Go on the website of any environmental nonprofit worth its salt, and you will see language about the imperative to ensure a “just transition” to a green economy. The Climate Justice Alliance defines a just transition as “a place-based set […]
A few weeks ago, shaken by the horror of Heat Domes and wildfires encircling the globe, I decided to write a series of essays focused on solutions to the climate crisis. In the first post, I wrote about the banking […]
In Siberia, the ground surface temperature recently hit 118 degrees, and “It’s warmer in parts of western Canada than in Dubai.” The Heat Dome behind these astounding temperatures is, in a normal climate, an anomaly; due to our failure to […]
While I am excited to share that Bianca, Richard, Chance and I are moving back to Los Angeles in September, where our families reside, that excitement is tempered by the fact that we are traveling to the front lines of the climate crisis.
Tackling the climate crisis will require an economy-wide approach, reaching every business, every home, and every family. The good news is that we have the technological know-how to foster a carbon-neutral future
Imagine I told you that by switching your money from one investment vehicle to another—with the click of a button!—you could not only earn the same return on your investment with the same level of risk as before, but also […]
Never has it been easier to anonymously do harm to people and the planet: environmentally or socially-damaging products can be purchased with the click of a button or tap of a screen from the comfort of our home, car, or […]
Mission Versus Business
Here’s a fundamental challenge in our business: the greater the alignment between our lending and our mission, the greater the strain on our loan portfolio performance. Phrased another way, the highest impact loans–those to ex-offenders, domestic violence survivors, and the temporarily homeless– are also the riskiest. This is through no fault of their own; rather, it’s simply a result of the tremendous strain that personal and financial instability places on a person.
As a nonprofit, it is incumbent on us that we adhere to our mission, which is to use financial services to create pathways out of poverty. Yet as a business, especially as one that debt finances its lending operations, we must also ensure that we are fiscally sound. To address this tension, we’ve taken several approaches. First and foremost, the interest rates we charge are designed to compensate for higher losses
The Power of Live Theatre (yes, I prefer the British spelling!)
Growing up I was privileged in many ways, one of them being the number of plays, musicals, and concerts I had the opportunity to see. I distinctly remember dressing up for the show, the architecture of the theatres, the voices and movements of the actors. Several theatrical experiences stand out as seminal moments in my development as a person in general and a writer and poet in particular. For instance, a number of years ago my parents and I went to see The Glass Menagerie at a small playhouse in Burbank, CA. The play, which is a masterpiece, came to life thanks to absolutely brilliant acting; when the curtain finally came down I was transfixed.
Live theatre, when done well, can be a transformational experience. It opens the mind, stirs the soul, and awakens the senses. In short, it can play a critical role in a person’s life–making them more cultured, thoughtful and self-aware. Unfortunately, as I’ve grown older and become more involved in fighting poverty and injustice, I’ve found myself increasingly concerned that all too often the arts are by the rich, about the rich, and for the rich.
“We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
The thesis of this post is simple and, I hope, provocative: that if you care deeply about a particular social or environmental issue, then you must at least be familiar with many other social or environmental issues. This is due to the increasingly unavoidable link between seemingly disparate challenges, be they economic growth and climate change, health care spending and hunger, or defense spending and education.
I was inspired to write this after reading a phenomenal article in the most recent edition of Time. The article, titled ‘Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,’ is one of the best pieces of journalism I’ve read in a while. But more importantly, it highlights the fact that the way in which medical products and services–hospital stays, prescription medications, etc.–are priced is egregiously, if not criminally, disconnected from the cost of providing them. In fact, the content of the article is so galling that I found myself unable to read it more than a few paragraphs at a time before my stomach would begin churning and I had to take a break.