I sat down with Maja Beckstrom of the Pioneer Press to talk about impact investing. Check out our conversation:
Though it’s a new buzzword, impact investing is an old concept.
“If you really trace this movement of aligning investments with your values, you need to go back to the Quakers and the 17th century,” says Susan Hammel, executive in residence for impact investing at the Minnesota Council on Foundations. As abolitionists, most Quakers wouldn’t invest in the slave trade and as pacifists they didn’t invest in war.
The latest science says we are living through an “endemic” not a pandemic, anymore (take a listen to Science Friday’s 9/17 podcast). Rather than finding this news thoroughly depressing, I’m doing my best to embrace it. I’ve never thought there would be some kind of magic getting “back” to normal: only “Build Forward Better” as we said in our June, 2021 impact investing conference. So, let’s share what we’ve learned over the last 18 months. I’ve learned that people really do want to take action and explore new ways of addressing society’s ills such as climate change and racial injustice. What did you learn? I’d love to hear. Tweet me @susan_hammel or email or leave a comment below.
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