Join us for a virtual workshop to explore the transformative potential of direct cash giving as a tool to address the persistent racial wealth gap in Boston. Elsa Gomes will lead a moderated discussion with Marina Seevak and Julia Mejia, who have firsthand experience working on direct cash giving initiatives. Learn about the benefits, challenges, and best practices of this approach. This workshop is an introduction to the concept of direct cash giving and aims to spark conversations about how we can collectively work towards a more equitable future.

Marina Seevak is the Founding Executive Director of The Beautiful Stuff Project, an art center whose mission is to increase access to play and the arts through reuse. Marina is also an adjunct faculty in Early Childhood Education at Lesley University and Bunker Hill Community College. Previously, Marina was a public school classroom teacher, reading specialist, and curriculum developer for the Cambridge Massachusetts Public School System.

Julia Mejia is Councilor of the City of Boston is currently the Chair of the Committee on Education, the Chair of the Committee on Government Accountability, Transparency, and Accessibility as well as the Chair of the Committee on Labor, Workforce, and Economic Development. Driven by a lifelong pursuit of justice and equity, Councilor Mejia has created countless opportunities for others to step into their power and advocate for positive change as a community organizer. Following the 2019 election AND a historic two-month recount, Julia won her seat by a single vote and is now the first Afro-Latina to sit on the Boston City Council.

Elsa Gomes Bondlow is the Founder & Principal of Ripple Acts whose mission is to unveil, utilize, and channel resources for the community effectively, by amplifying unheard voices, channels resources and promote giving in strategic and equitable ways through partnerships, networking, training and consultations. She is also CEO & Co-Founder of Social Equity Access Fund and Vice President of Growth and Partnership Development for Building Impacts. She is passionate about the potential of philanthropy to work at the world's challenges through an equitable lens, and to empower the unheard voices in our society.

Join Nicole Obi, President and CEO at the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA), and Kofi Callender, Managing Director of BECMA Community Investments, for an informative and inspiring conversation focused on their visionary BECMA Community Investments initiative. Nicole and Kofi will discuss how this program is a critical part of BECMA’s work to foster economic empowerment in Black communities and inclusive growth in the Massachusetts economy. The conversation will also include a progress update on the BECMA Sustainability Hub property acquisition in Roxbury, which is poised to have a transformative impact for Black-led businesses in the area and broader impact in building Black wealth across the Commonwealth.

Nicole Obi is the President & CEO of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA)whose mission is to drive economic equity and prosperity for Massachusetts to achieve inclusive growth through advocacy, programming, and strategic partnerships that enable Black-owned businesses and Black communities to thrive.

Kofi Callender is the Managing Director of BECMA Community Investments. He began his career in consulting, where he honed his skills in strategic planning and business development. Kofi earned his MBA from Babson College, further solidifying his expertise in entrepreneurship and finance. He previously served as the Executive Director of Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll), a Massachusetts-based business accelerator program, and as the Director at Smarter in the City, where he deployed catalytic capital to startup founders from underrepresented communities.

In order to close the racial wealth gap and create a new economy, we need those with the most power and resources to engage: white men. White men must work intentionally and effectively as partners in multiracial and gender-diverse coalitions. As a result of our culture and societal systems, white men are often the individuals who explore racism and sexism the least - and those who continue to hold disproportionate positions of power compared to those with different racial and gender identities. As a result, those leading the work for racial and economic justice, especially women, have been calling on white men to ‘go get your people' - and White Men for Racial Justice does just that.

Join a powerful conversation with members of the White Men for Racial Justice community to learn what they are doing to answer the call, take action, and become committed partners in the fight for racial justice. We look forward to sharing a robust conversation exploring the challenges and opportunities facing White men seeking to participate in building solidarity for racial justice.

Jay Coen Gilbert is Executive Chair of Imperative 21, with a mission to build a narrative power for a just economy. Strategic partners including: B Lab, The B Team, CECP, Common Future, The GIIN, JUST Capital, and Participant. He is also part of WMRJ, an anti-racist pro-justice community of practice rooted in personal transformation, relationships of mutual accountability, and taking action in our spheres of influence.

Kevin Eppler, MTS, is an educator, curriculum designer, facilitator, and equity consultant. He is co-founder and steward of WMRJ, an anti-racist pro-justice community of practice founded in 2020. Kevin is also a certified Program Leader with the Groundwater Institute and is a Learning Partner at The Opt-In. He also designs and leads transformative immersive experiences rooted in equity and justice. Prior to his work with WMRJ, Groundwater, and The Opt-In, Kevin spent 20 years in education, as a classroom teacher, dean, department chair, and coach. He has designed courses that examine race, gender, justice, social business, social movements, and religion in both university and secondary school settings.

During this session, the Re-Envision team will describe how they incorporate a racial equity lens across asset classes in client portfolios. They will discuss how desired impact, available data, and success metrics vary by asset class and also present empirical research demonstrating how diverse teams and investment managers outperform their peers.

Anna N’Jie-Konte, MBA, CFP® is the President and Director of Financial Planning for Re-Envision Wealth. As President, Anna manages the firm's financial planning, advisory, and operations strategies. She is a proud Puerto Rican, Gambian-American who is committed to building a firm where access to excellent, values-aligned financial advice is the norm, not the exception. Having spent her childhood watching the strong women around her live lives dictated by their bank balances, she’s on a mission to rewrite the money stories of women of color.

She is a 3x winner of Investopedia's “Top 100 Influential Financial Advisors” and has been named "10 Young Advisors to Watch” by Financial Advisor Magazine. She serves as a CFP Board Brand Ambassador; an advisory board member to Wealth.com; and a board member of the FInserv Foundation.

Keith Beverly, CFA®, CFP® is the Chief Investment Officer for Re-Envision Wealth. With over 20 years of investment management and financial planning experience, Keith’s responsibilities range from building customized investment portfolios for private clients to transitioning institutional clients to 100% mission alignment. Under his direction, the firm has developed an expertise in identifying private market investments that deliver attractive financial returns while achieving positive social impact.

Keith graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business with University and College Honors and obtained his M.B.A. from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he was a Dean’s Fellow. He sits on the board of North Carolina A&T’s Department of Family and Consumer Services, one of four CFP® Board-registered programs at a historically black college. He is also one of few African American advisors in the United States who holds both the Chartered Financial Analyst®(CFA®) and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) designations, two of the most respected credentials for investment management and financial planning, respectively.

The Diverse Investing Collective, a project of the Tara Health Foundation, wants to change the face of finance. And women with wealth can play a powerful role in bringing more women and people of color to financial decision-making tables. Who controls capital matters. From which companies get loans to which innovations get financed, the investment industry shapes every aspect of our lives. For too long, the people designing and driving our financial system have looked the same. Only 14% of fund managers are women, and that number hasn't changed in 20 years! People of color are also severely underrepresented in asset management, including those who are Black and Hispanic/Latinx.

The Diverse Investing Collective has a bold goal to put more assets in the hands of women and people of color. They want 33% of assets under management to be managed by gender and racially diverse investment teams by 2033. 33 by 33! But they can only achieve this goal if investors - like you - start asking: Who is managing my money? How can the firms holding my assets do more to bring diverse voices to the table? The best part: not only is diversifying your fund management teams the right thing to do, but the evidence demonstrates that diverse investment teams can outperform. A study by Vanguard found gender-diverse investment teams outperform the benchmark by 47 basis points per year. And Harvard Business Review found that if Venture Capital teams had the same ethnicities, their success rates were lower by 26% to 32%.

This interactive conversation will review the evidence of outperformance by diverse teams, and give attendees concreate action steps they can take to diversify the teams managing their assets. Who controls capital matters. It's time to change the face of finance. But we can only do this together.

Robyn Russell is the Senior Director of the Diverse Investing Collective at the Tara Health Foundation, which aims to increase the portion of assets managed by gender-diverse and racially-diverse fund management teams to 33% by 2033. Robyn began her career on Capitol Hill working for a Congress member on the Appropriations Committee. She also worked at the United Nations Foundation, where she advocated for international women's health and rights by helping lead a multi-million-dollar pooled fund and stood up a private sector initiative for global corporations to pledge measurable commitments to the health and well-being of their women workers.

Ivy Jack is an advisor and thought leader in the world of socially responsible investing and business, with a career spanning from Morgan Stanley to the Harvard Business School Association of Boston. Currently, she is the Senior Advisor to the Diverse Investing Collective, working alongside Senior Director Robyn Russell in the shared goal to increase assets managed by gender-diverse and racially-diverse teams to 33 percent by 2033. She also sits on the finance committee for YW Boston, a local organization that takes the lead on issues at the intersection of race and gender. Formerly, Ivy was the Co-CIO for NorthStar Asset Management, Inc., as well as the vice president of the equity research department at Barclays Capital, where she led her team to achieve a top ranking in research coverage from the Institutional Investor Survey.

What has the Impact Collective achieved and where are we headed next? Join the Impact Collective's state of the movement conversation, "Celebrating Progress and Charting the Course for Impact Collective." As we reflect on our journey together thus far, we're thrilled to share our accomplishments and learnings since launching. We’re equally excited about the future of the Impact Collective and to share our new offerings and more!

This interactive conversation will be an opportunity to share your thoughts on what you’d like to see the Impact Collective provide and to reflect on how the needs of our community have shifted and changed over time. We look forward to hearing your voice as a fundamental piece of the Impact Collective’s planning as we grow.

Julia Johannsen is a bold changemaker who works to leverage her privilege in the service of racial and economic justice. She is the founder of The Impact Collective, which works to educate women about the racial wealth gap. Julia partnered with a small team of experts to create the Impact Collective Intensive Workshop to help women with capital utilize their resources for a better future.