Who then would touch their torch to the sky,
bring down a raw, pure flame—
make light of so much devastation?
I choose to make a stand on the beaches even as the waters rise and the sun bears down hotter than ever. And I choose to do so with a spirit of love, joy, righteous anger, and deep sadness.
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