Back in April, I went to Washington, D.C., to collect a Social Capitalist Award presented by Fast Company. There were 10 for-profit companies and 35 non-profits that met the Award’s criteria: check them out. Two of our financial friends, Calvert Foundation and Root Capital, were also winners.
The Award has been around for five years, but this is the first year they considered for-profit companies. Good. I think we’re past having our money choices framed as either profits or philanthropy. Perhaps there’s another way. As Fast Company Contributing Writer Keith Hammonds says:
“This year we’ve seen an explosion of diverse experiments, many of them engineered by onetime Wall Street heavies, that attempt to bring new capital – and capital-market dynamics – to the realm of social good. Through these deals, social entrepreneurs and businesses are raising the stakes, creating both business and social impact, and changing old-style capitalism as we know it.”
O.K., “Wall Street heavies,” so that’s not quite us; we were founded by poor idealists from a New England food co-op. But hey, we’re really glad to have a company, there’s lots of work to do. Pitch in your coins and let’s get going.
Thanks for the Award, guys. Hope to see you next year.
This blog is about investing in Equal Exchange, cooperatives, and fair trade. It's both for the curious and for our current investment community. It's about how our coins, yours and mine, can forge our common wealth.