Blog

Introducing a new Francesco Collaborative Impact Strategy Circle, launching May 5 We are living through another season of concentrating economic power — in AI, in finance, in land, in institutional decision-making. Against that backdrop, community ownership models are showing meaningful signs of promise and staying power. And yet meaningful capital from aligned institutions isn’t flowing.Continue reading “Why Isn’t More Capital Moving Towards Community Ownership — and What Can We Do About It?”

A few years ago, during one of our four-week Livable Future Investing workshops, David Harlley quoted G.K. Chesterton reflecting on St. Francis. The insight was so striking that it stayed with me for weeks. It wasn’t simply clever. It reframed how I was thinking about economic life. It named something about joy, about reversal, aboutContinue reading “What Makes a Prophetic Economy Leader?”

Why Francesco Collaborative Is Focusing on Capital Organization Over the past several years, Francesco Collaborative has asked a simple but demanding question: What does bold embodiment of Catholic Social Teaching in investing look like? We began with formation. Inspired by Pope Francis’ invitation to help “give a soul to the economy,” we gathered investors, economists,Continue reading “From Formation to Mobilization”

Faithful investing means experimenting with new tools and staying grounded in purpose. Here are three resources that helped our team this week—from a field primer and financing toolbox to a live example of justice-centered investing—that might help you discern your own next moves.

August 2025 — We are excited to announce a new partnership that advances our mission of aligning capital with justice and faith values. Francesco Collaborative is supporting the launch of the Buen Vivir Capital Institute, an emerging initiative dedicated to empowering “impact-first” fund managers and social enterprise leaders from the Global South. Together, we aim to bridge theContinue reading “Francesco Collaborative Partners with Alicia DeLia,  Founder & CEO of DeLia Impact Advisors, to Deepen and Scale the Resilience of the Global Social Enterprise & Impact Fund Sector”

Here at Francesco Collaborative, we’ve found that curating a shared culture gives us the freedom and courage we need to move differently as a community. Our community practices, which guide how we show up in collaborative spaces, lay the foundation for this culture.   One of these practices, grounded in the understanding that each of usContinue reading “Better Together”

It’s been 3 years since our first gathering, the “workshop” that sparked the Francesco Collaborative. Then, it was an experiment, a simple and spirited question inspired by Pope Francis’ invitation to build the Economy of Francesco: What would it look like to come together with friends and colleagues for authentic discussions about faith, the enduringContinue reading “Roots & Horizons”

“What time is it on the clock of the world?” – Grace Lee Boggs Awakening to a longing for change By Rob Stewart Over my thirty years in our family’s school uniform business, I wore many hats, including as the employer, supervisor and mentor for many young men and women. We offered work opportunities toContinue reading “Artisans of Hope”

By Tim Macready Society tells us that the purpose of investing is to take money and use it to make more money. But I want to tell you that the purpose of investing is to take capital that would otherwise be unproductive, and allocate it in ways that help enterprises to create goods and services thatContinue reading “Investment Portfolios as Courageous Leadership”

By Linda Romey “What time is it on the clock of the world? Awakening to a longing for change.” —Grace Lee Boggs We talk about “past” and “future,” but we can only create change in the present.  The past our minds create determines how free we are in the choices we make today. The not-yet-existentContinue reading “We must face the past if we are to free the future and we only have now to do it”