Event: How Everyone Can Be a Social Investor

Submitted by Rob Katz on September 4, 2008 - 06:12.
Published in:

NextBillion ally and friend Kevin Jones passed along word that the Good Business Network is hosting an interesting event next week in San Francisco about social investing and low-income markets.  If you're in town, be sure to check it out.

Event posting: How Everyone Can Be a Social Investor.

From the post:

Come learn about the emerging "good capital" movement that is changing the world through sustainable businesses designed to impact global and local problems, and how everyone — for-profit companies, nonprofits and individuals — can be part of it.

Leading the discussion are social entrepreneurs and investors propelling this new wave of business, including Kevin Jones of Good Capital, Tracey Pettengill Turner of MicroPlace, Ben Black of New Cycle Capital, Dina Bitton of Digital Divide Data, and John Olson of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Center for Community Development Initiatives.

Event Details:
Tuesday, September 9th, 6pm to 8pm
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
The Orrick Building
405 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

RSVP to molly@thegoodbusinessnetwork.com


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Well ... not quite
Submitted by Mbellotti on September 4, 2008 - 23:32.
There's another conference in October on the same issue (http://socialcapitalmarkets.net/). All this interest in Social Investing is really exciting, but I think it's important to point out that we're still far from reaching the point where "anyone" can be a social investor.

Other than Microplace and Kiva (both of which focus on one tiny aspect of what social investing can successfully finance [poverty reduction]) there are few social investing options that are available for less than a $1,000 initial buy in. The most successful and exciting programs, donor advised funds and their hybrids, are more in the $5,000 - $10,000 range just to start.

For most people $1,000 for one investment is a lot of money and the fact that many 'financial experts' question whether SRI returns are strong enough to compete with normal investments narrows the field of potential investors even more.

In the spirit of full disclosure (and good-nature plugging of course) I should point out that I'm the Executive Director of a program that's trying to resolve this problem and make social investing truly open to EVERYONE by opening up investing clubs. Using this structure, we believe, it's possible for people to pool their money and explore a wide variety of exciting social investing options for as little as $20. (www.smallhandsfund.org)
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