Transform Finance Investor Network Webinar Recordings

Latest Episodes:

Growing Worker-Owned Coops Through Outside Financing | January 14, 2016 Mar 05, 2018

Show notes

Among the factors that has held back the growth and proliferation of worker ownership stands out the lack of available financing structures. Dan Fireside, Equal Exchange's Capital Coordinator and a veteran of the industry, guided us through models of outside financing for coops that include outside non-voting shares, worker voting shares, and a combination of debt and retained earnings. With that context, Blake Jones, the celebrated founder of Namaste Solar, presented the company's current private placement of preferred stock to grow this tremendously successful worker-owned coop without losing its commitment to worker ownership and governance .

[These "podcasts" are the direct audio recordings of TFIN Webinars. As the original format was a video webinar, please excuse any brief technical difficulties and note that presenters may refer to slides. To watch the TFIN webinar recordings with their corresponding slide decks, please visit http://transformfinance.org/investor-resources/.]

The Issue of Share Buybacks: What role can asset owners play? | November 17, 2015 Mar 01, 2018

Show notes

We all are aware of the perils of short-termism as an investment approach, and one of its nefarious manifestations is the rising issue of excessive share buybacks. What are share buybacks and why are they inconsistent with an impact portfolio? And most relevantly - what can asset owners do to counter the public equity trend toward share buybacks?

Last year Larry Fink issued a strong call against share buybacks for institutional investors. We reviewed the issue and some potential engagement strategies for our community. The webinar was led by Eli Staub, Deputy Director for Research at the SEIU, who has thought about the relationship between share buybacks and inequality more than pretty much anyone else. If you are interested in joining a nascent initiative around share buybacks, please send an email to info@transformfinance.org.

Tying Fund Manager Returns to Impact Outcomes | July 22, 2015 Feb 28, 2018

Show notes

How can one ensure a focus on mission for an impact fund? How about tying fund manager compensation to impact metrics? We looked at this issue through the lens of news media companies, which have historically dealt with the tension between mission and market.

Engaging Investors Around Quality Job Creation | July 9, 2015 Feb 02, 2018

Show notes

Will the creation of minimum wage jobs with no benefits really help U.S. workers out of a cycle of poverty? In this webinar we reviewed the work that brought together Transform Finance, TFIN founding member Pi Investments, and HCAP Partners, a $90+ million fund focused on job creation. We also reviewed the broader efforts in the job quality standards arena that Transform Finance is involved in as well as other sector-wide initiatives. For background information on this topic you may want to read Morgan Simon's SSIR piece on managing versus measuring impact: http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/managing_vs_measuring_impact_investmen