The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise

The Social Enterprise Conference, Capital for Good is live! Scaling Social Ventures (11:30 AM-12:30 PM)... So, your company has been innovating and finally has significant traction with its customer base. Now you’re faced with a whole new set of challenges as you seek to scale and grow your venture and shift from innovating to scaling. From securing funding to balancing growing revenue with growing burn rate to hiring the right team, there are hundreds of problems for startups to balance in this exciting time. This is even more challenging for social ventures that face stigma around profitability and pressures around mission drift. This panel will discuss these challenges and more, as well as possible solutions to bring social ventures to scale. Speakers: - Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder, CEO, and Board Chair of American Sustainable Business Council - Moderated by Vikas Raj, ’10BUS, Managing Director at Accion Venture Lab Bios: https://www.columbiasocialenterprise.org//sessio/1-22-2021 #CapforGood #SocEnt #SocialEnterprise #SocialImpactCapital #SocialVentures #SocialEntrepreneurship #Entrepreneurship #Startup #changemakers #impact #StartupNYC

Institutional Investors Embracing Impact Investing Panel (10-11 AM ET) This panel will explore the experience and performance of seasoned institutional investors in the growing field of impact investing. With impact investing going mainstream and many seasoned institutional investors deepening their presence in this space, this panel will offer a platform to discuss what their initial lessons have been both in terms of universe of investible opportunities and internal advocac...y required to have a strong impact investing focus. We will also discuss trends that will further deepen the sustainability lens in investing, enablers required to further the presence of institutional capital in this growing field, and what are the pitfalls to avoid as one embarks on this journey of impact. Speakers: - John Goldstein, Head of the Sustainable Finance Group at Goldman Sachs - Vikram Raju, Head of Impact Investing at Morgan Stanley - Iain Ware, Managing Director of Bain Capital Double Impact - Moderated by Megan Starr, Global Head of Impact for The Carlyle Group Bios: https://www.columbiasocialenterprise.org//sessio/1-22-2021 #CapforGood #impactinvesting #socent #socialenterprise #socialimpactcapital #sustainablefinance #impact #changemakers #socialimpact

Apply to the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures by February 15! The fund provides seed grants of up to $25,000 to nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid early-stage social and environmental ventures. Ventures must be led by Columbia University students, alumni, faculty or researchers, or be advised and have significant involvement by Columbia University faculty or researchers. Seed grants will be made to approximately seven ventures each year. More information about past ventures an...d the online application are available at: http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/socialent/socialventures/apply Questions? Join us for an upcoming information session! Friday, January 15 1:001:45 PM ET RSVP: https://columbiasocialenterprise.org/civicrm/event/register Tuesday, January 26 1:001:45 PM ET RSVP: https://columbiasocialenterprise.org/civicrm/event/register Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash.

Join us for a panel discussion on News + Money (11:00-11:50 AM ET)! The news and journalism industry has undergone massive changes to its business model over the last several decades. This panel will compare and contrast various approaches to funding news organizations (reader revenue/subscriptions, venture-backed, philanthropic giving, etc.) and provide insight into building sustainable news organizations. It will also consider questions such as the following: In a future mo...re heavily reliant on reader revenue and philanthropic giving, how can we be sure news organizations do not just tell the stories that readers or donors want to hear? And how do we make sure that news is still available to those who cannot pay for it? This panel will seek to answer these questions from organization leaders from a variety of backgrounds, including nonprofit and VC-backed for-profit models, both nationally and at the local level. Speakers: Kaizar Campwala, Vice President of News at Disney Nick Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Pico Sherrell Dorsey ’18JRN, Founder and CEO of The Plug Elizabeth Green, CEO and Co-founder of Chalkbeat Sibel Lowin, Global Partnerships Solutions Lead at Google Moderated by Josh Benson, Partner of Old Town Media Bios: https://www.columbiasocialenterprise.org//sessi/12-04-2020

Join us for a panel discussion on Sustainability in the Fashion Industry: Is it Scalable? (11:00-11:50 AM ET) Fast fashion is one of the biggest challenges to sustainable garments and an equitable supply chain within the fashion industry. With the demand for sustainable fashion rising, many fashion retailers are cleaning up their supply chain and improving their working conditions and hiring practices. But what does it mean to be truly sustainable in the fashion industry? How... has the pandemic affected the industry and movement towards a more sustainable supply chain? Leveraging industry knowledge from financing through end-stage production, this panel will explore multi-layered approaches to mitigating the impacts of garment and footwear supply chains on people and the environment. Panelists: - Ashia Sheikh Dearwester, Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer at Nest - Mallory McConnell, Senior Director of Supplier Sustainability and Partnerships at PVH Corp - Anushka Salinas ’10BUS, President and Chief Operating Officer at Rent The Runway - Jessica Schreiber ’11GSAS, Founder and CEO at FABSCRAP Moderated by: - Rachel Cernansky ’08JRN, Sustainability Editor at Vogue Business and Freelance Journalist

Join us for a discussion on Solving Renewable Energy Intermittency: Can the United States Rely on 100% Renewables? (10:00-10:50 AM) While wind and solar have become cheaper forms of energy to build in most places, the intermittency of renewable energy remains a challenge to converting to 100 percent renewable energy usage. The intermittent nature of renewable energy causes challenges for the energy grid to meet supply and demand. What will the grid look like in the future? If... we were to design the grid tomorrow, how would we build it to take advantage of renewable energy? This panel will discuss the challenges of converting our energy usage to 100 percent renewables, as well as possible solutions to the energy grid that can be implemented to convert to 100 percent renewable energy. Panelists: - Chelle Izzi ’04BUS, Executive Director of Distributed Generation at NextEra Energy Resources - Donna Sanders ’17BUS, Founder and CEO of Virimodo - David Snydacker, CEO of Lilac Solutions Moderated by: - Steven Cohen, Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at SIPA; Director of the Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management at The Earth Institute; Director of the MPA Program in Environmental Science and Policy

Please join us for a live virtual conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheryl WuDunn, who will discuss a new book and film, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, which explores solutions for the systemic inequality facing America’s hometowns. Tightrope addresses the crisis in working-class America while focusing on solutions to mend a half-century of governmental failure. Drawing us deep into an other America, the authors tell this story, in part, through ...the lives of some of the people with whom Kristof grew up, in rural Yamhill, Oregon. It’s an area that prospered for much of the twentieth century but has been devastated in the last few decades as blue-collar jobs disappeared. About a quarter of the children on Kristof’s old school bus died in adulthood from drugs, alcohol, suicide, or reckless accidents. While these particular stories unfolded in one corner of the country, they are representative of many places the authors write about, ranging from the Dakotas and Oklahoma to New York and Virginia. With their superb, nuanced reportage, Kristof and WuDunn have given us a book that is both riveting and impossible to ignore. Sheryl WuDunn, Author and Journalist Bruce Usher, Co-director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise; Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director; and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Business School

Join us for our next Digital Event Series panel: The .06%: Founding and Fundraising as Women of Color | 11:00-11:50 AM ET According to ProjectDiane 2018, less than .06 percent of the $424.7 billion in venture funding since 2009 went to Black women. In light of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black and brown communities and the renewed focus on the Movement for Black Lives, how has the founding and fundraising environment for Black, Indigenous, Women of Color (...BIWOC) CEOs changed? What challenges do BIWOC founders face and how has this changed due to the pandemic and recent social unrest? Kiara Butler, CEO and Founder of Diversity Talks Amanda DoAmaral, Founder and CEO of Fiveable Shani Dowell, Founder and CEO of Possip Beverly Leon ’20BUS ’14CC, Founder and CEO of Local Civics Moderated by: Aaron T. Walker, Founder and CEO of Camelback Ventures

Capital for Justice: Using Impact Investing for Racial Equity 10:00-10:50 AM Only three percent of all venture funding goes to Black and Latinx founders as venture capital investments have quadrupled and the growth of diverse businesses has skyrocketed. The disparities of who is receiving and cutting the checks have long been known in the space. However, the murder of George Floyd and the impacts of a global pandemic on marginalized communities have brought to the forefront t...he persistent problems of racial and economic inequities that exist across America and in many countries. How can the flow of social impact capital from asset holders to Black and underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs be accelerated to generate systemic solutions to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive economies? Can impact investing be more effectively used as a tool to generate economic opportunity and mobility for Black and marginalized communities? Melissa Bradley, Founder of 1863 Ventures and Co-founder of Ureeka Kesha Cash ’10BUS, Founder and General Partner of Impact America Fund Moderated by: Jenny Tolan ’14BUS, Co-founder at Level

Income Equality in the United States: Pathways to Economic Mobility for Marginalized Communities A long-time philanthropist and social activist for women’s rights and poverty alleviation, Abigail will discuss the current economic climate, pay equity reform, and the pursuit for economic mobility. She will discuss her view on the power imbalance in the current economy and the responsibilities of business leaders to take bold actions to provide increased economic opportunity. Ab...igail Disney ’94GSAS ’87GSAS CEO and Co-founder of Fork Films S. Mona Sinha ’93BUS Board Chair of Women Moving Millions and the ERA Coalition Fund for Women’s Equality

In this keynote discussion, Debbie Wright will share her outlook on the United States job market and how the current pandemic and movement for social justice may affect economic mobility. She will discuss her own career path from the NYC Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development to The Rockefeller Foundation, as well as how to work with local communities to be an effective leader for both business and the nonprofit sector. Debbie Wright Board Member of Citigroup an...d Memorial Sloan Kettering Doug Bauer Executive Director at The Clark Foundation; Professor at Columbia Business School

10:15-11:15 AM Impact Investing: Leveraging Capital Markets for Social Change Can you do financially well by doing good? Amy Domini, founder and chair of Domini Impact Investments, would argue yes. A pioneer for socially responsible investing, Amy will share key insights on the field of impact investing and its growth over the past few decades. Now, more than ever, investor demand for corporations to be socially responsible and equitable is driving asset managers to rethink h...ow they are evaluating potential investments. Where will the field go from here? Amy Domini Founder and Chair of Domini Impact Investments Bruce Usher Co-director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise; Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director; and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Business School

TODAY Professor Damon Phillips joins the Holder Initiative to share his perspective in this moment of activism and civil unrest. RSVP for his 2:40 PM lightning talk on #racialjustice in the US http://ow.ly/ZxXv50BIy6Z

Registration is open for Columbia University’s 19th Annual Social Enterprise Conference, Capital for Good! Launching on Friday, October 9, the Digital Event Series will explore ways in which businesses and organizations are sourcing and using capital to generate solutions to global, systemic challenges. Link to RSVP & Digital Event Series here: bit.ly/CapforGood Save the Date for #ColumbiaSEConf Digital Event Series: October 9, 2020 | October 30, 2020 | November 13, 2020 | De...cember 4, 2020 | January 22, 2021 | February 5, 2021 | February 19, 2021 | March 12, 2021 | March 26, 2021 Don’t miss an event, join the event newsletter: bit.ly/CapforGoodNews @ColumbiaSocEnt