How to Make Impactful Investments in Purpose-driven Companies
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Kate Byrne, president of SOCAP Global, explains impact investing—making financial investments that deliver both social good and financial returns. She traces its history from Benjamin Franklin through modern ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) frameworks, and describes practical entry points for individual investors, from choosing banks and mutual funds to bonds and 401(k)s.
Key takeaways
- Impact investing combines financial returns with measurable social and environmental benefits, applicable across asset classes from responsible investing to full social-impact focus.
- The ESG filter evaluates companies on environmental stewardship, social responsibility to stakeholders, and governance practices; it has become the standard vernacular across institutional finance.
- Individual investors can start small by auditing where they bank, what they buy, where they work, and reviewing their mutual funds and retirement accounts for values alignment.
- Success requires intentionality, transparency, honest dialogue with fund managers, and clear measurement of impact goals; the social component remains the most challenging to standardize.
- Low-hanging fruit sectors include housing, energy/climate, responsible sourcing, education, and healthcare, where philanthropic funding alone is insufficient and market-based solutions can scale change.
About Kate ByrneKate Byrne is president of SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) Global, a platform founded in 2008 that convenes, educates, and connects the impact investing ecosystem.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
Meeting for the week of September 21 - September 27, 2020
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: How to Make Impactful Investments in Purpose-driven Companies
Speaker: Kate Byrne
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page.Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
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Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
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Here’s a message from Youth Service Committee Chair - Kelly Ku:
Youth Service Committee Chair - Kelly Ku
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
As we see it, our flexibility as an online, asynchronous club allows a special type of service to Rotarians around the world: we make it easier for anyone to strive for and maintain 100% attendance. That keeps you engaged with Rotary's events and ideas, and provides a moment of inspiration for devoting your creativity, talents, and resources to good causes.
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The Four-Way Test
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Of the things we think, say or do
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Is it the TRUTH?
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Is it FAIR to all concerned?
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Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
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Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Weekly Funny with Shags
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin !
Busta Moves!
A husband takes his wife to a nightclub. There’s a guy on the dance floor giving it large – break dancing, moonwalking, back flips, the works.
The wife turns to her husband and says: "See that guy? 25 years ago he proposed to me and I turned him down."
The husband says: "Looks like he’s still celebrating!!"
Weekly inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
Understand that those with whom we disagree have everything within them to act destructively or inspire construtively - just as we do ourselves. In this message with some life lessons learned, poet Maya Angelou shares words that should speak to the heart of all Rotarians.
Coffee with a Rotarian
Every 4 weeks, each member of our club is matched with another member for one-on-one conversations!
Here are the current matches!
Maxi Bustos and Tanya Martin
Rushton Hurley and Gabi Lopez
Nathan Gildart and Kelly Ku
Nick LaGarde and Cal Mann
Manuj Mittal and Angelica Marotta
Tzviatko Chiderov and Sarah Tuberty
Emily Paver and Alaa Hasanen
Brett Sham and Richard Knaggs
Suzanne Van Stralen and Manouchehr Shamsrizi
Nan Herron, MD and May Yam
Olu and Alexandra Heller
Roger Plested and Tatiana LaGarde
Sandy Stabile and Mark Dohn
Carlos Gabuardi and Imad Ghoummid
Hardeep Kaur Singh and Caleb LaPlante
Rory R. Olsen and Yvonne Kwan
Mahmood Khan and Susan Howell
Keith Marsh and Mark Busani
Ferheen Abbasi and Catherine
Steven -Shags- Shagrin and Cecelia Babkirk
Weren’t matched? 😔
Join the #coffee-with-a-rotarian channel in our club’s Slack workspace to participate in the next round!
World of Rotary
Every month we will focus on a particular story that tells of our organization and the work of Rotarians in the world.
This month, we bring back the story of Canadian Jennifer E. Jones, who is Rotary's first woman to be named Rotary president-nominee. When Ms Jones becomes RI President in 2022-23, she will be the first woman to hold that office in Rotary history. Read the full story here: https://www.rotary.org/en/jennifer-e-jones-makes-history-becomes-first-woman-named-rotary-president-nominee
Ms.
Jennifer E. Jones
Jennifer E. Jones makes history, becomes first woman named Rotary president-nominee
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!
If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
This New York City skyline taken from the Empire State Building is mostly monochromatic with just a few touches of color. The Twin Towers were located near to tallest tower on the skyline. This photo is about mood and texture.
Learn something new
This section is curated by members Shags Shagrin and aims to teach our members and guests something new, fun and useful! If you have any ideas on a fun trick or skill you'd like to share please contact Shags.
Salmon Salad! Fast, tasty and easy recipes.
Wow! I can get really fresh sashimi-grade salmon at the local 99 Ranch Market, which is a great benefit of living where I do and having the best ethnic grocery stores around. For this, you know that I'd (Shags) leave out the grated egg, but maybe would use grated roasted extra-firm tofu, and no mayo. Thinking either their sour cream, or perhaps a dill-tinted creme fraiche (oooh!). And maybe a touch of slivered pickled ginger.
Service report
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
On the first meeting of every month, we feature service reports from club members for the previous month. Thanks for your service everyone!
Club announcements
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Our events & projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Past events
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District 5170 events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Happy Dollars: do good by sharing something good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Monique Ziesenhenne made a $20 donation.
TRF-Annual Fund, please. Happy that it's not as hot as it was. Now here's hoping the air quality improves!
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.
Jazzy is fully over her ear surgery. The weather is cooler. So far the hurricanes have avoided Texas. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus
Selected comments
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select a few comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are the comments selected from last week’s meeting.
Kelly Ku said:
Great job on the intro, Olu and Ferheen! Thanks for including the bloopers. I had a good laugh. :)
It was great to hear from Kim and Paul again. I remember their talk from our social a few months ago. I'm glad to hear the situation has slightly improved for the community with the help of additional financial support. I've had a friends who have traveled to Guatemala and were blown away by its beauty. I truly hope the tourism sector can recover so the people of Seacacar can support their families and live a better life.
Catherine A said:
Another great photo from Keith Marsh, to commemorate fallen fire fighters on 9/11. First responders who provided help that day in NYC had much needed assistance withdrawn by the current administration, which is a real shame: https://www.nydailynews.com...
Thanks, Kim and Paul for your good work and the great presentation.
Really enjoyed the egg tips as well!
Gabriela Lopez said:
Thanks for the bloopers, it was truly hilarious!!!
Great to hear about the project for the first time. It’s incredible how many good people are out there really doing amazing work, kuddos to Kim and a Paul and for Paul’s vision around sustainability and influx of funds via the eco tourism.
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: How to Make Impactful Investments in Purpose-driven Companies
Speaker: Kate Byrne
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Kate Byrne, President of Intentional Media/SOCAP Global, will give advice on "How to make impactful investments in purpose-driven companies," with a sneak preview of SOCAP Virtual: A Global Impact Summit. This virtual gathering of global changemakers addressing the world’s toughest challenges through market-based solutions will take place from October 19-23.
Byrne will go over the themes of the five-day virtual conference of the largest and most diverse members of the global impact investing community on how to have a more equitable future for all. Social entrepreneurs, investors, foundation and nonprofit leaders, government and policy leaders, creators, corporations, academics, and beyond will be part of the sessions around the overarching theme of Radical Change and following topics of Climate Action, Global Health, Future of Work, Next Gen Leadership, Education for All, Resilience, Inclusion, Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and Racial Equity/SPECTRUM.
Byrne will further discuss the why and the how of Impact Investing – the state of the field, new product innovation, infrastructure, and service providers, impact measurement and evaluation.
Prior to joining the West Coast-based company in February of 2019, Byrne held leadership roles at Watermark, the Tides Foundation, the George Lucas Education Foundation, Future LLC, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, and San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate, and Inc. Byrne has always been passionate about education and women empowerment, having led efforts at Global Girl Media and World Pulse, as well as founding Girls Gone Global, a social enterprise charged with igniting female voices, social impact, media, and financial literacy skills.
Members and guests, please welcome Kate Byrne!
Additional Resources
For more information about SOCAP, go to: www.socialcapitalmarkets.net
Upcoming program recording schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
