by Amanda Joseph

In Leviticus 19:18, we are commanded to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Soon after we read, “The strangers who reside with you shall be to you as your own citizens; you shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 19:33-34).

When we look beyond the socially constructed and restrictive barriers of race, class, faith, and gender, we may at first see the stranger, then we recognize our neighbor, and verily, we also see ourselves. By embracing the diversity of our communities, seeing ourselves in the “other,” we open ourselves to possibility, abundance, hope, and opportunity for people, planet, and all of creation.

During this past year of great upheaval amidst global pandemic, climate crisis, and moral awakening, many Faith Driven Investors have asked these questions over and over again: Where can I invest my money so that my neighbors, my community, the stranger—so that those in need and in deep crisis, and those disenfranchised by entrenched systems of discrimination, systemic racism, and disempowerment, can also thrive and partake in an abundant future? Where can my investments support a world that benefits people and planet, rather than create harm? How can the decisions I make today about my portfolio create a sustainable and just future for my children’s children—and for my neighbor’s children’s children as well.

Faith Driven Investors are stewards of their resources and those of the communities they support, serve, and lead. The prospect of embracing diversity and equity in approaches to investing offers us profound opportunities for positive impact.

At Calvert Impact Capital, we have been investing with an explicit commitment to justice and equity—in the US and globally—for more than 25 years. Our mission is deeply rooted in addressing structural inequities, channeling capital to communities traditionally excluded from our financial system, particularly low-income communities, women, and communities of color. This is a key reason for why, in 2020, we signed the Racial Justice Investor Pledge, an initiative led by institutional faith investors, that includes both faith and secular signatories. Our approach is supported by our investor community: 26% state gender equity is a top concern; 36% state racial justice and equity is a top concern; and 70% are more interested in investing to support racial equity since spring 2020.

Faith Driven Investors have been our partners since our earliest days, and today include congregations, churches, health care systems, mutual funds, and foundations, and span denominations and affiliations—Catholic, Baptist, Evangelical, Mennonite, Jewish, Unitarian, Methodist, and many others. Here atCalvert Impact Capital we seek out portfolio partners who share these commitments to diversity and equity, expressed not only through who they lend to, but also how their management and leadership reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.  

A few examples from our portfolio that embody this commitment include:

• Benefit Chicago, is a $100 million collaboration by The Chicago Community Trust, the MacArthur Foundation, and Calvert Impact Capital to finance nonprofits and social enterprises in Chicago, like Autonomy Works that provides meaningful employment for adults with autism and Sweet Beginnings that provides job training to residents who were formerly incarcerated.

• Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) helps migrants, seniors, refugees, and other low-income people in the Southwest US achieve self-sufficiency through access to quality housing, healthcare, education, jobs, and political representation. 

• VisionFund International is a Christian microfinance network providing small loans and other services to families struggling with poverty in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

• Volunteers of America is a national faith-based organization providing comprehensive services to the elderly, veterans, homeless, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addiction. 

• Through regionally-based COVID recovery efforts and cross-sector partnerships (across state and local governments, banks, corporations, foundations), we are working with local community development financial institutions (CDFIs) to provide critical capital to small businesses and nonprofits, especially those operating in low-income and harder to reach communities, often run by people of color and women. These efforts are working to ensure a more equitable and inclusive recovery. The latest fund to launch is the Southern Opportunity and Resilience (SOAR) Fund, working across 15 southern states.

Calvert Impact Capital considers diversity in all its forms, including gender equity, and we have been providing research and guidance to investors on gender lens investing. We know from our own lending and research that gender equity is not just good for women—it is good for investment, for business and for society. When women are valued, they have more power and influence over the broader economy and better investments are made. We seek gender equity across our portfolio, for example a solar finance business that not only impacts the lives of women and girls by providing energy access in their homes, but also encourages gender diversity across the workforce; and a fund in the Middle East and North Africa that focuses on lending products for underbanked women entrepreneurs. 

As it relates to diversity, at Calvert Impact Capital, that starts with the diversity of our own staff and extends to how we build our portfolio, and ultimately the impact we measure in communities.  Both the percentage of our staff and the end clients we reach is currently 71% women. As for racial diversity, 64% of our portfolio’s clients, on average, are people of color, and more than 50% of our portfolio partners’ staff, leadership, and boards are also people of color.

Over the past year, in our many conversations with financial advisors and investors—both secular and faith driven—we’ve been asked how investments can be used to support black, brown, and women-led small businesses, where can an investor find a community development bank or credit union, or how do we identify funds (across asset classes) that focus explicitly on racial, gender, and climate justice. We welcome these conversations as there are increasing opportunities to answer these calls, and so much more, with one’s investments.

As communities of faith and stewards of these resources, may Faith Driven Investors transcend the hesitation to consider the implications of their investments, locally and globally, and instead celebrate the opportunity that investing for positive impact, aligned with one’s values, presents. Let us commit to investing with purpose and mobilizing our abundance to create change. And through these choices, we can greet and embrace the stranger, love and support our neighbors, as we would hope they might do for us.

——

Calvert Impact Capital (CIC) makes impact investable. We’ve helped over 18,000 investors and hundreds of advisors get involved in impact investing through our Community Investment Note®, Syndications Services, and more. We are dedicated to growing the number of faith-based impact investors and expanding the impact investing community as a whole. 

As part of our Faith Investor Program, we develop resources and offer trainings to support investors–across all faiths–and their financial professionals along their impact investing journeys. We welcome opportunities for conversation, collaboration, and partnership. Please visit www.calvertimpactcapital.org/faith or email Amanda Joseph, Director of Faith-Based Initiatives directly – ajoseph@calvertimpactcapital.org

This article first appeared in The Times newspaper on Saturday, January 23, 2021.

by Matt Bird

As the pandemic continues, we need an outbreak of something more powerful than a virus: the spirit of enterprise. It is if time for new business enterprises that create value and jobs to replace the hundreds of thousands being lost. We need initiatives that can create social glue, capable of bringing the disparate parts of our lonely and isolated society together.

As a follower of Jesus, my go-to place for inspiration is the Bible, which says, “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8:18). Clearly, wealth creation is a gift of God, not a gift of capitalism.

The word ‘wealth’, which has come to mean financial abundance, derives from the old English word ‘weal’, meaning wellness and wellbeing. True wealth is not simply the sum of our cash and assets, but is also the relational capital that exists in our families, communities and society. This is the essence of the Hebrew word Shalom, which means peace, harmony, completeness, welfare and prosperity.

God’s gift of wealth creation can unleash untold levels of human flourishing and thriving. The “Faith Driven Entrepreneur” movement explains, “We believe that business has God-given power to transform nations by creating jobs, generating prosperity and catalysing human flourishing” – an entrepreneurship, not driven by motives of selfish ambition and greed but rather of compassion and a desire to benefit all.

Cinnamon Network International, the charity of which I am founder, has been busier than ever during the pandemic supporting social entrepreneurs to scale community impact. Our partners in the UK are opening community ‘listening ear’ centres; in South Africa thousands of face masks are being produced to protect key workers; and in Australia, they are training volunteers to reduce the tragic growth of domestic violence. Cinnamon is supporting these social entrepreneurs to replicate their approaches to save others having to reinvent the wheel.

In the UK the number of companies formed in the second half of 2020 soared compared to the same time the previous year. According to the Office for National Statistics there are more than 13,000 companies being formed every week compared to 11,000 during the same time the previous year.

Whilst high street spending is down, we are seeing the “at home” market grow. At home medical testing, sports equipment, education platforms, family entertainment, and food and wine experiences are rapidly growing. These market changes are not temporal so initiating a new enterprise now will build benefits for years to come.

As the old saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention”. Let’s innovate, launch and grow rather than pause, retreat and retrench. Maybe you have a creative, enterprising or innovative idea, an idea that could be deployed to create wealth and wellbeing in your community, across our country and around the world?

From my experience in coaching entrepreneurs, the greatest barriers are self-limiting beliefs. We might think that our idea, resources or experience are too small to come to much. God is in the habit of taking the little we offer him — such as the boy who offered Jesus five small loaves and two fish to help feed a crowd — and making a lot out of it. On that occasion the crowd of 5,000 people were fed and there was more to spare.

At other times the resistance to our idea may come from those we try and get on board in the early stages. It may be an angel investor, strategic partner or board member. Recently, a friend reached out to someone with a powerful idea. They were pushed away with the response that they weren’t taking on anything new until after the pandemic. I can’t help but think that it could be a slightly longer wait than they think.

It’s actually the spirit of innovation, creativity and enterprise that will help pull us through this pandemic. Let’s overcome our feelings of self-doubt and fear of rejection and failure and instead dig deep in our reservoirs of determination, hope and compassion.

Article originally posted here by Townhall Finance

by Jerry Bowyer

In our ongoing series about Jesus’ model for economic engagement during His earthly ministry, we look next at the encounter with Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. Here’s Luke’s description:

And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; and he was a chief tax collector, and he was rich…

…when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down, and received Him gladly. And when they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Luke  19:2, 5-10 NAS

We see the (by now) very familiar pattern: Jesus hangs out with recognized sinners. These sinner really are sinners. Jesus accepts material support, gifts and/or patronage. Critics grumble. The sinner is restored.

Note, by the way, that it is Jesus alone who is described as seeking this invitation. ‘I must stay at your house’ is not ‘we must stay at your house’.  Zaccheus ‘received Him’, not ‘received them’. In other words, the text suggests that Jesus’ disciples were not compelled to go so far out of their comfort zone as to dine with this arch-sinner. The grumblers accused Jesus and His disciples ‘Why do you (pl.) eat and drink with sinners…’.  (Lk. 5:30) Apparently, eating with ordinary tax collectors when they are part of a broad banquet is something the disciples can handle, but eating at the home of a chief of the system is too much.

Let’s get a bit deeper on the matter of patronage. The word used to describe Jesus being ‘received’ is explained here:

The verb for welcome (v. 2) is prosdechomai, which may denote more than simply entertaining guests. Elsewhere it is used in context of financial provision and social honour (cf. Rom. 16:2 and Phil. 2:29; so Marshall 1978: 599).

Blomberg, Craig L.. Contagious Holiness (New Studies in Biblical Theology) (p. 150). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 

Often those received would get all their meals, a roof over their heads, perhaps some financial provision while there, and traveling money afterwards. It’s more than a quick lunch together.

This explains the crowd’s objection to some degree. They are likely following the pharisaical teachings that benefiting from the wealth of a publican makes one also guilty.

The crowd, however, interprets the scene in diametrically opposite fashion (v. 7), for, from their perspective, ‘to stay in such a person’s home was tantamount to sharing in his sin’ (Marshall 1978: 697).

Blomberg, Craig L.. Contagious Holiness (New Studies in Biblical Theology) (p. 153). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 

Why does the sin transfer from the ill-getter of the gain to the secondary recipient? Because the wealth itself is seen as tainted, not just the deed by which it is gotten.

Whereas the crowds see Jesus accepting the hospitality of a man whose wealth is ill-gotten as becoming a partner with him in his crimes (Derrett 1970: 281–282), Jesus believes that godly character and righteous living can be modelled and have a positive impact by rubbing off on others as they commit to change their ways.

Blomberg, Craig L.. Contagious Holiness (New Studies in Biblical Theology) (p. 157). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 

Once again we see that with the coming of God in the flesh, it is righteousness which is ‘catching’, not sin. Jesus is infectious to those whom He touches, not the other way around.

by William Norvell

“When God removed all risk above, He loosed a thousand risks of love.” – John Piper 

Exhausted of Playing It Safe 

During the pandemic, I was faced with an unnatural amount of time alone—time to ponder, time to wander. During my pondering and wandering, I heard a consistent voice that I simply could not shake…Risk it all…For what? Why? For what purpose? For what goal? Risk it all…to uncover the person I knit together. I do not believe this is a call to do something crazy, to put my life in danger, or to risk the well-being of my family, but I do think it is a call to meaningful risk—to put something at stake that truly matters so that I can find out who Jesus made me to be. 

It was during my counseling sessions this year that I came up with a term that has defined this season of my life—and the majority of my life if I’m being honest. I am “exhausted of playing it safe.” Basically, I’m Fred, and I’m tired of being Fred. I mean, I love popcorn, but I want to get in the game. I am exhausted of watching others, copying them, and trying to pursue their dreams. I am exhausted of seeing opportunities in front of me and saying to myself, I can do that, I feel gifted in that area, I have a unique chance to impact that part of God’s kingdom…but never trying, never even starting, and of course, never finishing. During the pandemic, I became convinced that I want to enter my life and find out who God made me to be—the genius inside me and the flaws that do not define me. I’m ready to be William Key Norvell Jr., born April 14 , 1983—one of a kind, never before and never to be again. 

But how… 

Jesus’s Framework for Meaningful Risk 

After some deep searching, I determined that I needed to fully understand three things in order to take meaningful risk alongside the Savior—Grace, Humility, and Passion. 

Grace. I heard somewhere that grace can take you places that hustling can’t. It’s simple, but profound. My grace journey was sparked months before CEF in 2019 but lit on fire when a member of my group prophesied 2 Corinthians 12:9 over me…“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” This was a watershed moment that sent me to tears…and to my knees. Am I truly loved because of who I am, not in spite of who I am? Is that love enough? Grace opens the door to our true selves. As Steph Curry said recently…“I have a lot to accomplish. I have nothing to prove.” That is grace-filled motivation. 

Humility. Intertwined with the power of grace is the power of humility. God says in I Peter 5:5 that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Awe-inspiring, soul-settling grace cannot be found without the keys of humility. Look in Deuteronomy 8:2 to see how much God cares about our humble hearts: “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.” 40 years!!! Just to teach them humility. Was He worried they weren’t innovating, building new towers, creating new technology? No! He wanted their hearts for Him, full stop. I must pursue opportunities to serve others not for worldly rewards but rather to uncover my true motivations and find true humility. 

Passion. If you spend enough time with me, you will one day hear the only Latin root I know. The word passion comes from the Latin root “pati,” meaning suffering, or enduring. This is most obviously seen in the Passion of the Christ. In that moment, we see our Savior so passionate about us, each and every one of us, that He refuses to stop climbing that hill, He refuses to put down His cross, and He puts one foot in front of the other so He will die…and we will live. Even though today’s culture tries to tell us different, passion is not something that makes us happy. True passion reveals something that we are willing to suffer for…and people we are willing to suffer with. Meaningful risk is rooted in passion. It’s rooted in the idea that you are willing to suffer for what God has placed on your heart. 

Jesus shows us that, once we understand how much He loves us through His grace, once we submit our hearts to Him in humility, and once we fix our eyes on the things He has called us to suffer for, we become the person He made us to be. We are then following in the mold of Jesus—fully loving, fully servant-hearted, fully passionate Jesus. 

What Do We Risk? 

I have heard the Parable of the Talents used to justify financial risk over and over and over again. As I studied this parable, I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit saying over and over…“It’s not just about money…It’s about everything!” We must risk it all—all the gifts we have been given—and try to earn interest on—or 5x or 10x—everything we have been called to steward—prayer, encouragement, innovation, inspiration, laughter, generosity, courage, and financial resources. 

It is through meaningful risk that we grow closer to Jesus, we learn more of His character, and we see more and more of who He made us to be. This is not an invitation to success but an invitation to life with Jesus. I can’t promise you riches with this path, but I can promise that you will feel alive—and that you will also experience all that He did…joy, pain, sorrow, being known, friendship, betrayal…and no regrets. Jesus has no regrets that I can find in Scripture, and He invites us into that life. 

Provisions for the Journey 

Once I understood grace, humility, and passion (I think—Can we ever fully understand God’s Word?—I think not), I felt ready to take meaningful risk. However, as I started out on this journey, roadblocks popped up all over the place—doubt, insecurity, overthinking, naysayers, and more. So, I looked for ways to provision myself for this new journey and found four key components. 

God’s Truth. Speak God’s truth to yourself each morning and each night. As ridiculous as I feel doing it, I had someone challenge me to write down 15 things I know to be true and to look in the mirror each day and say them to myself. They are rooted in God’s view of me and His call on my life, and it’s a life-changing exercise. I am happy to share with anyone my list to help you get started. 

God’s Word. It is never changing but always illuminating. If you need a place to start, read Romans 8. Feel God’s grace, experience God’s passion, and see His call to humility. Lastly, see His encouragement to meaningful risk covered by His everlasting love. 

God’s Community. A few months back, I reached my limit. I didn’t want to end my life, but I wanted to disappear. I felt that I had inflicted too much pain on those I love most dearly, and I was convinced that my wife, my children, and many others would be better off if they lived the rest of their lives without me. I relayed this to my community bluntly—the Jesus Bros as we call ourselves—and they organized a gathering within three hours where they surrounded me, cooked for me, laughed with me, laid hands on me, and reminded me that their lives were better with me in it and so was my family’s. They reminded me that, even though the darkness was strong, I had to run towards the faint light, and I needed to ask for help any time I couldn’t see it. I now carry a picture of that night with me as a reminder of God’s love in community. Don’t do this alone or with a fake community. It needs to be real, authentic, and rooted in truth. Your version of the Jesus Bros just might save you from making life-changing mistakes. 

God Himself. Focus on Jesus. I’m reminded of Peter trusting so much, seeing so much love and confidence in Jesus’s eyes, that he stepped out on the water. Then, he got scared, he faltered, he looked at the horizon, and he fell. Jesus was, of course, there to pick him up. It’s a paradox of love, but if we can focus on Him, we won’t fall—we will remain steady. 

How Have I Been Changed? 

So, where has this newfound knowledge of meaningful risk taken me. In the last few months, I have launched my first solo podcast (a dream for 10 years), gone deep into crypto investing (a decision that typically would have taken 9-12 months took 2 weeks), had a significant conversation with my father 20 years in the making, studied and taken strides into prophecy (a gift I’ve felt for 7-8 years), dreamt more seriously about entrepreneurship than ever, and won 50 million points on my favorite golf game where the previous high was 4 million—I risked it all…and won ;). 

I have felt it all—joy, pain, sorrow, grief, excitement, confusion, anxiety, passion. I’m still finding my way…I still don’t know who I am…but I’m closer today than I was six months ago. Stay tuned for my next adventure. 

I have also reflected deeply on the most meaningful risk of my life—my marriage and the beginning of my family. I realized that the abundant grace of God introduced me to my wife and allowed me to meet my children, Liam and Eloise. I remembered how, in a rare instance, I truly humbled myself before God and physically cried out for His wisdom—and He graciously delivered. Lastly, I mediated on the passion God gave me for my family that has sustained me through pure joy and pure heartbreak from day one to year six (another essay sometime). Through it all, God’s grace, humility, and passion have allowed me to singularly pursue my family’s goals with zero regrets. It’s an odd thing about meaningful risk, even when it doesn’t work out like we hoped or imagined, we crave more because it brings us closer to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit—Who risked it all for us. 

Am I still scared of things every day, and do I still overthink way too much? Yes, of course. I’m human. However, I’m getting better every day, and if there is anything the pandemic has taught me, it is that nothing is predictable, and I can’t risk not taking meaningful risk. 

I do not miss my old life of comfort and security. I am ecstatic about this new life of meaningful risk and the opportunity to see myself through the eyes of Jesus. 

Parting Encouragement…15% 

I want to end by saying that I am not advocating for reckless risk. It’s my opinion that, while Jesus certainly can, He rarely calls us to crazy risk that puts people we love in danger. Remember, just don’t be Fred. I encourage folks to imagine their comfort zones and aim for 15% outside of them. Over time, your comfort zone will shift dramatically, and you will be seeing things with Jesus you could not imagine. But for most of us, it’s a process of taking that next step out in faith, then the next one, then the next one, then the next one, and then the next one. Before long, we cannot even see our old comfort zone from where we currently stand. We can only see Jesus staring back at us…at the true version of ourselves.

by Matthew Rohrs

“If things get worse and I can’t work, we will starve.”

These stark words from a Kenyan housecleaner named Esther highlight the critical importance of employment to sustain families. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the World Bank estimated 600 million jobs needed to be created by 2030 just to keep pace with population growth. Now it projects that COVID-19 will push 49 million people into extreme poverty this year alone. The UN’s World Food Programme believes that COVID-19 could force an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation by the end of this year. They are calling it a ‘hunger pandemic’.

One of the best and most sustainable ways to respond to this crisis is to invest in local entrepreneurs who drive economic growth and job creation. 

The Critical Role of Job Creators

It is estimated that more than 2 million households in Kenya employ domestic staff like housekeepers, cooks, nannies, guards, and gardeners. These jobs are desperately needed – especially now as more and more businesses are forced to let staff go. 

Joseph Gichunge and his wife, Leah are growing a company that meets a huge market demand while also caring for single mothers. 

Joseph Gichunge co-founded Jazza Centre with his wife, Leah to meet the need for more qualified domestic help. Much of their business success is credited to how they train their workers to tailor the approach to the needs of each client.

However, their impact on the community isn’t just “how” they train but “who”. The majority of workers at Jazza Centre are underprivileged women with challenging backgrounds. Early pregnancies. Broken marriages. Many are left with the sole responsibility to care for their children.

Over the past three years, Jazza Centre has given over 1,200 workers a new outlook on life by providing biblically-integrated training, good working conditions, and dependable income. And Sinapis has provided Joseph and Leah with a new outlook on how running a profitable business can be a way of being God’s hands and feet in a community. 

There Has Never Been a Greater Need for Kingdom Entrepreneurs

Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) like Jazza Centre account for up to 80% of new job growth worldwide. They are the primary job creators in the hardest places.  Yet a recent study by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) projects that 42% of emerging market SGBs face potential failure in the next 6 months due to COVID-19. These countries have limited funding for safety nets to help businesses and families weather this storm. 

Sinapis was one of the first organizations in Africa to focus on accelerating businesses. From our earliest days, we have invested in the whole person — the intellectual, the spiritual, the relational. When we train an entrepreneur, we focus on nurturing the person first and then growing the company second. And we stick with them. Long after they have graduated from our programs, we continue to offer opportunities to partner with Sinapis and network with other alumni.

Not only does this approach equip entrepreneurs to innovate and lead resilient companies, it makes them transformative leaders who spark change in their communities. Investing in people creates ripples of impact beyond one company. 

Right now the world needs prepared entrepreneurs more than ever. Companies that can sustain jobs. To see this happen, these entrepreneurs need training and mentorship to help them pivot their business models, preserve cash, and survive the crisis. While these needs have never been more acute, their ability to afford these services is under intense pressure.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON COVID-19, PLEASE SEE OUR PAGE HIGHLIGHTING SOME OF THE BEST RESOURCES OUT THERE FOR FAITH DRIVEN INVESTORS & ENTREPRENEURS IN THIS SEASON.