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The spiritual transformation of impact investing

Good morning! It is such a pleasure to be with you today.

I would like to start with some questions –

- Who in the room knows what impact investing is?

- How many people feel an alignment between their values and their work?

- Who finds that they are at times their own worst enemy?

I recently had to fill out an application. (I spend half my life filling out applications for something or another). On this particular application, it asked me to go back to when I was six years old and remember what I wanted to be when I grew up. Can you remember what you wanted to be when you were 6?

I had to think long and hard about this but one thing I remembered was having endless amounts of little playmobile people of all colours and professions, and I would put them into discussion groups. I was an only-child so these were my friends. These playmobile people had a good time mixing with each other and doing things together and I thought this was a perfect society. Of course, they couldn’t talk, and I made all the decisions. ///

Life, I have found, is not as simple as that. People surprisingly enough don’t let me make all the decisions!

One of the first true experiences I had with actually sharing ideas and vision with a group was at a Baha’i inspired summer program called “Transformation for Peace”. This truly changed my life. It gave me a purpose, a drive and a community, although I did not quite know what to do with it at the time.

It was at Stanford University that an idea began to formulate. I took a course on social entrepreneurship. I remember calling my mother and saying – I want to be a social entrepreneur. She said to me – what is that? And I said – I’m not sure but I know that’s what I want to be!

It seemed amazing to me. Here was a community of people and organizations that were not only having an incredible impact on society but also had a sustainable business model – what could be better than that?

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Today, I want to share with you ways in which I believe the world can change for the better. It is based on the notion that transformation can take place at three levels: an individual, organizational and societal level.

A major premise of the speech is that we are all fundamentally spiritual beings with spiritual assets and that when we live in the life of the spirit, we are truly happy.

So how can we measure success? Perhaps in terms of the service that we engage in and our spiritual development rather than any short-term material results we may achieve.

I will be exploring the intersection of these concepts with impact investing. Impact investing, as many of you know, is the process of investing in socially responsible companies. It is incredible to see the traction that the concept of impact investing has gained over the past thirty years.

I have the great privilege of working with one of the pioneers in the impact investing sector, Wayne Silby, founder of the Calvert Funds. Wayne is an eccentric, incredible individual who does not accept the world as it is but rather is constantly pushing the limits.

Wayne started the Calvert Funds in the late 1970s, inspired by Buddhist principles of Right Livelihood. He has stories of being kicked out of Wall Street offices because his ideas of changing the world through investing were considered to be farcical. ///

Calvert is now a 14 billion dollar fund making investments only in companies destined to make a positive impact on society. /// Wayne still refuses to stay in trendy hotels and lives a very simple life.

We now see those same companies which considered Wayne a bit of a crank – Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, UBS etc. competing with each other to have the most innovative impact investing products. So much of the drive for these banks and others to engage in the impact investing sector is that there is a significant demand that is coming from their millennial clients for these types of investments.

Young people are not willing to accept that our investments and our values are separate. They are putting pressure on their families and their wealth advisors to seek out socially responsible investments.

It is not just young people of wealth that are looking for mission-aligned lives and investments, it is young people across the income spectrum. Young people with a talent to offer have an understanding that life has a purpose

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and are no longer willing to accept that a job is merely a job in this new world of ours. Rather the idea that work is worship and that our lives and time are precious is becoming more and more mainstream.

It is with these thoughts in mind that I attempt through my company to connect talented people to careers and opportunities in the impact field.

This of course is not merely a trend for young people. People of all ages are refocusing their energies. In fact, the inter-generational component of this work is key. I, for example, have gained some of my greatest insights in life and work from my grandmother. The lessons that we can all learn from each other in engaging in this work is incredibly important. The Buddhist concept of sangha, community, is key to the success of each of us individually. It is through this interaction between people of all different backgrounds that we are able to achieve transformation at the individual, organizational and societal level.

Starting first with the individual -

There is a prayer from the Bahai writings that I say to myself everyday. It is as follows,

“O God, make me a hollow reed, from which the pith of self hath been blown, so that I may become a clear channel, through which Thy love may flow to others.”

In order for us to achieve this high ideal, it is essential that we do not get in our own way. How many times in a day are we our own worst enemies? How many of us become consumed with that inner pestering voice?

I’m not good enough, I can’t do this, what will he or she think, what if I fail?

But we can flip all of these questions on their head.

What if we succeed? What if we are good enough?

Part of this involves us stepping beyond our limited perspective of success to be able to truly understand what is being called for at any given moment.

There is a coalition of investors called the 100% impact network. This community is looking at how impact can be created across one’s whole portfolio. One of the founders of this community, Charly Kleissner, has a guiding principle which is that we should be detached from the end results of our investments and our work. This is very similar to the quotation from the Baha’i writings that says, “to try, to persevere is to achieve ultimate and complete victory.” ///

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For any of you with an investment background, this might seem like a crazy concept! Being detached from the end result? Isn’t money meant to be the end result of everything?

But actually it is a pivotal component. There is a power in the process of working hard and then leaving the results to God and destiny. Become that hollow reed and there is no knowing where it may take you. Without worrying about the end result, you are free to grow spiritually and become more aligned with yourself and your purpose. Furthermore, the Universe conspires to help bring things into our lives to support our journeys. I have been amazed at how many times things seem overwhelming but a friend or an article or something else will appear that helps to guide the path.

As we think about the assets that each of us possess, we can think about this on a number of levels from financial, human, social to spiritual.

What is spiritual capital? I understand it as being a collection of our spiritual resources, our internal value system, which manifests itself in our actions and reactions on a daily basis – it is a belief system which we call upon to judge right from wrong, and from which we can derive strength and certitude to make the right choices, independent of external pressures.

We have all been presented with moments in our lives when we feel that we are falling short of the standards we set ourselves. Part of the key is to know how to respond in these situations. We have choices: we can give up – a bit like going on a diet, seeing a cake we cannot resist and then thinking because we have eaten one slice and blown our diet, well, we might as well eat the whole cake.

We can agonize over our failure and dig a deep hole to hide in and beat ourselves up. Or, we can “keep cool”. It is so much more productive to have no recriminations, rise above our own limitations and have faith in the unfolding process of our lives. How do we rise above our own limitations and have faith in the unfolding process of our lives?

Furthermore, what is it that we can do to sustain ourselves in those moments where we feel depleted? I love the analogy that we all have fires burning within us, we just need to know when we need to put more logs on. We also need to learn what the logs are for each of us.

What are your logs? For some people, this will be prayer and meditation, for others it is exercise, for others it is fellowship, for others it is dancing. Whatever it is for you, the importance is for us to build into our lives a mechanism for grounding ourselves and reflection.

Next is the organizational level -

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A key component of enabling us to become hollow reeds and clear channels is recognizing that we aren’t just hollow reeds in the confines of our own homes at the individual level. The Baha’i writings say…

“O SON OF SPIRIT! Burst thy cage asunder, and even as the phoenix of love soar into the firmament of holiness. Renounce thyself and, filled with the spirit of mercy, abide in the realm of celestial sanctity.”

I love that image of a phoenix bursting from the cage. We are called to breakout of our individual cages. In my opinion the value of this imagery can be applied not only to the individual but can be extended to the corporate sphere at an organizational level. We can transcend our limitations.

I have to let you in on a secret. You will not question me now as to the reason I chose the name of my company, Phoenix Global Impact. A little presumptuous perhaps, but it keeps me on track. My personal focus is on Impact Investing and Social entrepreneurship.

As we know, Social entrepreneurship is the process of pursuing innovative solutions to social problems. More specifically, social entrepreneurs adopt a mission to create and sustain social value. It is possible to pursue a socially entrepreneurial approach within any organization. It is a question of attitude, justice, fairness, support of others, and maintaining a cohesive whole.

I must also say that building a socially entrepreneurial company is not free of challenges at times. In the words of the Dalai Lama when asked how often one should review their practice, he replied – you should review your practice once a year and if it’s working, keep practicing and if it’s not working, keep practicing.

In other words, the Dalai Lama is saying that the work we are engaged in is hard work and it will have its ups and downs. But if we remain in a state of learning, success is more likely. Conferences like this are a powerful opportunity for us to engage with like-minded people in a spirit of learning. I am really looking forward to engaging with you all in discussion after this session.

Abdu’l Baha warns us that we will often have barriers and challenges to our work. He says:

"Be not the slave of your moods, but their master. But if you are so angry, so depressed and so sore that your spirit cannot find deliverance and peace even in prayer, then quickly go and give some pleasure to someone lowly or sorrowful, or to a guilty or innocent sufferer! Sacrifice yourself, your talent,

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your time, your rest to another, to one who has to bear a heavier load than you”

Abdu’l Baha, in my interpretation, is basically saying that in order to incorporate a spirit of service in an organization, we must move beyond self-interested organizations to another form. This form of organization reorients our primary purpose to that which is truly of benefit to the world.

One example of a project we have been working on at Phoenix Global Impact is Divest-Invest Philanthropy. This is a coalition of foundations, cities, faith-based groups, cities, hospitals, schools, universities and individuals that are divesting their assets from investing in fossil fuels and investing in new energy solutions such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, agriculture, water-purification technology and other innovations that believe that business as usual is not the business of the future.

Divest-Invest Philanthropy recently made an announcement at the UN Climate Change Summit that over 70 major global foundations in collaboration with individuals and institutions have collectively divested $50 billion from fossil fuel investments for reinvestment in alternative solutions.

Among those pledged to divest were the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Stanford University. It was particularly significant that the Rockefeller Brothers Fund made this commitment as the Rockefeller family are the founders of Standard Oil.

These institutions and individuals made this decision to engage in this process of divesting and investing for ethical, environmental and financial reasons. The over-valuation of the price of fossil fuel companies makes them a poor financial investment. Furthermore, for many of these mission-driven organizations investing in companies that undermine their mission does not make sense.

It is powerful to see faith based groups who are thinking about the alignment of their spiritual and financial assets. A coalition of faith-based groups, including the Bahais, came together recently in New York to join a 400,000 person-strong Climate March through the streets of New York. It was extremely powerful to see individuals inspired by their faith come together through a common cause, combating climate change. One of the ideas that is key to this work is the intersection of climate justice, social justice and economic justice. It is hard for us to make progress in any one of these areas without considering all aspects. Solutions that are based on engaging at the systemic level are much more likely to be successful.

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There has in many ways been a misalignment between our values and our finances but we have great power to reshift and realign – to recognize our spiritual assets and to create and manifest beauty in the world.

As Abdu’l-Bahá says, “The honor and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the world’s multitudes become a source of social good.”

Who wouldn’t want that?!

Now, to the final part of the speech – the societal level

Impact can be created not merely in the organizations that we are a part of but also through the way in which we engage with society as a whole.

Abdul Baha’i gives us a lot of guidance on how we should act within society: be loving, be guarded in our speech, be unjust to no-one. He says: “Justice is not limited, it is a universal quality. Its operation must be carried out in all classes, from the highest to the lowest. Justice must be sacred, and the rights of all the people must be considered. Desire for others only that which you desire for yourselves.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks) It is crazy to think that in the world we live in, there are still systemic injustices that exist – such as the prison industrial complex, human trafficking and the treatment of minorities globally. Through us remembering Abdu’l Baha’s exhortation to become hollow reeds and channels, we inspire others to ignite those who cross their paths. As the phoenix shows us, it is a constant journey of igniting and reigniting.

Through the way in which we live our lives, we are able to create a community based on openness, justice and love. Edwin Markham says, “He drew a circle that shut me out. But love and I had the wit to win. We drew a circle and took him In!”

We have the power to keep on creating these wide, open circles within our lives – rather than focusing on what divides us, let’s continue to focus on what draws us together.

In conclusion, there are 3 levels of alignment that we have the power to pursue in our lives at the personal, organizational and societal level.

Thank you. I would now love to open up the discussion for any thoughts and questions you might have.