Righting the Rules of Finance
September 5, 2019 | Lisa Hall
The Fair Finance team is looking forward to the official launch of our initiative this fall focused on changing or righting the rules and systems which drive financing in ways that create shared prosperity for all communities. This summer Senior Fellow, Lisa Hall had the chance to speak with Deval Patrick, head of the Bain Double Impact Fund, about how to make the economy work for all citizens at the Singularity University Global Summit in San Francisco.
Beeck Center’s Lisa Hall interviews Deval Patrick at the Singularity University Global Summit. (Interview starts at 1:48:20)
We’re also pleased to have several Fellows with distinguished careers and expertise in impact investing, sustainable investing, and real estate on our team including Jen Collins, Betsy Zeidman, and Mark Newberg. We are launching several new projects in the coming months including efforts to expand our Opportunity Zone Framework and Opportunity Zone Investor Council as well as an initiative around innovative approaches to workforce training for refugees and immigrants. We are also joined on the team by a veteran journalist, Elizabeth MacBride who is creating a new social enterprise, testing the proposition that good journalism can help drive inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation. Elizabeth also wrote this Forbes article over the summer which features one of our summer intern’s Kriti Sapra and offers advice to young women about how to manage their careers and motherhood.
The goal of our work on Fair Finance is to examine and deconstruct the financial systems that perpetuate in-equity in our society. Building upon our past work around results-based financing, impact investing, and performance-based funding, as well as our data for social good work, the Beeck Center is now embarking upon a bold initiative to examine and change the rules of the game for financing outcomes.
Finance is a fundamental tool for solving intractable social problems like poverty and wealth inequality.
At the Beeck Center we seek to confront the powerful constituencies that promote and preserve the myth of opportunity or the “American Dream;” which ignores systemic and persistent barriers to financial and economic success. We seek to identify scalable solutions that address these challenges. We also intend to directly address barriers to opportunity and market access. Some of the results we will deliver through this initiative include a survey of efforts to increase the number and scale of diverse managers, case studies highlighting successful impact in Opportunity Zones, and convening around workforce training for refugees and immigrants. We will also be producing digital content providing context for the history community investing in US along with recommendations for bold new policy ideas that match the demographics and challenges of the 21st century.
Get Involved
As we build out the Fair Finance initiative we are seeking your ideas and want to collaborate with likely and unlikely partners. Please reach out to us with your bold ideas and thoughts on new policies that are needed in a time when we are facing unprecedented social and environmental challenges.
Also come hear our ideas at upcoming events including the GU Women in Impact Investing Conference at Healy Hall’s Gaston Auditorium on the Georgetown campus, co-sponsored by the Beeck Center, on September 26 from 6-8:30 pm (Register), where Lisa Hall will join a panel discussing All About Impact Measurement.
Please follow us on Twitter for updates on other Fair Finance team speaking engagements like Social Capital Markets (SoCap) 2019 and the South Carolina Opportunity Zone Summit.