The last two months of protests and political action as a result of George Floyd’s murder are a referendum on the criminal (in)justice system that punitively impacts Black Americans.

You might be thinking, “OK, but what does race have to do with financial services?”

Well, everything.

Last week David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, was interviewed during Davos coverage and spoke about diversity and an initiative the bank will start later this year.

“From a governance perspective, diversity on boards is a very very important issue and we’ve been very very focused on it.” He goes on to describe a 2020 initiative for their US and Europe business, in which Goldman will “not take a company public unless there is at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women.” This requirement goes up to two in 2021.

As you might imagine, if we’re talking about the intersection of financial services and diversity, I’ve got thoughts to share.

BlackRock's CEO Larry Fink published his annual CEO letter this week. It makes bold assertions about BlackRock's moves towards sustainability and I've gotten so many questions about the letter that I figured I'd write up my thoughts all in one place. Plus photos from last year’s climate strike and two obscure musical references.

I spent the first part of 2019 interviewing different industry leaders about whether indexing and impact investing can coexist. Kristin Hull, CEO of Nia Impact Capital read the series and shared her thoughts with me. I asked her if I could interview her for my readers. Enjoy!

So you’ve seen study after study showing that investors are overwhelmingly interested in sustainable, ESG, and impact investing, but you think it might just be hype because your own clients aren’t asking about it. Right?

When I first heard about OpenInvest a few years ago, I was intrigued by their combination of a digital platform for customizing portfolios to investors’ unique ESG desires while also letting those investors vote their shares via their smartphones. Since they are based in San Francisco, I went to meet them in person. It’s been a pleasure getting to know Josh Levin, Co-Founder of OpenInvest over the past few years. Just as fun has been watching them open up their platform to RIAs so that advisors could take advantage of the values customization technology. Though we agree on almost all of the big picture items, we don’t always agree on the details. I hope you enjoy this spirited conversation as much as I did.

I sat down to chat with Geeta Aiyer, President & Founder of Boston Common, a recognized leader in the impact investing space (rated A+ for governance and strategy by PRI), and one of my personal impact investing heroes. This interview is part of an ongoing series on the topic of whether index investing in public equities can be impactful.

Over the past 5 years I’ve watched with interest as TruValue Labs has grown from startup to well known ESG data provider. Their approach to gathering data is unique and has always interested me, so I was thrilled when they asked if I would help them with their 2019 US Conference. I had a dual role of emcee and an unusual role of being an extra pair of eyes and ears for attendees. I watched each presentation and panel closely, then at the end of the event, summed up all of the themes, key takeaways, and action items I saw for attendees. Below is a recap of those themes and takeaways along with some photos. If you want more photos and highlights, there’s a Twitter moment here; if you prefer a short video wrap up, you can see that here.

This year, I’ve been exploring the intersection of indexing and impactful investing in public equities. Can we have our cake and eat it too? I wrote my thoughts here and interviewed Jon Streur, Calvert CEO. After I saw that Garvin Jabusch, CIO of Green Alpha, wrote about a similar topic in this Financial Times piece, I sat down to get his thoughts to share with my Connected Investing readers.

Years ago, I was attending the SRI Conference. I hosted a small reception in my hotel room. To keep in their good graces, I invited the conference guests staying adjacent to my hotel room to join in the festivities. One of those guests was Leslie Samuelrich, President of Green Century Capital Management. We had never met before, but she came right over, and we’ve been friends since. Recently, I was able to interview her about one of her recent impact success stories. I hope you enjoy hearing the story as much as I did.

This article was originally published on CNBC on April 22, 2019.

Donald Trump’s surprising ascent to president of the United States has brought many unexpected effects to the financial markets. Ironically, one has been a rapid increase in interest and adoption of impact investing and other types of values-based investing.

Values-aligned investing is called by many different names, which are commonly misused or misunderstood by investors.

Let me decode the lingo, because a shared understanding of the terminology makes this type of investing more accessible to advisors and investors alike.

Earlier this month I featured some of my favorite impact investing “a-ha” moments from impact investing interviews I’ve written. Some of my Connected Investing readers shared their “a-ha” moments with me and I’m sharing a few here, with their permission.

Whenever I have the pleasure of interviewing an impact investing leader, I love to ask if they have an “a-ha moment” that led them to impact, ESG or SRI investing. It's one of my favorite things to ask, and it's one of the things my readers tell me they most enjoy. Below are some of the highlights, with links back to their interviews.

I'm excited to share with you a paper I co-authored on the racial disparities in staffs and boards of SRI mutual funds. Socially responsible funds pursue positive social and environmental impact through both investment selection and shareholder engagement. Because people of color are often affected first and worst by the issues SRI funds are trying to improve, it would behoove the industry to have people of color in decision-making positions at these firms, at least in an amount representative of the US population. (Although I'm making the business case here, but I don't believe we need a business case to treat people equitably and create systems that are more just.)

Can an Index have Impact? John Streur, CEO of Calvert says it absolutely can.

The most popular, controversial, and most engaged content I've put out in 2018.

1. How do we effectively measure impact?

Although this theme is one I've seen before, the discussion feels more mature now. There is less talk about whether to measure impact and more talk about how to do it effectively. The “how” continues to be challenging, both in public and private investments. Best practices are focusing on materiality, and looking at impact holistically to consider the various communities each investment affects and what positive impact looks like to those communities.

The most common advice I share with clients is “share stories!” I love helping people tell impact investing stories and if you’ve heard me speak at a conference before, you’ve likely heard me tell this story of my first involvement with impact investing.

Last month I wrote about the important distinction between SRI and ESG. Today I'm continuing on that theme and answering one of the questions I get about terminology: what is impact investing and why do you use that term?