Pathways to a Resilient Future

Joshua Humphreys, Allen White, John Fullerton, Marjorie Kelly

September 2012

“Redesigning Finance: Pathways to a Resilient Future” was a day-long invitational gathering at the headquarters of Business for Social Responsibility, held on August 9, 2012 in San Francisco. Some 25 participants attended, primarily from the financial, philanthropic, and nonprofit world. This document summarizes the proceedings at the event. Capital Institute founder John Fullerton, a Croatan Institute advisory board member, presented a macro-prudential case for developing finance for the imperatives of the Anthropocene. Building upon her book Owning Our Future, Marjorie Kelly, senior fellow at the Democracy Collaborative who also serves on the Board of Advisers of Croatan Institute, discussed redesigning enterprises according to “generative” principles drawn from living systems.  Croatan Institute president Joshua Humphreys presented a new framework for impact investing across asset classes, known as “Total Portfolio Activation,” which provides a more socially and environmentally resilient alternative to “Modern Portfolio Theory.”