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Addressing Domestic Issues and Social Equity

October 25, 2011 by

[HTML1] Geoff Green, activist for social justice, a community organizer, and executive director of The Fund for Santa Barbara, joins us to discuss domestic issues and how they are being addressed by The Fund for Santa Barbara and other national community foundations across the US.  The Fund for Santa Barbara is activist lead with grant making decisions made by a Board of community members with various socio-economic backgrounds who are active in catalyzing change.

(Photo of Fund for Santa Barbara’s Bread and Roses event generously shared by Kenji Photography.)

The motto of the Fund is “Change not Charity,” focusing work on the root causes of community issues including social equity and access, countering discrimination and working at the policy level in order to make change.  In 2011, over $400,000 was awarded to 50 to 75 groups addressing social equity problems.  A few of these include the creation of a forum for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Trans-Gender) youth, programs addressing health access across cultural divides, combating homelessness, access to education for youth leaving incarceration, and reducing youth violence through community planning.

A Social Justice Award was created in 2000 in partnership with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival to highlight the work of documentary film-makers often making films with little financial support.  Due to technology improvements and the resulting decrease in cost for cameras, production and editing, the ability to address far-ranging social issues in film has produced numerous, exceptional documentaries.  The Fund for Santa Barbara recognizes the importance of film and media to draw greater social attention and involvement in rectifying social “ills.”

Geoff also discusses domestic versus international social investments.  Affordable housing, hunger, access to health care and education are just a few of the issues of poverty that draw international attention yet are also very real, domestic issues.  Could these problems provide for-profit investment opportunities domestically, and if so, is there clarity about what to do if such projects do not ultimately produce financial returns but do accomplish social goals?  How can social goals and financial goals achieve balance?  Are there domestic investment opportunities that can make significant social impact and not be a high investment risk?

When looking at social impact, there is also the need to be conscious of mission consistency in investments.  For example, if an organization focuses on environmental stability but invests it’s own corpus in oil and products that negatively impact the environment, it is not mission consistent.

These questions and others continue to fuel the discussion of how to best achieve social goals domestically as well as the future of philanthropy vs sustainable investments for social change.  Be sure to visit The Fund for Santa Barbara’s website to learn more and get involved.  Visit our own Social Impact Marketing Facebook page to enter into discussion about Socially Conscious Investing episodes, and invite others to listen in each week.  Thanks for joining us.

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About Robin Eschler

Robin L. Eschler, the founder of Social Impact Marketing, started her career in developing foundational marketing strategies for companies of all sizes, from Fortune 500 to individual entrepreneurs and local businesses. She has developed and implemented international campaigns to launch high tech products and services and guided new business owners to successfully navigate the difficulties of growing a business.

Her life-long passion for helping others led her into nonprofit work for over a decade. Early on, she recognized the need for nonprofits to adapt to a rapidly changing world in which technology dominates and for-profit business practices are central to success. Her determination to help social causes in a sustainable way led to her creation of the Women's Radio show Socially Conscious Investing.

Impact investing in for-profits with a mission of social change such as the fight against extreme poverty is a blossoming business sector around the world. With the economic decline, it's clear that Wall Street requires change. Social impact investing addresses that need in a way that provides financial and social ROI.

As the Host of Socially Conscious Investing on WomensRadio, Robin's goal is to educate people about the growth of social impact investing and social venture. Interviews are conducted with socially conscious business experts including foundations and nonprofits, social venture investment firms, micro-loan organizations, investors, educators, authors and social entrepreneurs.

This show's mission is to help change the world through sustainable business practices that contribute to the economy, combat poverty, end hunger and provide better lives to all.

Twice, Robin has been recognized and received the highest honorary award that Rotary International gives, the Paul Harris Award, for service above self. Her community work has included developing local programs for disadvantaged populations such as foster children, troubled teens, and people with disabilities.

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