The term “impact investing” was coined only 15 years ago (by the Rockefeller Foundation) - and although it’s a relatively new term, the concept of “impact investing” has roots back in as early as the 1800’s, as a means for organizations to avoid those areas that directly conflicted with their values.

As someone working in the wild world of venture capital, I am always looking for technologies that have the potential to disrupt industries and change the world. OpenAI's GPT technology is one such technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we work and live; however, one of the major concerns is how GPT technology could affect the workforce and the economy as a whole.

It has undoubtedly been quite a volatile couple of weeks for the tech + banking sectors. Beginning with the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank fallouts, and resulting worry spreading to First Republic and now the Credit Suisse situation, it is a fragile time for banks, startups and investors alike.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has certainly become part of the mainstream. Businesses across industries have made increasing investments in support of their ESG goals, and there’s been widespread backlash against companies who haven’t demonstrated a commitment to stakeholders beyond shareholders.

We are in the midst of a literacy crisis. Last year, the first national assessment of fourth graders’ reading since the pandemic illuminated the devastating impact COVID had on reading skill development, as students faced the largest decline in scores in 30 years.

2022 proved to be a year in the world of venture capital that people will talk about for decades to come. After the record-breaking year of 2021, the challenges of 2022 in the VC world were dramatic, obscuring the fact that the metrics of industry activity overall were strong.

There is a cost to living “paycheck to paycheck.” Each year banks in the US make $15 billion on overdraft and NSF fees, and payday loans can have interest rates that run above 600% APR. This cost has been exacerbated due to the current high inflationary environment, which led to real wages falling in 2022.

“Impact” has never been a more important topic to CEOs. After maneuvering through years riddled with widespread social unrest, racial injustice, and climate change, companies have been tasked with conducting business ethically and in support of positive change. With this focus, the role of a Chief Impact Officer (CIO - not to be confused with Chief Investment Officer, Chief Information Officer or Chief Innovation Officer…)

“Venture Philanthropy” is a word that has been popping up more frequently in my conversations, and I realized people were using it to describe different concepts (including myself), so I wanted to clear up the confusion.

For those of you who know me well, you know I’m an unashamed Swiftie. So much so that an article was written about my two-day fight to get tickets to her upcoming Eras Tour (spoiler, I got them). And my daughter, Willow, may or may not be named after one of her songs… (my husband wasn’t down with the name “Swift Reiter” 🙄).

When the news about the fall of FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, came out, your first thought probably wasn’t, “well gosh, I wonder how this might affect the world of philanthropy?”

Although these three people seem to have little in common aside from the fact that they are all A-list(?) celebrities, they do share a unique thread: they each also happen to be Chief Impact Officers.

In case you missed it, Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, and his wife, Connie, have committed $400 million to Black private equity and venture capital managers.

I need to start out by clarifying what “B Corp” means, as it is often confused with “Benefit Corporation”. In short, the term “B Corp” refers to a third-party certification (by a nonprofit called B Lab), while “Benefit Corporation” refers to a legal incorporating structure similar to an LLC or a C Corp.

There are a variety of ways that companies can give back to the community — from employee volunteer days, donation matching programs, product donations, etc. — and then there is Patagonia, which recently announced it will be donating 100% of its profits (some $100mm per year) to combat climate change and protect land across the globe.

Until recently, I thought that every “[name].org” was in reference to a registered nonprofit or 501(c)3 - similar to how a .edu is used in reference to an educational institution and .gov for a governmental agency.

Diz Petit has been a community activist since she was 16 years old — she always had a desire to do right. Most recently she co-founded LiquiDonate, a for-profit service that matches a retail company’s unsellable items with local nonprofits and schools who need them while saving the company money — Donations as a Service (DaaS), if you will. She’s doing good and doing well (really well) at the same time.

For this post, I wanted to dive deeper into one of my favorite investment + philanthropy collaborations we’ve made at Rise Together, with Flexport. I view Flexport as a “shining star” example of how startups can apply their scalability and core competencies to effect change in a powerful way.

I was lucky enough to score some time with Nisha Kadaba, a social impact leader at PagerDuty (a for-profit business), to learn more about PagerDuty.org’s powerful approach to delivering impact.

Pledge 1% is an organization I only somewhat recently learned about, but is one that I hope many of you reading this newsletter have already heard of. If you haven’t yet — below is a brief overview.