What is financial literacy?

Financial literacy means understanding your overall financial wellness. It usually starts with financial planning. Financial literacy topics might include saving money, investment, debt management, retirement, and college funds. It implies understanding how much money you will need when you retire, what are the different types of investments, how to manage debts and credit cards and optimize taxes. Traditionally, women have not been educated about finance. For a long time, it has been a man’s world. However, it is changing dramatically because women are being successful financially. Women are getting organized and becoming financially savvy and supporting other women. According to McKinsey & Company, $30 trillion (equivalent to the size of the US GDP) will be controlled by women in 2030. So this is an exciting time for women! More than ever, there are tons of resources available to help women reach their full potential.

In her excellent book “Rewire Your Brain, three steps women can take to program her brain for financial success,” Barbara Huson says:

“I learned that women’s and men’s brains process financial information differently. Men see investing in the market as a challenge. Women see investing as a threat. Since our prehistoric brains were wired for the sole purpose of survival, anytime we feel threatened, our rational brain shuts down, sending us into fight, flight, or freeze mode”

For a long time, I saw money as dirty and dull. I treated money as an afterthought. Managing finance was a big black hole. I did not save money or have a financial plan. I had no idea what it ever meant. Like many women, I was not educated about money and I had no financial literacy.

“According to a recent Fidelity survey, over 80 percent of women, no matter how much they have or how smart they are, admitted they weren’t protecting themselves financially”

So to help women reach their full potential, the first step should be to educate them about managing their finances. Financial literacy means building the brain muscle to see money as something fun and plentiful. Money is the power to build the life we want and move the world in a more empathetic direction.

Educate Yourself

Financial literacy education is a critical skill to acquire for women. Women tend to be better at thinking about long-term investment

8 books to get you started on your financial education

1.Rewire Your Brain, three steps women can take to program her brain for financial success, by Barbara Huson

What it’s about: 

Women tend to shy away from investing and taking charge of their finances. Huson explores how the mental blockage women develop over time prevents them from reaching their full potential in managing finances. She provides concrete actions to move into a life of wealth, abundance, and financial leadership.

2. Unleash Your Financial Powerhouse: Practical Steps to Money Mastery 

What it’s about: 

In this comprehensive book, Adam Bar guides you to discover simple, actionable steps designed to help you achieve your life goals and gain financial power, confidence, and dignity. The author shares practical tools that will transform your relationship with money in order to live a rich, powerful, and fulfilled life.

3. The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life

What it’s about: 

This liberating book shows us that examining our attitudes toward money―earning it, spending it, and giving it away―offers surprising insight into our lives. Through personal stories and practical advice, Lynne Twist asks us to discover our relationship with money, understand how we use it, and by assessing our core human values, align our relationship with it to our desired goals. In doing so, we can transform our lives.

4. Stop Giving Your Power Away–What Every Woman Should Know

What it’s about: 

This book is a conversation starter with herself to stop the self-loathing, tolerance and hiding that girl people do so well, a seed inside her soul that sprouts confidence, love, and self-support.

5. Every Woman Should Know Her Options: Invest Your Way To Financial Empowerment

What it’s about: 

Whether you hire a financial advisor to manage your money or manage it yourself, this book will put you on the path to financial empowerment. Learn how to grow your money by investing like the pros • Use options to generate income and lower your risk in the stock market • Stop paying high fees on your investments • Overcome obstacles women face in achieving financial independence.

6. Women Don’t Ask

What it’s about: 

Women Don’t Ask explores how our institutions, child-rearing practices, and implicit assumptions discourage women from asking for the opportunities and resources that they have earned and deserve―perpetuating inequalities that are fundamentally unfair and economically unsound. Women Don’t Ask tells women how to ask, and why they should.

7. The One-Page Financial Plan

8. The Prosperous Coach

Financial Literacy Additional Resources

Workshop: Startups, Women, and Wealth: Getting Started with Angel & Venture Investing (Online)

Follow Kristin Hull, founder of Nia Impact Capital. You can read her blog post Giving up the patriarchy here.

Wise Community is a global community of remarkable women brought together by a shared commitment to advancing sustainable investing.

Podcasts:

Invest For Better invest for Better is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that brings women together as a community to help them take control of their assets and invest them for a better world.

How to Spend Your Money To Create A Better World

How To Follow Your Values To Lead Your Life With Kate Byrne

Women Put Their Money (and Jobs) Where Their Mouths Are

Invest with your values

Is your bank using your money to invest in fossil fuels? Research where your bank invests its money and make sure it is aligned with your values. Knowing your money is not used to destroy the world is a great way to feel empowered. The banks below are mission-driven, either focusing on women or the environment. It is a great way to start making a difference.

• Ellevest
• Aspiration
• Beneficial State Bank
• First Climate Bank
• First Women’s Bank

You can listen to the full interview below.

Laina talks with us about her journey to becoming an investor and the desire to change the path to leadership for many women.

• Background story: From a tech CEO to social entrepreneurs
• Women entrepreneurs supported by Angels of Impact
• Finding Investors to support women entrepreneurs
• Network Ripple Effect: investing money a small sum at the time
• What is impact investing?

Meet Laina, a social impact woman entrepreneur

I'm the co-founder of Angels of Impact, which is based in Singapore. And what we are, fundamentally connecting women-led social enterprises who are helping alleviate poverty, connecting them to investors as well as to markets. Angels of Impact finds women from around the world who are creating social and environmental change. They connect these entrepreneurs to big investors and big companies to buy their products and amplify their social impact.

What inspired your decision to found Angels of Impact?

I don’t come from a wealthy background. My mother was the daughter of a rice farmer. So I know what it's like to access the opportunities can hAnd I felt like I had a duty to pay it forward towards enabling others into social impact.

Angels of Impact finds women from around the world who are creating social and environmental change. They connect these entrepreneurs to big investors, and big companies to buy their products and amplify their social impact.

That is very interesting! Can you give us an example of some profiles of women that you're working with?

We have one remarkable woman who is working on restoring biodiversity in Indonesia. Her name is Helianti Hillman, and she is the founder of Javara. The company sells products like Biscotti, gluten-free pasta, jam, and many more. Helianti works with 50,000 farmers all across Indonesia. Helianti also has the idea of helping to alleviate them out of poverty so that small farm holders can continue to do farming rather than leave and go to the cities and trying to look for work. And she's doing amazing work which has a great social impact.

Where do you come in as Angels of Impact for Javara?

What Angels of Impact tried to do with her is to try to access markets for her. Team and I were able to get Javara products into the pantries of both Google and Facebook.

Is there any other woman entrepreneur you’d like to tell us about?

Yes. There is another lady who runs a bean to bar chocolate factory in Indonesia too. The woman, Sabrina Mustopo, is a former McKinsey (managing consulting firm) consultant but wanted to make the world a better place. Sabrina founded Krakakoa, a group that provides farmer education workshops. The workshops are on good agricultural practices and sustainable cocoa farming methods. Sabrina works directly with the farmers, helping them go up the value chain so that they can earn more and get out of poverty. And because she does bean-to-bar, they’re delicious quality chocolates. This ensures widespread social impact.

How Angels of Impact chipped in for Sabrina and Krakakoa?

Angels of Impact also got Sabrina’s products in Google’s offices. Google now gets a shipment of her company’s chocolates twice a month. Another way in which we came through for Sabrina is when she needed access to financing. We brought together a group of investors to help to access finance for her as well. This allows her to continue to do her work of social impact without worrying about the source of funding.

How do you find investors for women entrepreneurs?

We have this fundamental premise that many people out there actually have done well for themselves. But they all are searching for more meaning in their lives, and they want to do equally meaningful things. Some of them have contributed to charity, but being capitalists themselves and having made their money as entrepreneurs, they may feel a little bit awkward with just pure charity. They want to be more hands-on in their contributions. They want to help the business grow. So we began to look for people with that mindset. We point them in the direction of social impact business.

What has been your experience getting donors so far?

Initially, the way we positioned it was better than donations. So we could not guarantee maximum monetary returns from it. And for them, they were perfectly agreeable with that. This is because even better than donations and maybe getting the return on investment was the prospect of making a social impact. Now we're trying to take it to the next level of having people see this as a good investment. So this is how it's been viral so far. We call ourselves a network of entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs. And I feel that this is a smart money movement. It's not just flowing money but opening doors and helping mentorship as well, creating social impact. And that’s a relationship that more people are drawn to these days.

A network of entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs: What do you think fuels people’s involvement in your venture?

As we noted in part one of this series, impact investment is particularly rising amongst Millenials. One survey shows that 79 percent of millennials want to invest in ways that have a social impact and financial impact. People want to be part of a movement that is creating a more conscious society.

Many of them come to us saying,

Thank you. You know this is it made my life so much more worthwhile. I'm working at a bank or making lots of money. Or I'm running this company and made lots of money. But now I feel fulfilled because I can actually see people being lifted out of poverty and it makes so much meaning for that.

Those are the kind of people we look for, people who want to have more meaning in their lives. So that's why Angels of Impact. We don't just support women's social enterprise; we support those who are helping alleviate poverty.

That’s a very wonderful resume for your company. What about you? Has Angels of Impact done anything for you?

Angels of Impact also bring meaning into my own life. In a lot of ways, I see myself in the women I make investments in. My own family was very poor. My grandmother was a rice farmer in Singapore. And my family had to work their way up.

What did you do before starting Angels of Impact?

My professional background is in technology. I was CEO of one of the first tech startups in Singapore in the early 1990s. I have worked in 47 different countries, including Switzerland, the US, and Indonesia. As a woman, I had to work twice as hard to break the glass ceiling – because there was always an unconscious bias. So I very much empathized with how difficult it was to be a woman in a tech field and literally invisible and trying to make herself visible.

So what did you do next?

I went on to run my own company. I ran an e-learning company out of Singapore which provided services all around the region, including Australia, China and Vietnam. And in that process, I found entrepreneurship to be very empowering because I didn't have to go begging for a job. I created the opportunities, and I created opportunities for other people and thus created teams and created value.

But something was still missing even then?

Yes! Even though I was creating opportunities, I still felt like something was missing. I wanted to do more to help others. Because even though my family was able to lift themselves out of poverty, not all families are so lucky.

Where does your inspiration come from?

When I was very young, I watched Richard Attenborough's movie on Mahatma Gandhi. Mother Teresa was also one of my biggest role models, so I was always conflicted with business. I wanted to do some good, yes, but then I also wanted to do some good. So when I first started hearing about social entrepreneurship, I thought, what a brilliant idea. You know that you could use business fundamentals and do good. And one of the books that really changed my mindset was Professor Muhammad Yunus’ 'Creating a world without poverty' where it challenges economic theories. He challenges the fact that we need to restore dignity for the poor. You know they can help themselves. They are innovators. They are not passive recipients. This pointed strongly at social impact!

Could you break this down a little more?

You know, donating money is not that empowering. But when you invest money into a person or company aligned with the greater good, that is empowering both for the entrepreneur and the investor. It creates a better social impact. And that made so much sense to me, you know.

And so that's when I said okay, ‘How can I apply this network that I have already built up both in the business world as well as sort of the nonprofit world to be able to help others to do it?’ Right there and then, I decided that the best way to help others was to use my business know-how to enable women around the world to lift themselves out of poverty. I would help small women-run businesses find international investors.

The Ripple Effect: You are not alone

So I started by walking the talk by investing my own money. So even before I started Angels of Impact, I just talked to an entrepreneur and said, “You know how much money you need. What are you trying to do?” “Well, I'm trying to do this or that. And this is how much money I need.” The first one told me she needed $5000. I was like, “I can do $5,000.” The second entrepreneur needed $25,000. So I said, “Well, I can do $10,000.” And then I turned around and asked another friend of mine, “Hey, I'm giving $10,000 to this entrepreneur. Can you join me?” And she's like, “Yeah, of course!”

And that is how Angels of Impact started. The group became official in 2016, to give women-led social enterprises the finance they needed to grow into sustainable businesses. The social impact has been magnanimous since. Today the company invests in foods, drinks, and even sustainable fashion.

So, what amount of investment are we talking about for these types of endeavors?

Currently, because we're still in the early stages, we're using the lean startup methodology of testing the market as well. The Lean Startup methodology is a practice for developing products and businesses based on getting a lot of customer feedback very quickly. The idea is to shorten the amount of time it takes to develop a product. So we're doing smaller amounts anywhere from $50,000 to about $150,000. Okay. So that's sort of in the range where it's bigger than a micro-finance, but they're still too small for impact investors to be interested in. So the idea is, we helped them through this journey.

How do you then progress from the initial stage?

But in the process of helping them in that journey, especially when we open up markets for them, we're able to see where the real pain point is, you know? Is it that they don't have a team? Or not have enough equipment? Is it because the quality of the products is not good enough or maybe it’s packaged wrong? So that gives us the ability actually to learn with them. And it’s a mutual process, which makes it exciting for entrepreneurs to want to invest in this area because most of them are looking for social impact.

What is impact investing?

I noticed that as more people look for meaning, and as the popularity of impact investing rises, so does the broadness of the term's definition. I usually say it’s like an elephant; someone's holding a tail and they describe that as an investment, whereas someone holding the trunk describes that as impact investing. But everyone is right based on what they're holding and what they want to achieve.

Where do all these different approaches meet?

Different people have different expectations. So if some impact investors really do believe they can do good and do well at the same time, then that’s commendable. I don't think we should be talking about one particular definition of impact investing because I think people should state what their expectation is. Am I looking for a social return first and then at the same time want a sustainable business? Or do I want social impact first, and then I want a business that grows and gives me good healthy returns. Or do I want to have good healthy returns and some social impact at the same time?

You mentioned gender-based discrimination earlier. How do you maintain credibility at Angels of Impact against any discrimination?

As investors, people often do want healthy returns. And they’re more likely to invest in men to get those returns. People are less likely to invest in women-owned businesses. This is even though studies show that companies with women executives usually perform better than those led by men. To curb this gender discrimination, Angels of Impact vets its entrepreneurs inside and out – based on sales, quality of service and product, and customer satisfaction. I think we have tried to be able to eliminate some of these unconscious biases by giving data that is very credible. The data speaks for itself.

Any advice, especially for women entrepreneurs?

I strive to make leaders out of the women-owned companies that Angels of Impact works with.

The key to any good leader is empathy, humility, and the desire to do good for others. My biggest advice for women-entrepreneurs is to work hard, never give up. Women may have to work twice as hard, but we still can break the glass ceiling.

Additional resources

• What is Impact Investing?
• Angel of Impact’s website
• Krakakoa: fair trade chocolate from Indonesia
• Javara: sustaining forgotten food biodiversity
• Laina Raveendran Green
• Lean Startup methodology
• Gandhi’s Movie
• Mother Theresa

Fair trade and changing the world starts by looking at how we spend money, from daily purchases to long term pension funds. Today on Be Your Change, we explore impact investing. The term has different meanings for different people, but ideally, we must ensure our investment has a good impact on the world. We get insights on impact investing from Rosa Lee Harden, a leader in the social impact movement and co-founder of Social Capital Markets (SOCAP). SOCAP is a large network of investors and entrepreneurs who want money to flow towards the greater good.

In this interview, we talk to Rosa Lee Harden about the meaning of impact investing, and how we can join this movement even though we don’t have a large amount of money to invest.

• The story behind SOCAP
• What is Impact Investing?
• 3 Tips to become a more conscious investor and consumer

How did you decide to create the SOCAP conference?

More and more people want to invest their money in alignment with the greater good. About 10 years ago, my husband and I began a social entrepreneur investing firm. It started attracting people who wanted to talk about the space of impact investing. So they decided to do this at a conference – SOCAP. Across 10 years, it has grown from what we had hoped would be 200/300 people to now 3,000 people.

We have to start investing in a way that protects the planet, that protects its people. And I'm really hopeful that this movement is going to have a lot to do with that. The challenge to us is getting the word out to mainstream that there is this different way of investing, that is impact investing.

What is impact investing?

Impact investing is when you take your investment portfolio and instead of just thinking about how much money you're going to make with your investment, you consider more important things. Think about what your money's doing, and how it is behaving out in the world. You should also consider the values that the investment company holds compared to yours. You may discover that you are investing in an ammunition plant or in a company that makes products with slave laborers or things that you ideally would really object to.

Ideally, you should employ investment strategies that ensure your investment will go towards things that you approve of first. And beyond that, your investment must have an impact in that it will change the world for good. This concept was developed about 10 to 15 years ago but it is rapidly influencing people’s investment decisions. People are understanding that their money can make a difference. That is the whole essence of impact investing.

When did impact investing become popular?

Impact investing started becoming popular in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War. Students demanded that universities do not invest their endowment funds into defense contractors. Some say the idea of socially responsible investing goes back 200 years when John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, told his followers to not profit at their neighbors’ expense. Yet another explanation says the idea goes back even further, to biblical times!

How are people embracing the concept of impact investing?

Currently, we are in this great space where the people who are true believers and understand impact investing and social enterprise are getting to know that SOCAP exists and attend it in droves. But then it is such an esoteric field. The biggest challenge is getting the word out to the mainstream, about this different way of investing and getting them to come to SOCAP to learn how to do it.

What is the biggest setback for impact investing?

Impact investing is not mainstream yet, but it’s moving in that direction. I think it’s because inequalities are skyrocketing. A new report by Oxfam shows the inequality gap has widened so much that the ‘world’s richest 1% gets 82% of the wealth’. People want change. One recent survey shows 79% of millennials want to invest in a way that has both a social and financial impact. Mainstream investment managers are taking note. Merrill Lynch now offers impact investment products and advice. Goldman Sachs recently bought an impact investment firm. We appreciate all this growth, but the challenge remains to have rapid growth while maintaining purity in the philosophies behind impact investing.

What is your desired outcome of all your efforts?

We hope that we don't lose the battle to ‘greenwashing’, where people say they're doing a good thing just to sell their product when it’s really not that sustainable or that environmentally friendly. And so what we're hoping to do is to build this momentum with integrity rather than people again just trying to make money off of it. To inspire more people to do impact investing.

People are making money. One study shows 15 billion US dollars were poured into impact investments in 2015. Venture capitalist, Sir Ronald Cohen predicts the “tipping point” for the movement will happen in 2020, when global impact assets are expected to reach $300 billion.

Is the “tipping point” a reality, according to you?

My personal thinking is that if we don’t reach a tipping point pretty soon and turn this around, we're going to lose the battle, and we're going to lose this earth. We have to start investing in a way that protects the planet that protects its people. I'm really hopeful that this movement is going to have a lot to do with that and moving people's awareness, moving the needle, making that tipping point arrive where it's just unheard of to invest in something that you don't understand. You would say I want to be careful with how I invest because I care about the world. Impact investing is definitely the way to go.

One way we invest is by putting our money in banks. But over three dozens banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and CitiBank support and finance the Dakota Access pipeline. Climate activists – and the EPA – say the pipeline will increase greenhouse gases, endanger wildlife, and affect local American Indian tribes’ source of water. In 2017, Seattle became the first city to break ties with Wells Fargo in protest.

What needs to happen right now?

I don't know what specifics I would name but my role in it is to continue with this conference and other smaller events to continue to educate people. I also intend to get more people aware that you don't just hand your retirement funds to some relative stranger and say just make me some money. That you can instead take that money and invest it in a credit union that supports your community. Or that you can alternatively work with someone who would give your returns in impact not just in dollars. I want to educate people so that they know that they can practice impact investing.

3 tips to become a conscious investor and consumer

1.It Is Not Only About Investment

What advice do you have for anyone who might not consider themselves investors because they can’t afford $50,000 dollars to invest?

Well, it’s not just about the size of the investment. It could be the $100 that you put in a credit union. You should investigate your bank. Do you appreciate its values? If you don’t, then look for a credit union or a smaller local bank that supports your local community. Figure out what your values are and find a banking institution that supports them. Don’t worry if sometimes you never have any money to invest, instead, you should find solace in knowing that at least you allowed your money to be co-mingled with the money of other like-minded people. Impact investing!

2. Be Mindful on How You Spend Your Money

More than just what you do with investments what do you do with your money in general matters even more. Maybe you start looking more carefully at food labels about is it organically grown? Is it locally grown? Is it grown in a way that is good for the planet? Or you look at some of your clothing options and make sure that at least a few things that you buy that you know that it came from a factory that didn't use slave labor in any way. I think the key is to build products that don’t have a negative impact on the environment.

Find something in your life is OK in this area of my life, this is where I'm going to work to do a better job of being a conscious consumer.

As Beyourchange, we appreciate your obvious dedication to making a difference in the world. We see you are in the trench every day working at creating a better world for the future generation – towards impact investing. What are the most exciting trends you are witnessing in your community that give you hope for the future?

I am very hopeful we will not be able to turn the other way and say, “Well you know I just you know I live my life”. You can't live your life in a society that is so blatantly disrespectful of humanity. And one of the tenets I try to live my life by is to respect the dignity of every human being. And I'm hopeful that will become a mantra in this country that we respect the dignity of every human being.

3.Educate Yourself

Remember, the best thing that we can do as consumers is to educate ourselves about where our money is spent. Know about your bank, know their values. Think twice when you buy a product. Are you perpetuating a bad system? Or are you supporting companies with a social impact mission? And, if you are thinking of investing, ensure you understand what is being done with your money and the impact your investment has on the world. How we spend money is a form of activism and can be a direct route to a more equal society.

To Learn More

• Read about the history of impact investing
• Socap: socap capital market
• Listen to the interview with Kate Byrne, president of Intentional Group, the media group of which Socap is part of.
• Read the interview of our founder, Juliette Roy, on Socap Capital Market website
• Discover Angels of Impact, an impact investing fund focusing on women

In this day in age, transparency is everything. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, people seem to be more socially conscious and interested in knowing where their products are manufactured. I have come to find that the world of investing is no different. With all of the world’s information at our fingertips and consumers taking a stance, investors are choosing to invest their money in companies that have a positive impact on the world. 

“Impact Investing ” refers to investments made with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. In a recent study, women were found to reinvest 70% of their earnings into their families and communities, whereas men were found to give closer to 30%. These numbers are important to note for investors because if they want to have a greater impact on the community, they need to invest in women.

In this episode, I interview Kate Byrne, the president of Intentional Media, a production platform committed to building a new and exciting media ecosystem. One thing that strikes me about Intentional Media, is that it is an umbrella platform filled with female leaders who are all working together to give equal opportunity to other women and minorities who are underrepresented in the media.

Listen in to learn more about this exciting new ecosystem and how you can get involved! 

What You’ll Learn

Did you know that women only own 7.4 percent of the nation’s commercial TV stations? With numbers like this, it’s hard to imagine what our world would look like any differently. Intentional Media, headed by Kate Byrne, is committed to making a difference. Learn more about this platform and how they are helping women by giving them a platform to have their voices heard.

The Best Quotes Of The Show

If you simply show up and do what you say you’re going to do, you are 95% ahead of the rest of the world. 

[My mother said,] “Katie, you know, volunteering is fabulous but you’re valuable. Your time is valuable. You might as well get paid, cause you can always volunteer.”  You know, when you do the money piece, it’s a fabulous thing in the right hands and it gives you choices, but it also gives you the ability and frankly, the gravitas to use your voice. And I think that’s why I have focused so much on helping women and young girls use their voice and not be afraid to ask for what they want.

If you have something that you’re passionate about, I guarantee you if you start talking about it, there’ll be more people that come and flock to you. And next thing you know, you start reading, you start getting to be asked to speak about it, and you become your own thought leader. And then you inspire others to do the same thing. But it just takes acting and having the courage to open your mouth and really frankly take your shot.

Go Deeper:

Learn more about Intentional Media and how they are helping women get their voices out into the world. 

Intentional Media

SOCAP

Conscious Company

Total Impact

Join Our Family Of Female Changemakers

Subscribe to our show!

There are an estimated 11.6 million women-owned businesses in the United States that employ nearly 9 million people and generate more than $1.7 trillion in revenues. Despite these impressive numbers, there is still room to grow. Women-owned businesses are small, and 99.9% of them have fewer than 500 employees. They are also concentrated in certain areas, like health care and education. If women are going to see full equality in this economy, we need more women making decisions about what new ideas and products get funding. Luckily, fearless women’s VC funds are leading us the way and becoming the new arm of the resistance.

According to Huffington Post and Fortune magazine, Thirty-two female CEOs head the 500 biggest companies in the United States, a record number in the Fortune 500’s 63-year history, but women only represent 6 percent of the CEOs on the list, and there were no black female CEOs.

Despite A Growing Number Of Female Entrepreneurs, Only 2% Of Venture Capital Goes To Female Founders

In 2017, female founders only get two percent of venture capital dollars.  Currently, about 7% of partners at top VC firms are women, according to an analysis by TechCrunch. The trend might be slowly changing. Take the example of Theresia Gouw, the co-founder of Aspect Ventures, one of the first female-led venture investing firms in Silicon Valley according to Forbes. She has become the richest female VC in the U.S.  Gouw founded All Raise, an organization that supports the success of female founders and investors in Silicon Valley by developing a data-driven approach to focus on the most effective solutions. All Raise highlights that only 9% of decision-makers at US-based venture capital firms are women, and 15% of US venture dollars in 2017 went to teams with a female founder. Gouw talks the talk and walks the walk: 40% of Aspect’s portfolio includes a female co-founder.

A study published by Bloomberg shows that traded companies run by a woman perform far better than the market, backing up the approach of funds like Aspect Ventures. It’s not just good for equality, it’s good for business. Positive change comes from a new form of finance activism developed by a women’s VC fund community.

How do we increase funding in female-owned businesses when 85% of the key partners at VCs are male?

No offense to men, but a grand majority might not understand women’s ideas and products because they do not feel concerned about it. It might be as simple as that. As the white male still dominates the VC industry, its workforce and power leadership structure has started to transform. Women are getting organized to support each other in what I call a new form of finance activism. While female venture capitalists are getting organized to change the VC landscape from within, female-focused vc funds are on the rise to invest in female and minorities only companies.

Take the example of Arlan Hamilton, she is a gay black warrior woman who went, from being homeless and poor, to developing her own VC fund. Her incredible story made it to the acclaimed startup podcast series. 

Hamilton invested in Tinsel. Tinsel creates wearable tech jewelry for women, addressing their essential tech needs through high-quality, highly fashionable fashion accessories like Meet The Dipper, an audio necklace that sounds as good as it looks! She also invested in Tresse Noire, on-location beauty services for women of color across the country. 

‘m looking for someone who gives me goosebumps basically people who are just tackling something whether it’s life-changing or day making. They can’t stand not to do themselves” Through her fearless conquering attitude, Hamilton is showing the way to many women and minorities that it is ok to ask for a seat at the table, that you actually deserve it and do not need to be apologetic about it.

Some other companies like SheEo aim to radically change the traditional approach to female investment. 500 women invest $1100 in each year cohort as an Act of Radical Generosity. The goal is to reach 1M Investors to support 10,000 women-led Ventures and create a $1B perpetual fund to support women for generations to come.

The More Women Get Educated About Investment, The More Impact They Will Have On Changing The World

As women are getting organized to finance other women, Ellevest is about educating women about finance and investment. Ellevest’s founder Sallie Krawcheck wants to help women retire rich. The more women start learning about investing and making money from their investments, the more it will support the women-owned business ecosystem. Like any time in history, change will happen when women get organized to support women and minorities. This trend is seen with the Women’s March, the Me Too movement, Black Lives Matters and Diversity and Inclusion accountability around technology companies.

These New Trends Can Be Tied To The Growing Movement Of Impact Investing

Some other organizations focus on a new trend called Impact investment. As we noted in part one of Be Your Change podcast series, impact investment is particularly rising amongst millennials, with one survey showing 79 percent of millennials wanting to invest in both socially and financially impactful ways. People want to be part of a movement that is creating a more conscious society.

Rosa Lee Harden co-founded Social Capital Markets, or SOCAP, a large network of investors and entrepreneurs who want money to flow toward the greater good and are part of the social impact movement.   

We have to start investing in a way that protects the planet that protects its people. And I’m really hopeful that this movement is going to have a lot to do with that

Laina Raveendran Greene is the co-founder of Angels of Impact

Based in Singapore, the fund invests in responsibly produced goods made by women living in poverty. They connect women-led social enterprises that are helping alleviate poverty, connecting them to investors as well as markets. I talk to her about her journey to launch her own VC fund from the desire to align her values, business skills and her will to have a positive impact on the world. She is also the co-author of Sustainable Impact. How women Are Key To Ending Poverty 

So we have this fundamental premise that there are many people out there who actually have done well for themselves. But they all are searching for more meaning in their lives, and they want to do things that are meaningful. Some of them have contributed to charity, but being capitalists themselves and having made their money as an entrepreneur, they kind of feel a little bit awkward with just pure charity you know. They want to be more hands-on involved, they want to help the business grow. So we began to look for people like that. 

Few Takeaways

• Learn as much as you can about finance and investment and 8 financial literacy books for women to take control of their finances is a good place to start.
• Think of investing or spending on companies and products that have a social impact
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions

Go Deeper (Tip: Make sure to buy secondhand books, it’s much better for the environment)

• Raise Capital on Your Own Terms
• From Worry To Health: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Success without Stress
• Sustainable Impact. How women Are Key To Ending Poverty
• You Are A Badass at Making Money

For our latest episode of Be Your Change, Juliette Roy sat down with Rosa Lee Harden, a leader in this movement. Harden co-founded Social Capital Markets, or SOCAP, a large network of investors and entrepreneurs who want money to flow towards the greater good. Roy caught up with Harden at the group’s tenth annual conference in San Francisco.

Each choice we make counts: what we choose to consume or not consume; who we work with; and what stories listen to. Every action matters, and small actions can have big social impacts in the world. No matter how much money you have, you can make a difference. Here are four ways to start:

1.Know Your Bank, Know Their Values

Where your paycheck goes every month can make a difference. The city of Seattle recently cut ties with Wells Fargo for the bank’s support of the Dakota Access Pipeline. That took more than $3 billion of cash flow out of the hands of Wells Fargo.

While your monthly direct deposit isn’t in the billions, you can still be thoughtful about where you put it. Harden suggests looking at credit unions or a local bank instead of the major multinationals. “You should allow your money to be co-mingled with the money of other people who are thinking about their values in the same way you are,” she told us.  

2.Check Your Retirement Accounts

Harden said a goal of the SOCAP Conference is to educate people so you “don’t just hand your retirement funds to some relative stranger and say just make me some money.”

Instead, consider whether your retirement money is invested with companies that match your values. You might also want to look into socially-conscious funds from places like Vanguard.

3.Look at Your Shopping Habits

Think twice when you buy a product. Are you perpetuating a bad system? Or are you supporting companies with a social impact mission? “Start looking more carefully at food labels,” Harden suggested. She continued: “Is it grown in a way that is good for the planet? Or, look at your clothing options and make sure that at least a few things that you buy came from a factory that didn’t use slave labor in any way.” Brands like Les Lunes are making eco-friendly fashion. 

4.Invest Your Time

Time is money, right? So if you don’t have extra cash to invest, consider how you’re investing your time. Volunteer, do pro bono work, or advocate for a worthy cause. You’re guaranteed to make an impact.

Want to know more about investing? Check out these sites:

• SOCAP
• Ladies Who Lovebomb Podcast: Georgia Lee Hussey helps ladies get that cash
• Ellevest