Blogs & Ecology

If you’ve been seriously bruised in the stock market lately, and your 401k is starting to look like a 201k, maybe it’s time to consider investing your money where it can do some good. The expanding area of socially responsible investing (SRI) is offering a growing selection of innovative financial products that provide both financial and social returns. Consider it much safer and certainly much more rewarding than the stock market, which is starting to resemble a night out in Vegas.

Amidst a free-falling roller coaster global economy, social capital is an encouraging bright spot. While traditional profit-driven capitalism has come into question, the social capital movement is budding, striving to do good and make money at once, shattering the traditional for-profit, non-profit dichotomy. I was a relative newbie at the first Social Capital Markets Conference (SoCap08) which took place last month in San Francisco and want to relay the encouraging vibe.

Attendees at Day One of the inaugural Social Capital Markets 2008 Conference (SOCAP08) were greeted by a sunny day at San Francisco’s Fort Mason and capacity crowds wherever they turned. Registration went well over the expected 300 to reach almost 600 participants that included a mix of non-profits and for-profits with a variety of interests, backgrounds, and social missions.