Kenneth To’s Post

What is Spark Social? Empowering Minds, Enriching Lives Spark Social is an innovative Australia and Hong Kong-based "social FinTech" platform that is transforming the investment landscape. By merging state-of-the-art technology with a pursuit of social good, Spark Social empowers individuals and organizations to invest in projects that deliver measurable social value. Unlike traditional investments that focus solely on financial gains, Spark Social dispels the misconception that charitable actions lack financial benefits. The platform provides the tools and knowledge to grow your wealth while ensuring a positive impact on society. Spark Social's core values of empathy, sustainability, and innovation guide their mission to create a more equitable and fulfilling world. This week, we're exploring the topic of mental health and anxiety – Spark Social will provide practical information to help the community build resilience and cultivate inner peace. Join us at Spark Social as we redefine the meaning of wealth. As our motto states, "Grow Your Wealth, Enrich the World" - an invitation to those who believe that the greatest wealth includes the well-being it brings to others. #MentalWellbeing #AnxietyManagement #CommunityResilience #SocialFintech #SocialImpactInvesting #WealthWithPurpose #FinancialWellness #MindfulInvesting #SustainableWealth #EmpathyInFinance

I recently joined The Agency Fund - a group that invests in ideas and organizations that expand human agency. But what is agency and why invest in it? Agency describes the capability to formulate #goals; understand and #navigate our environment; and learn, adapt and maintain #resilience as we strive to achieve our ambitions. While all people have agency, it is neither a fixed nor an inherent capability. However, opportunities to build agentic capabilities are not distributed equally. Social exclusion, stigmatisation, and economic marginalization hamper our ability to nurture agency. Social programs have historically focused on people’s material constraints, leaving unaddressed the psychological impacts of exclusion and poverty. But accumulating RCT evidence shows that addressing these constraints can be highly cost-effective. But focusing on human agency is not just about bang for the buck. More importantly, it’s about placing human worth and dignity at the center of development programming. In this piece, Temina Madon and I sketch our thoughts on agency.

Why the social sector could use more human agency: "we see a need for social sector organizations to get wise to the diverse psychological realities that people experience. Rather than delivering opportunities alone, programs can be designed with the appropriate psychological or social support needed to navigate our choices... There is a growing body of rigorous evidence that nurturing agency can be radically more cost-effective than the delivery of opportunities alone. When we are supported in the exercise of agency, we build self-efficacy and self-determination. And with this comes the power to find a tractable path toward the future we seek."

CoinFund values unconventional thinking, and our approach to International Women’s Day is more than cut and paste. Our mission, to champion the leaders of the new internet, is about more than just company and founder support - it means hiring incredible female talent and advocating for the diverse ecosystem we want to see, every day. We believe this starts in the workplace. Women need women in leadership positions to mentor and open doors. Currently, one fifth of the CoinFund team is female, including two on our Executive Team, and we are committed to improving this ratio. And in order for women to remain in the workforce and grow their careers if they choose to become mothers, they need competitive benefits including health insurance with family coverage; a remote work environment that welcomes parents’ schedules; financial incentives that compound with performance; and access to growth opportunities. Can an investment firm be cryptonative, institutional-grade, family friendly and…cool? We think it’s possible. (To see open roles at CoinFund and within our portcos, visit jobs.coinfund.io.) Featuring the women of CoinFund isn’t a content strategy. We’re in the people business and the investment business; to help the world connect with CoinFund we regularly share the latest from our female leaders and their groundbreaking work, which you can find on our social channels, across our website at CoinFund.io and regularly in the news. Read more about our approach in this recent interview below with our Head of Talent, Margaret Gabriel. For more - watch this space. https://lnkd.in/eJyD-Bmk

“Our democracy is facing a crisis - we are more divided and distrustful than ever,” says R360 Managing Partner, Charles P. Garcia, who discusses the importance of Social Capital in our compelling white paper on the topic. “To strengthen our communities, we need to rebuild social capital, the connections that build trust, reciprocity and civic engagement. This requires investing in relationships beyond our families, leading and supporting community activities, philanthropy, impact investing, and implementing ethical policies in business. When we work on developing social capital, we build the grease that oils the wheels of society and strengthens our democracy. Together, we can create change.” #socialcapital #civicengagement #democracy  https://lnkd.in/eeX-bpwy

Social Finance shares their reflections at the halfway point for developing a professional linkage platform in adult social care as part of our new service models innovation fund. Read the latest blog post: https://lnkd.in/gZdseX2v #adultsocialcare #innovation #newservicemodels #data

Do you know the #start-upfundingstages, #trademark symbols, the benefits of being a #socialenterprise and where to find #grants? All this, and more, in our free April newsletter. https://lnkd.in/gVdMXfuV

You can't be very serious, you don't have any skin in the game... This 'established wisdom' within the early stage ecosystem has gotten me thinking. A lot of investors, and hence founders have a belief that if you haven't put your money where your mouth is, then you haven't shown the sort of grit / determination / hustle that you should demonstrate as a startup founder. But here are some facts: 🧑🏾🦰 Per Crunchbase, funding to Black and Latinx founders in the US peaked at $4bn in 2018, out of a total of $141bn invested in the US that year - that's 2.8% of total funding at peak. 🛒 Per Pew Research Center, median household income for Black US households in 2021 was $46,400, a full 40% lower than non Hispanic white households. 💰 And as for generational wealth? This quote from Synchrony says it all: "In the Black community, building generational wealth hasn't been easy to either attain or maintain, for multiple factors. Comparatively, Black families achieve considerably less wealth than white families, with a median net worth of $24,100 compared to $188,200." So let's think about this, in the US (which accounted for just under 50% of total VC investment in 2021 - $330bn out of $671bn), minority founders are: - Less likely to receive funding. - More likely to have a lower income. - Less likely to be from families / communities with generational wealth. But yet, we still talk about needing skin in the game. And this is just an example, I haven't mentioned female founders with young children or people from developing nations that are systemically excluded from certain services. The same could be said for emerging fund managers who are required to fund their so called 'GP commit' as part of the total fund. I am a very lucky individual. I bootstrapped one of my businesses and, when I ran out of cash in the other, was able to take out debt to leave the business clean. I knew if things fell apart, I'd be able to take myself to my parents place and get back on my feet. But so many people simply don't have that opportunity. So many people can't raise money from friends, family and 'fools', because their friends and family don't have money and didn't go to the 'right' schools. They can't risk going all in because if they do, they don't have a parent's house they can fall back on. And yet, even though they already come from communities that receive the least amount of funding, they may be further penalised for not having 'skin in the game'. This has to change. Entrepreneurs should not be brought to the brink of bankruptcy, mental breakdown or familial collapse to build a better future. So how do we encourage more people to take that plunge? How do we level that playing field and give everyone at least the opportunity to take a risk? Some people I know have thought about this are Alex Macdonald, Andy Ayim MBE and Kevin Withane (FRSA) - what are your thoughts?

Check this out! CSD Social Venture Fund is in this article. #businessgrowth #finanicalinclusion #techclusion #socialimpactinvesting #disabilityinclusion #venturecapital #privateequity #investmentbanking https://lnkd.in/eu-9jmad

A thought-provoking, insightful article regarding the challenges involving venture capital #investment and the #disabilities community. #a11y #accessibility #venturecapital #venturecapitalist WebABLE News https://lnkd.in/gBurBqHn