Our friends at Impact Foundation wrote a helpful post about the difference between a Charity Enterprise and an Impact Company. In the world of Faith Driven Investing, vocabulary is key and knowing what you’re signing up for matters. Here, we get a break down of the differences between these two ventures, as well as what to expect when getting involved with either one.

by Impact Foundation

Words matter. We need to be clear on what the terms mean and the differences between similar ideas or this nascent industry of impact investing will never reach its full potential.

The terms “Charity Enterprise” and “Impact Company” are similar but bear important differences. Both involve doing good while making money, while each puts different weight and priority on those two outcomes.

A Charity Enterprise is a charity or ministry with revenue-generating activities that helps fund the organization and also complements its mission. Profits stay within the charitable realm and all returns are likely concessionary—that is less than what an investor could expect for similar risk without the impact.

When the Charity Enterprise becomes profitable, it may recycle the profits to fund other aspects of the charity and/or may distribute to donors’ charitable accounts to be granted to other ministries.

For example, Global Orphan project is a 501(c)(3) charity that engages in orphan care and prevention in Haiti and Uganda. Orphan prevention means establishing the GO Fund (a unique impact investment fund managed by GO) that helps start and operate businesses and agricultural ventures that create dignified jobs among the poor and generate profits to help pay for Orphan Care. The oldest and most robust of these is GO Exchange, a boutique collection of products–like Sseko sandals, jammies, jewelry, purses–made in the communities served by orphan villages.

Why would a donor want to get involved with a Ministry Enterprise? Because it may present a better way to do granting and charity. Traditional ministry funding means granting to a charity where the donation will be used up and another needed to take its place—the “churn and burn model”. This is essentially a 0% return investment (not including the charitable deduction the donor gets on her taxes). Even concessionary returns are better than 0% returns.

An Impact Company is a for-profit business that seeks social and eternal gains along with financial ones. To be successful, Impact Companies must run with the best disciplines of business while seeking to make a positive difference in the lives of their employees, vendors, and customers. Impact is NOT an excuse for lack of business excellence. Accordingly, Impact Companies will return risk-adjusted market-rate profits to their investors.

For example, Grace Home Health is an Impact Company that provides, not surprisingly, home health services in the Tampa Bay area. Its experienced leadership team returns significant profits to its investors while implementing a ministry plan with each client and family. Grace is a real business with real returns and positive social and eternal impact.

Why would an investor want to get involved with an Impact Company? Because it represents a better way to do investing; it’s part of God’s redemption of business and capitalism in general.

Keeping these differences in mind is essential or we risk alienating potential donor/investors by missing their expectations of financial return.

This isn’t an ordinary video on chaplaincy. It’s a story about how selfless love in the workplace can save a life.

Click the image below to watch the video.

For a while, microfinance was the hottest trend in global development, promising you could change a poor person’s life with a very small loan. Let them start their own business and get your money back. Then you can go on to transform someone else’s life. Though the promise was not fulfilled, new uses are being found for microloans, ideas we may be able to apply to our own favorite causes.

Though microfinance did not, in fact, solve global poverty, it wasn’t a complete failure either. Under the right circumstances, it does seem to improve conditions for some poor people.

This month, a new study affirmed that finding in an unlikely place: New Jersey.

The Grameen Bank, one of the pioneers of microfinance, which has been operating its program in Bangladesh since the 1970s, released a study on one of its programs in New Jersey. The program works like this: Low-income women apply for a microloan as part of a small group, and all members of the group are accountable for ensuring each member makes payments (that’s the approach Grameen has found does the most to increase repayment rates).

Initial results six months into the study have been positive. “The Grameen America program produced improvements in several measures of material hardship – for example, how often the respondent ran out of money in the three months preceding the survey, the respondent’s ability to afford necessities, and the respondent’s current financial situation compared with the previous year,” the report states.

Read the full story at Vox.

A one-pocket mindset dispels the notion that investment strategies seeking social returns must be separated from those seeking financial returns. Rather than a siloed approach to deploying capital, one-pocket investing puts your mission at the center of your strategy, and ultimately at the center of all of your investments. 

Learn more about what one-pocket investing is, its history and why it matters today by downloading the whitepaper from Access Ventures.

This October was the fall Lion’s Den conference in Birmingham, Alabama.  This year’s event was completely sold out with standing room only during the pitches  It is truly incredible how God has blessed the growth.

With the goal to “Inspire, Educate and Mobilize” people to invest their time, talents, and other resources in the Kingdom through Business as Mission, 2018’s event had more than 300 attendees from 10 countries, 83 cities, and 25 states.

“The Pitch Event featured Chariots Investments, Recovery Tribe (aka RTribe), Turaco, and Jonas Paul Eyewear, who all presented their businesses to 300 attendees and a panel of judges.  Attendees chose R|Tribe as this year’s audience favorite by live voting during the event. Learn more about the companies and see video of the event here. www.thelionsden.us

The Keynote Lunch speaker, Daniel Jean-Louis, addressed almost 200 attendees, sharing his experience in Haiti and the need to move from “aid to trade.” which is the title of his most recent book.

Tom Sudyk, Chairman & Founder of EC Group, was honored as the  2nd recipient of the Operator of the Year Award. His life is an example for every presenter, founder, and entrepreneur who seeks to demonstrate their profession in Christ through their professionalism in the marketplace. His faithfulness has been an instrumental part of the growth of The Lion’s Den and the BAM movement itself.

The networking dinners were incredible with investors and entrepreneurs from across the planet talking about the exciting new things that God is doing in the marketplace.

The summit experience was fantastic with industry breakouts led by experts in their fields and sessions on investing, measuring the impact of Lion’s Den companies, and how business leaders can engage their local church.

We continue to thank God for His provision and allowing us to be a part of Real Businesses finding Real Investors and making Real Impact!

Lux Capital partner Renata Quintini wasn’t supposed to be a venture capitalist.

She grew up in Brazil, went to law school, and began her career as an attorney. Quintini was working at a law firm that represented venture capital clients who were backing Brazilian startups.

“It was during a time when the Internet infrastructure was getting laid out in Brazil, and e-commerce, content, and media was all starting to develop,” she told Term Sheet. “I became really curious.”

Quintini decided to try her hand at investing as an investment manager at Stanford University’s endowment, which backs dozens of private equity and venture capital firms. After three years, she made the move to the VC side and joined Felicis Ventures as a general partner. There, she invested in companies including Cruise (acq. by GM), Dollar Shave Club (acq. by Unilever), Bonobos (acq. by Walmart), and Rigetti Computing.

Now, she’s at Lux Capital, a New York-based venture firm focused on deep tech investing. The firm’s guiding philosophy? The more ambitious the project, the better.

Term Sheet caught up with Quintini to discuss her experience as a limited partner, investing in moonshot projects, and the importance of a strong ethical foundation in tech.

Read full article at Fortune