Let’s Build a New Foundation: A Preview of the Racial Equity Track Sessions of SOCAP18
Making progress on racial equity will require committed conversations and sustained engagement. For the second year in a row, SOCAP is honored to partner with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to produce a track of sessions designed to advance racial equity within the fields of impact investing, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy.
What Will it Take to Build a Racially Equitable Society?
Structural and systemic racism touches on every part of American society, from education to income to wealth. What will it take to transform the policies, behaviors, cultural messages, and attitudes that support the foundation that systemic racism is built upon? How can impact investing and social entrepreneurship play a leading role in creating new practices and processes for change? How can we create space for more professionals of color in leadership positions that command and influence where and how capital flows?
At SOCAP18 we will continue exploring all the ways racial inequity intersects with capital markets while starting new conversations that will help impact investors and social entrepreneurs identify and address racial equity issues within their own organizational structures. Panelists will share practical examples of ways to employ an equity lens in impact investing work and draw out new tactics and ideas for promoting equity in services and funds.
No matter what role you play at work, or in life, you can absolutely help create change and spread racial equity and social justice. These sessions present an opportunity to understand where racial inequities occur while receiving tools and resources that anyone can use to affect change.
Mainstage Talks at SOCAP18
If you cannot be at SOCAP18, you will still be able to watch these conversations as they happen on the mainstage–we’ll be streaming these sessions live at socialcapitalmarkets.net.
Moving to Action on Race, Equity and Inclusion: Insights from Philanthropic Leaders
- Morning Mainstage Wednesday, October 24
- Sharon Alpert / Nathan Cummings Foundation
- Fred Blackwell / San Francisco Foundation
Cross-sector Collaboration for Big Impacts in Racial Equity
- Morning Mainstage Thursday, October 25
- Cynthia Muller / W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- Deepti Rohatgi / Slack for Good
- Dwayne Marsh/ Government Alliance on Race and Equity
- Napoleon Wallace / Activest
Session Descriptions
With the ten session listed below, the Racial Equity track aims to address multiple angles and stakeholders in building the foundation for a racially equitable society. As you read the session descriptions, think about perspectives you can bring to these conversations, any questions you have, and other related issues you think should be addressed now or at future racial equity sessions. Click on the session title to see the full description, (including the date, time, and place) in Pathable.
Journeys in Racial Equity: From Race Neutral to a Racial Equity and Inclusion Lens
How does an organization move from race neutral to one with a racial equity and inclusion lens? This session, developed in partnership with Living Cities, will focus on the journey stories from multiple organizations with impact strategies deliberately using a racial equity lens. Hear about the critical role leadership and boards play in evolving to challenge and change institutional policies and power dynamics. We’ll explore how the process started, why the challenges arose, and what these organizations are learning.
- Demetric Duckett / Living Cities
- Nadia Brigham / W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- Christine Looney / The Ford Foundation
- Marcos Gonzales/ Vamos Venture
Race in the Writers Room: How Hollywood Whitewashes The Stories that Shape America?
Who is shaping the stories we see and hear? What is narrative change, and why is it so critical to advancing racial equity and inclusion? How does narrative change show up in impact investing movement? A lot of how we as individuals and organizations are influenced, from the conversations we have to the decisions we make, comes from TV shows, podcasts, music, movies and school curriculum. These mediums influence and push necessary conversations. This session will feature speakers transforming the narrative.
- Bird Runningwater / Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program
- Mauricio Mota / Wise Entertainment
- Rashad Robinson / Color Of Change
- Deborah Cullinan / Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA)
The Cards are Stacked Against Black America: Changing the Game
Is access to credit a civil rights issue that needs more attention? Absolutely. The financial services system, as broad and comprehensive as it is, creates experiences that are highly variable for different people, especially individuals and communities of color. In this session, developed in partnership with LendUp, you’ll hear from fighters on the front lines working hard to change that—from their positions in investment, for-profit, and government.
- Jotaka Eaddy / LendUp
- Tishaura Jones / City of St. Louis, MO
- Carolina Huaranca / Kapor Capital
- Lillian Singh / Prosperity Now Racial Wealth Divide
Disrupt Your Due Diligence Process for Equity
There is much talk about the value of investing in diverse entrepreneurs; however, many of these opportunities are getting stuck in the pipeline. While business support and mentoring are key factors, many traditional due diligence processes are excluding entrepreneurs of color. This highly interactive, resource-rich workshop, developed in partnership with The Runway Project, will demonstrate a collaborative and integrated capital approach, modeling underwriting, due diligence, and a credit committee process grounded in examples. Come prepared with your questions.
- Regina Bell / W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- Rani Langer-Croager / Uptima Business Bootcamp
- Anne McShiras / Self-Help Federal Credit Union
- Nina Robinson / The Runway Project
- Eric Stephenson / Cordes Foundation
Unlocking Opportunity: Breaking Barriers for People with Criminal Records
Seventy million or 1-in-3 Americans have some type of criminal record. Even a minor record can be a life sentence to poverty and can stand in the way of nearly every building block of economic security. Join Ellis Carr of Capital Impact Partners and Teresa Hodge of Mission:Launch for an intimate, in-depth conversation about the lived experience of returning citizens and the barriers they face in the larger context of racial inequality. We’ll highlight investable solutions for building equitable opportunities for people with criminal records.
- Ellis Carr / Capital Impact Partners
- Teresa Hodge / Mission:Launch
Investment Opportunity Forum: Racial Equity Lens
Your organization has committed to deepening its understanding and its goals when it comes to racial equity. Along this journey, how do these commitments show up in impact investing deals and decisions? This fast-paced session, developed in partnership with Mission Investors Exchange, will highlight deals from foundation investors actively integrating racial, equity, inclusion, and diversity into their practices. Dynamic presentations by investor-investee pairs will share details on their processes, on their lessons learned, and on their successes in their investing, followed by an interactive Q&A session.
- Erin Harkless/Cambridge Associates
- Andrew Brower / W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- Ray Waters/ Detroit Development Fund
- Sayer Jones / Meyer Memorial Trust
- Nitin Rai / Elevate Capital
- Elizabeth Garlow / Lumina Foundation
- Melvin Hines / Uprise
- Daryl Shore/ Prudential Financial
Investing in Local Enterprises for Racial Equity
In communities across the country, leaders are adopting multiple approaches to build and then reinvest wealth locally–through cooperative ownership, minority-focused investment, community-empowered development, and authentic explorations of what it looks like to distribute wealth and power equitably. This session, developed in partnership with BALLE, focuses on the communities and leaders driving replicable strategies that recognize the urgent moral, economic, and ecological imperative to share and redirect capital and to promote collective well-being and social equity.
- Rodney Foxworth / BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)
- Nwamaka Abgo / Movement Strategy Center
- Mariela Cedeño / Mandela MarketPlace
- Ingrid Jacobson / ICA-Fund Good Jobs
- Allen Woods / MORTAR
Allyship Across Race and Gender
Working for racial equity requires relationships and alliances. Many people identify as being an ally in the struggle for racial equity, but are they really? This workshop session will help create a shared understanding on what it means to be an ally and how to hold allies accountable. We will explore actual tactics and interpersonal work that help form the foundation for strong alliances.
- Andrew Brower / W.K.Kellogg Foundation
- Nadia Brigham / W.K.Kellogg Foundation
Predatory Lending: Where to Draw the Line?
Predatory lending–whether in payday lending, credit cards, student loans, or mortgages–traps millions in an unbreakable cycle of high interest debt. Many are making big business out of gray areas, and there is significant debate on where the line should be drawn. How do we determine what practices are predatory, what fees are justified, and what terms are fair? Using investment examples, this session will grapple with these and other questions surrounding predatory lending.
- Stefanie Thomas / Impact America
- Sunwoo Hwang / Sixup
- Cynthia Muller / W.K. Kellogg Foundation
A Conversation For Asset Allocators: Reducing Implicit Bias and Increasing Returns
What will it take to reduce implicit bias within financial markets? How do diverse managers allow for different and increased impact? If you are allocating capital, join this deep dive session, developed in partnership with Illumen Capital, that will go beyond the surface conversations around how to make capital more diverse and representative. As active participants, every participant will explore reducing implicit biases that are likely contributing to gender and racial disparities in investing.
- Daryn Dodson / Illumen Capital
- Jenna Nicholas / Impact Experience
- Sarah Lyons-Padilla PhD / Social Psychological Answers to Real World Questions, Stanford University
- Miljana Vujosevic / Prudential Financial
We Will Keep these Conversations Going Through 2019
It is only by raising awareness, stimulating necessary conversations, and forging actionable new practices that we will meaningfully address systemic racial inequity. These SOCAP18 sessions are only the beginning. In the months following the conference and continuing throughout 2019, SOCAP and WKKF will work together to continue these conversations and increase the dialogue with expanded racial equity programming at SOCAP 365 events and podcasts, interviews, and other forums throughout the year.
Sign up for SOCAP’s email newsletter to receive advance notice of future racial equity conversations and content. Learn More
Read WKKF’s updated version of their Business Case for Racial Equity report.
SOCAP blog: Investments in Racial Equity: Leadership and Commitment from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Listen to Episode five of SOCAP’s Money + Meaning podcast: Investing for Racial Equity
Watch AJ Jones II, Senior Policy Advisor at WKKF after his plenary talk at SOCAP17 discussing some of the Foundations’ investments in Racial Equity.
