo

Nonprofits & Social Enterprises

Join Akasha Absher, Christine Sanwald, Dr. Stephanie Gripne, and a panel of exciting social ventures that include Chef Ann Foundation, Bondadosa, Art Restart, and Bayaud Enterprises, to learn about impact investing and nonprofits. Impact investing offers an opportunity for nonprofits to increase revenues, reduce expenses, and improve effectiveness in a time when the need is becoming greater, and resources are becoming less available. The following session will walk through Impact Investing 101 for Nonprofits, which covers innovative financing to finance mortgages, lines of credit, refinance mortgages, make assets (such as making a building more energy efficient), launch a social enterprise, social impact bonds, or a pay as you save strategy. We will also introduce a new framework of innovation around development, operations, and financial innovation using Chef Ann Foundation as a framework. Then we will workshop the other  specific nonprofits.

9:45: Break with coffee and light snacks

Speakers:

Akasha Absher, Chief Consulting Officer, Syntrinsic Investment Counsel

Christine Sanwald, Impact Finance Center & CO Impact Days

Dr. Stephanie Gripne, Founder and CEO, Impact Finance Center & CO Impact Days

Mara Fleishman, Executive Director, Chef Ann Foundation

Teresa Densmore, Director of Art Restart

Scott Kerr, Director of Business Development, Bayaud Enterprises

Mar 12: 8:00-8:45

Location: Four Square Ballroom

Keynote Panel: Aligning Your Endowment or Investment Portfolio for Impact

Catherine Burnett of the Phillips Family Foundation will moderate a panel between Shuaib A. Siddiqui  and Rodney D. Foxworth, Jr.. Shuaib A. Siddiqui is the Surdna Foundation’s Director of Impact Investing that made a decision to invest $100M. For the past two years, Shuaib has led the Foundation’s efforts to go beyond its mission-aligned investing strategy to build up the field of impact investing.  Rodney D. Foxworth, Jr. is Executive Director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), a national network of local economy innovators and place-based foundations and impact investors. BALLE has helped local philanthropic institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada reallocate over $100M into their communities and mission-aligned investing. The following session will explore the journey from making the original decision to practice.

Speaker:

Shuaib Siddiqui, Director of Impact Investing, Surdna Foundation

Rodney Foxworth, Jr., Executive Director, BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)

Catherine Burnett, Chief Impact Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Phillips Family Foundation