Racial & Economic Justice
Our commitment to racial and economic justice means we share personal commitments to the redistribution of wealth and power at the level of our individual lives, our firm, and the work we’re doing in the field of financial advising.
We know poor people are experts on poverty, black activists are experts on anti-black racism, and any attempt to solve a social problem must be shaped and guided by those affected by it. We believe the strategies and transformation that emerge from relationships across class and across race are the strongest and most viable ways to begin to repair our economy. We leverage our power to organize within the field of finance to share the political frameworks we value and facilitate relationship building with thought leaders that center racial justice in their investing work. We join with like-minded investment advisors to form coalitions and study groups and work in partnership to mobilize money and power.
Accountability & Shared Risk
Accountability means that we are part of an ecosystem of individuals, organizations, and communities working towards an economy that works for everyone.
We are not working in isolation; instead, we are committed to long-term relationships with organizers, activists, investors, and justice-focused community lending institutions. We are making visible and resourcing all of the traditions, organizations, and thought leaders we are inspired by and continuously asking how to be in mutually-supportive relationship. We are accountable to each other as we experiment, iterate, and learn. We are accountable to our vision, to being in alignment with where we are going as we meet people where they’re at.
We are accountable to our community, our partners across the country, and a core team of advisors. In community, we hold contradictions and simultaneous truths with honesty and integrity. We understand that our current economic system, even while financially benefiting the wealthy, isn’t truly working for anyone because it strips all individuals of their humanity when some move forward at the expense of others. There is pain and trauma on both sides of the spectrum.
We are committed to taking deep, shared risks. We are zooming out from just considering the risk the investor is taking, to looking at the risks the entrepreneurs, community-oriented businesses, and community loan funds are taking. We are committed to supporting investors to take risks in a more equitable way with the communities they’re investing in. Based on our collective understanding of the racist history of wealth accumulation, we believe that investors should prioritize innovative investment strategies that center wealth redistribution and reparations. Our clients, our firm, and our financial activist allies are a part of a vibrant ecosystem working to redistribute wealth and power. Our success is bound up in the success of our partners who are building the Solidarity Economy. We are developing a set of emerging practices for taking deep shared risks, and will support each other and our partners in building this skill set.
Bringing Our Whole Selves
We bring our whole selves into this work–our bodies, our hearts, our experiences and our vision.
This means pausing conversations in the hard places and taking time to breathe and ground our bodies. It means we will continue to strengthen and share our personal practices that ground and center us. Our intention is to communicate clearly, to peel back layers of financial jargon to reveal what’s really happening in people’s investment portfolios. We’re committed to slowing down for questions and feelings as we discuss moving money. We will create space in this work for listening to body and intuition. We will make room for laughter, joy, movement, and personal transformation in service of our collective well-being.
