SOCAP Announces Racial Equity Track to Advance Impact Investing Field

SOCAP (Social Capital Markets), with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), announced today that it is launching a Racial Equity track at the annual impact investing conference taking place in San Francisco, CA, on October 10-13th, 2017.
The track, made possible by a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, will prioritize a focus on advancing racial equity within the field of impact investing. Sessions will unpack systemic racial bias in the fields of investing, philanthropy and entrepreneurship, and go beyond awareness to provide actionable insights and practices that support racial equity.
“SOCAP believes it is time to make an individual, institutional, and systemic examination of equity and inclusion to leverage the potential and momentum of the impact investing field and erase the racial wealth gap,” says Rosa Lee Harden, Co-Founder & Executive Producer, SOCAP. “We are thrilled to partner with the Kellogg Foundation, who have been leaders in this arena for a very long time, and we are excited to use the SOCAP platform to advance racial equity. This grant helps us accelerate that work.”
“The opportunity to explore racial equity at SOCAP17 is exciting for W.K. Kellogg Foundation because of SOCAP’s leadership in convening across sectors for greater impact. If we truly care about changing systems, and institutions, the effort will take all of us and cross cuts sector, gender, and culture,” said Carmen Heredia-Lopez, Director of WKKF Investments, CFA, at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
For over 10 years, SOCAP has leveraged the power of convening to increase the flow of capital toward social good. With support from the Kellogg Foundation, SOCAP will be able to elevate the topic of racial equity for a wider audience in the social capital markets, and support the deep, challenging work it requires.
The Kellogg Foundation has been on the forefront of racial equity work, establishing itself as an anti-racist organization, and allocating 100 million dollars of its endowment to mission-driven investments over the last decade. Last year, the foundation launched the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation initiative, a national and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. Narrative change, racial healing and relationship building are foundational pillars for their work.
All this and more will be explored at SOCAP17, where attendees will engage with panelists and fellow participants to explore context-appropriate ways to apply this lens to their own work, increase their confidence in navigating systemic barriers, and shift their approach to deploying capital to ultimately drive more impact.
For its part, SOCAP has worked to level the playing field in impact investing by seeking gender balance and racial or ethnic diversity in its work.
“The social capital markets must be inclusive, and that begins with a diversity of thought leadership at impact convenings. We are creating content and a space where folks are welcome and feel included in the conversation, and we try very hard to have a representative variety of perspectives at our events,” says Jamie McGonnigal, Director of Business Development at SOCAP.
“As the field of impact investing breaks into the mainstream, we must be even more rigorous in identifying systemic injustice within the capital markets, and addressing the economic consequences of entrenched bias,” adds Lindsay Smalling, Producer and Curator of SOCAP.
The Racial Equity sessions will deliver actionable tactics and resources, including multimedia content, white papers, workshops and more. SOCAP producers are in close collaboration with the WKKF team to craft sessions and experiences that will increase recognition of racial bias, and provide concrete ways to start activating change, individually and organizationally, in a bold conversation for the field.
“Through the racial equity track at SOCAP17, we’re prioritizing this topic in the impact investing space,” says Smalling. “Equal opportunity is the foundation for sustainable impact.”
About SOCAP
SOCAP is in the vanguard of the emerging global impact economy – convening ideas and capital to catalyze world change. We are a network of investors, entrepreneurs, and social impact leaders addressing the world’s toughest challenges through market-based solutions. For more than ten years, we have been the leading convener of people, businesses, and nonprofits at the intersection of money + meaning. From the leading edge to established players, SOCAP brings together global innovators, investors, foundations, governments, institutions, and social entrepreneurs to build the world we want to leave to future generations. We actively seek out opportunities to accelerate the market at the intersection of money and meaning and, in pursuit of that goal, have convened more than 15,000 people since our founding in 2008.
About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life. The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.