Do Economic Incentives Help or Hinder “Business as Mission” Practitioners?
Image taken from Biola University’s Crowell Business School
This article was originally published here by Biola University’s Crowell Business School blog.
Check out the blog for more quality content!
by Steve Rundle
There is a lot of excitement nowadays about businesses that have multiple “bottom lines.” Whether one calls it “Social Entrepreneurship” (SE) or “Business as Mission” (BAM), the idea that businesses can be financially successful while also addressing social problems (and spiritual needs, in the case of BAM) is a popular one. But is it true? What evidence do we have that confirms that it’s possible for a business to consistently and simultaneously achieve such diverse goals?
Most evidence to date is anecdotal, or in the form of case studies. Having written a few case studies myself, I know they can be interesting and helpful. But cases are idiosyncratic, often difficult to replicate, and not well suited for identifying generalizable best practices. Some scholars complain that many cases tend toward promoting “hero worship” rather than critical reflection.
In an effort to approach this question more dispassionately, I recently conducted an anonymous survey of 119 “Business as Mission” practitioners from around the world. Among other factors, the survey looked specifically at the source of their salary (does it come from the revenues of the business or from donors?) and the outcomes of the business in terms of the four “bottom lines” of economic, social, environmental and spiritual impact. The reason one’s source of salary is interesting is because many people in the ministry/missions world believe that donor support helps ensure that practitioners stay focused on the ministry goals.
This study essentially found the exact opposite. It found that practitioners who are fully supported by the business tend to out-perform – sometimes significantly – donor-supported BAM practitioners, and are no less fruitful in terms of spiritual impact. This finding holds up even after controlling for things like geography, firm size, and firm type.
For those who would like to learn more, the findings were presented at the Global BAM Think Tank that was held in April 2013 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The 23 ½ minute presentation was videotaped, and is embedded below. The PowerPoint slides used in that presentation are available here. In addition, the International Bulletin of Missionary Research has published the study in January 2014 under the title “Does Donor Support Help or Hinder BAM Practitioners: An Empirical Assessment.”
The moral of the story is that economic incentives matter. Contrary to the mission community’s concern that self-support will take one’s attention away from the ministry goals, the truth is that only by creating a successful business can a practitioner hope to have a meaningful and holistic impact on a community.
Watch Steve Rundle’s presentation, Maximizing the Impact of BAM, below!
Principle of Uncertainty
Image by Vladislav Babienko
This article and video were originally published here.
Check out Ronald Blue Trust for other quality content!
With an uncertain future, the Principle of Uncertainly tells us that it’s prudent for people to save and invest a reasonable amount of resources for their future provision. Hear how this principle relates to investment decision-making, since uncertainty is the most important reality that we must accept.
Note: This video is provided as general information, and it is not intended as specific investment advice for any individual or organization.
Podcast Episode 14 – Building a Faith Driven Fund on Wall Street with Bob Doll
subscribe to the podcast here
Today’s guest is one we’ve been excited about for a long time. Bob Doll is a leader in the faith-driven investing movement from his work at Oppenheimer Funds, Merrill Lynch, BlackRock, and now, Nuveen.
You may have seen him on one of his frequent appearances on CNBC, and we were honored to have Bob join us last summer for the Faith Driven Investing gathering in Utah. The work he’s been doing for the best few decades has been instrumental in shaping the conversation this website is stewarding.
We owe a lot to Bob Doll and we’re excited to share the hard-earned wisdom his experience has yielded. As always, thanks for listening.
Useful Links:
Bob Doll’s 10 Predictions for 2020
Venture Capital is Like Skinny Jeans (Or Why We Need a New Language for Capital)
Image by Waldemar Brandt
This article was originally published here on Medium.
Check out VillageCapital’s blog for more quality content!
by Rob Tashima
My genes make it tough to find jeans. I’ve got short legs, and finding a pair of trousers to fit them can be a challenge. They are either too short, too long, too tight or too baggy, so when I find a pair that actually fits, I end up buying several of them to stock up. This means I’m not a big fan of current fads: I do not look good in skinny jeans.
I’m hardly alone in facing this challenge — we’ve all got different body sizes and different body types — and yet, unless you’re able to buy your Japanese raw indigo custom cut to your measurements, we’re all forced into the same small range of jean styles and sizes.
We get frustrated when our clothes don’t fit. If we really like them, we have some options to adjust to them: cuffing them, taking them to a tailor, losing some weight to squeeze into them.
But otherwise, if a pair of jeans don’t fit, we don’t wear them.
If we take this approach to jeans, why don’t we take this approach to venture capital?
Diversity’s Next Big Thing: Faith-Based ERG Conference
This article was originally published here.
Check out ReligiousFreedomandBusiness.org for more quality content!
by ReligiousFreedomandBusiness.org
A growing trend in corporate America that is being embraced by some of the largest and most recognizable companies will be the topic of a first-of-its-kind conference in February. From Google to Facebook to Walmart, companies from a range of industries are recognizing that faith-friendly environments mean better workplaces and better businesses.
The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and the Busch School of Business at Catholic University will hold a groundbreaking conference for employees and executives to discuss the importance of corporate programs that foster religious inclusion. The two-day conference will take place at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., on February 13 and 14, 2020. The event will feature executives and members of faith-oriented Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) sharing best practices, challenges and opportunities.
Check out more details for this event (and register) here!
Financial Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice
Image taken from Inspire Investing
This article was originally published here by Inspire Investing.
Check out Inspire Investing for more quality content!
God doesn’t need your money, but He does command your obedience.
Droves of Christian investors are discovering biblically responsible investing (BRI) for the first time as the BRI movement continues to gain momentum around the country and around the globe. These investors are learning the hard truth that they have been investing God’s money – and it’s all God’s money, right? – into businesses directly profiting from and supporting some of the vilest forms of depravity that the human mind can conjure.
It is currently the norm for the portfolios of millions of Christians around the world to be invested in abortion drug manufacturing, pornography sales, LGBT activism, human trafficking infested supply chains and the list goes on.
And then we give that money to God on Sunday morning and expect that He is pleased with our offering.
Hear me right, my heart bleeds with compassion for my brothers and sisters and echoes the prayer of Christ on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), because not long ago that was me. I know the sting and sorrow of that conviction personally as it was only by the mercy of God that He caused me to stumble across the ugliness of what I was investing His money in, and what I was profiting from.
The Israelites in the Old Testament had the same problem. Over generations, the covenant people of God had lost their way. For some Israelites, theirs was a deliberately defiant disobedience. They knew the commands of God and they purposefully chose not to obey.
For others, like me and many Christian investors today, they simply were unaware. They had been “conformed to the pattern of the world” (Rom. 12:2) and were ignorant of what God expected of them as His people. Even though these Israelites were still adhering to the sacrificial system of worship with varying degrees of faithfulness, God was not pleased with their sacrifices. They brought their bulls, their rams, their doves and grain, but that wasn’t what God wanted. He wanted their heart and the obedient life that flows from a dedication to loving God above all else.
Hear God’s word to His people through the prophet Samuel, “’Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams’” (1 Samuel 15:22).
The danger for Christian investors wrestling with a newfound conviction over their investments is to seek to justify their investment in companies that profit from pornography (such as Amazon, Netflix, Roku, Dish Network and others), promote abortion (such as Pfizer, Intel, Bank of America and others), and sponsor LGBT activism (such as Wells Fargo, Target, T-Mobile, AT&T and others) by dedicating the returns from these investments as gifts to the Lord.
More than once I have heard well-meaning Christians declare that they have decided to continue to invest in companies involved in immoral activities so that they can give the profits to God. Their logic is that by doing so they are operating like a modern day Robin Hood of Christendom, profiting from the evil and giving to the holy, like some sort of spiritual money laundering scheme.
But there is a problem with this approach: God doesn’t want tainted gifts of sacrifice, He wants holy gifts of obedience. These believers confuse sacrifice with obedience, just as the Israelites did in Samuel’s day.
God makes it very clear He detests money earned from immoral activity and forbids His people from offering such ill-gotten gain to Him saying, “You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow, because the LORD your God detests them both” (Deuteronomy 23:18). And elsewhere the Bible teaches that it would be better to earn lower returns than to support injustice, “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice” (Proverbs 16:8).
Brothers and sisters, we must pay very close attention to what God is saying here. He would rather us give Him nothing than give Him an unholy offering. Better yet, God would rather us “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17) with our finances and with our entire lives, and give Him the fruit of those good works, to the praise of His glorious grace.
It starts by learning what you are actually invested in from a biblical morals perspective, and you can find out for free at inspireinsight.com. Once you discover what issues are lurking in your portfolio, you can prayerfully make the changes necessary to transform your investment account into a God-glorifying financial engine that pursues righteous revenues instead of ill-gotten gain.
Let’s give Him holy gifts of obedience that are as worthy of His holy name as we possibly can by His grace. Such offerings are truly a pleasing aroma to our Lord.