Capital moves. The structures we’ve built move it toward return, toward liquidity, toward exit. Systems persist. Communities persist. The places where people live and work and build lives—these do not exit. They continue, with or without the capital that passes through. We have designed our financial structures for the movement. The venture fund with its ten-year life. The bond with … Read More
AI Vendors Promised Efficiency. What we Got Was an Arms Race.
Dr. Bryant Lin teaches medicine at Stanford. He founded the Center for Asian Health Research and Education to study diseases that disproportionately affect Asian populations, including nonsmoker lung cancer. Then he was diagnosed with it himself. He is now Stage 4. His doctor prescribed Rybrevant, an FDA-approved treatment for his specific mutation. Aetna denied the claim. Lin, a physician at … Read More
The Tale of Two (2) Three (3) Horizon Ideas
On forecasting, portfolios, and futures “We need to spend more time on Horizon 2,” they both say. One is a program officer at a climate and nature philanthropy. The initiatives they’re funding risk being captured by the dominant political economy in the U.S. or co-opted by greenwashing actors who sound like they are marching toward progress but are aggressively resisting … Read More
Narrative, Valuation, and the Material Power of Finance
“Narrative change” has become its own sphere in philanthropy and movement work, stories as culture, identity, and legitimacy. Narrative work is funded. Those with the best narratives attract funding. There’s even been a backlash against narrative-building, and last week I had a set of compelling conversations thanks to Julia Roig’s post on Judith Mil’s post, a materialist critique of narratives. … Read More
Outcomes Will Be Contested
Performing Economic Realities: Climate Week on Value, AI, and the Contest Over Contribution My worlds all collided at Climate Week, and it’s taken me another week to metabolize the bafflement of many and find the corners of coherence, trying to remember more than the variation of seating charts, convening experiences, and which rooms were set to Arctic tundra versus tropical … Read More
The Double-Edged Sword of Outcomes-Based Models
A compelling narrative is emerging in business and finance: a shift from funding effort to paying for results. On the surface, outcomes-based models, results-based finance, and impact-linked finance appear to be a logical evolution toward greater efficiency and accountability. This approach, however, is not a panacea. It’s a complex tool whose application merits careful critique, as it can create as … Read More
Moving Beyond ESG
Moving Beyond ESGs Naming the Dominant Logic and Making Sense of the Real Governance Metrics Welcome to a set of unfolding presumptions about how we transition to a survivable social, environmental, and political climate. This is a second in a series of explorations about how we might think about investments that connect across public and private sectors and the spaces … Read More
Champlain Hudson Power Express
September 7, 2022 New York Contribution Value Research Rating: HOLD Debt to be raised: $6 BN Promised Economic Development: $3.5 BN / 25 years Promised Emissions Reduced: Decreasing carbon emissions by 3.9 million metric tons per year Price for those opposed: priceless Initiating Coverage: Champlain Hudson Power Express The Contribution Value of an Underground and Underwater Hydropower-Connector Disclaimer: This analysis … Read More
Contribution Value Design
Narratives > Models We can all agree we want to transition to a survivable social, environmental, and political climate. Despite the obstacles we all know exist, the real problem is we have a multi-trillion dollar global funding gap, but we do not all share a clear investment map. We cannot agree on the measures: ESG, SDGs, Net Zero aims, decouple … Read More