Ownership Lens Series Part 1: Investing in Ownership to Address the Wealth Gap
Building Wealth: MIE’s Ownership Lens Investing Series
Now more than ever, impact investors are looking to find solutions that meet the needs of the communities they serve. One model gaining momentum is ownership lens investing. With continued bipartisan support, ownership lens investing is a powerful tool for asset owners to advance wealth building, support local economies, and generate scalable solutions. Join Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) as we embark on a virtual series that will explore the ins and outs of ownership lens investing along with strategies and models investors are using to shift capital to community and employee ownership.
Ownership Lens Series Part 1: Investing in Ownership to Address the Wealth Gap
On June 11, MIE hosted an introductory webinar outlining how ownership can be implemented as a full endowment strategy. The session defined what ownership means, explored inclusive models, and laid the groundwork for deeper sessions to follow. The recording of Part 1 is accessible to non-members below.
Speakers :
- Smitha Das, Senior Director of Investments, World Education Services
- Santhosh Ramdoss, President and CEO, Gary Community Ventures
- James Wahls, SVP of Programs and Initiatives, MIE
- Katheryn Witt, Director of Program Content, MIE
Key Takeaways
The Ownership Lens event outlined several key takeaways about investing in ownership, including:
- In a world where the top 1% of households own nearly 30% of all wealth, ownership matters.
- Speakers Smitha Das and Santhosh Ramdoss emphasized how prioritizing ownership with impact investing strategies can drive structural change and build long-term community wealth.
- “We want to imagine a Colorado where every household has a minimum or an essential pool of wealth. Wealth shouldn’t be relegated to only households that are at a certain income level,” said Santhosh Ramdoss, President & CEO of Gary Community Ventures.
- The webinar outlined practical ways for investors to support ownership models, including grants, guarantees, mission-related investments, and venture capital to back employee ownership transitions, shared equity housing, and community wealth-building funds. Participants learned the importance of catalytic capital (especially for less traditional ownership structures) and how to align portfolios with a mission to ensure investments directly benefit low-wealth communities. Both speakers demonstrated how their organizations’ flexible capital, deep local partnerships, and a long-term commitment to help democratize asset ownership has impacted their communities and helped spread the word to closing the racial wealth gap.
