Racial Equity Track @SOCAP19

Below, we've highlighted sessions at SOCAP19 focused on racial equity featuring MIE members, including MIE's Signature Impact Investment Forum on Tuesday, October 22. Review the SOCAP site for sessions related to racial equity across tracks, including the Racial Equity and Indigenous Communities tracks.

 

 

 

2:45 PM - 3:45 PM, Tue, Oct 22, 2019, Southside Theater
What role should asset owners play in ensuring that racial equity is at the heart of the impact investing movement? In this fast-paced signature program by Mission Investors Exchange, 3 foundations each pair with a financial intermediary and dive deep into strategies to transform the field of investment management. From racial diversity to unconscious bias, each pair will share practical methods and lessons learned to advance equity in investment decision-making, as cornerstones of large-scale systems change.
Rob Manilla, Kresge Foundation
Bert Feuss, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Angela Matheny, Colonial Consulting
Rosanne Potter, Cleveland Foundation 
Liz Michaels, Aperio
Andrea Dobson, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation
Kesha Cash, Impact America Fund

 

Implicit Bias in Asset Management

 

 

By 2020, white American households are projected to own 86x more wealth than African American households, and 68x more than Latino households. The economic health of our country requires strategies to combat these disparities. Leading political and policy experts tackle critical questions at this high-stakes moment in American history: What solutions are needed to ensure greater participation in wealth-building? What can impact investors do? Going into 2020, what should impact investors understand about the political landscape?

 

The workshop will provide a chance for investors and entrepreneurs to dive deep into the “how” of institutionalizing and operationalizing gender smart / DEI principles. Organized around small working groups facilitated by expert practitioners, groups will explore ways to integrate DEI practices within their chosen focus area using a proprietary tool, Capria Quantum. At the conclusion of the session, participants will take back actionable, pragmatic DEI strategies to their businesses and investment funds.
Cathy Clark, CASE i3 at Duke University
Uma Sekar, Director, Capria Ventures
Megan Walsh Thompson, Ford Foundation

 

The modern impact investing movement in the United States was born out of the mid-20th century Civil Rights struggle. This panel will consider the vital contribution impact investing can make in the U.S. if we reorient around this history. Join this generative conversation with seasoned impact investors and next generation civil rights leaders discussing what’s possible when finance and financial knowledge is connected to the leaders who can use it most effectively to drive racial equity.
Jacquelyn King, W. K. Kellogg Foundation 
Tiasia O'Brien, Synergize Insights 
Dorianna Blitt, BF Partners
DD Johnice, Kaiser Permanente

 

Language is a powerful tool for dividing and uniting. There is a close relationship between race, racism and language. Many terms that are part of regular vernacular have systemic underpinnings and help maintain the status quo: “tar and feather”, “time Nazi”, “low man on the totem pole”, etc. Led by W.K. Kellogg Foundation facilitators, this participatory workshop is a unique opportunity for a collective conversation, not just a semantics lesson. We will create a safe, nonjudgmental space for inquiry to increase understanding.

 

While the language and concepts of racial equity are spreading across the field of finance, how are firms integrating strategies to imbed racial equity as a rigorous management practice? From organizational structure, staffing, sourcing, deal flow, and learning and adapting from outcomes, leaders and firms are demonstrating that a racial equity focus is not the work of a stand-alone diversity office, but deeply integral to their entire organizational practices and processes. This session will feature leaders that will share their strategies and work to increase their financial and social impact across the field.

This summer in Atlanta, SOCAP launched SPECTRUM, a convening designed to spur dialogue and significant action toward building an impact economy based on equity, diversity and inclusion. SPECTRUM gathered innovators and founders of color who have been systematically under-recognized and under-resourced. Let’s continue the conversation in this interactive session where cross-sector leaders and investors will recap the importance of SPECTRUM and what we learned. Next, we want to hear from you. Come help us co-design SPECTRUM 2020.
Sterling Champion, SHE 
Paige VanDenburg, TriLinc Global
Tanay Tatum-Edwards, FreeCap 
Bree Jones, Parity
Chelsey Crim, Hope Street Group 
Jonny Newburgh, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta: GoATL Fund

 

Connecting Founders of Color to Community and Capital

 

The $15 trillion U.S. Commercial Real Estate sector, has historically been less diverse than the nation, and has trailed other business segments in creating leadership and ownership opportunities for people of color. This panel will discuss the ways in which industry actors are working to intentionally address privilege and exclusion. Beyond social justice arguments, we will explore the economic benefits of having a more diverse sector, and why investors should demand results in this area.
Reuben Teague, Prudential 
James Wahls, Annie E. Casey Foundation 
Pamela West, Nuveen

 

Using Innovative Training to Empower Women and People of Color to be Entrepreneurial Leaders