February Newsletter - Focus on Family Offices

We recently published two articles, “The Promise and Reality of Family Offices and Sustainable Investing”, and “Six Tips for Bringing Family Office Capital to Impact Funds and Enterprises” (on ImpactAlpha, login required). The articles provide an overview of the somewhat private world of the inner workings of the Family Office. For social entrepreneurs hoping to unlock FO capital and FO members looking to engage more directly in the impact space, relevant highlights include:

Most estimates put the number of FOs at about 10,000 globally, and at least half of these offices have been created in the last decade.
There is a strong geographic connection for FO investing. For example, 79% of investments from a US-based FO stay in the US.
According to the USB Global 2022 FO report, roughly 56% of the FOs have sustainable investments. Of those which do, the most common technique is “negative screens”- eliminating public market investments in sectors deemed to create a negative impact for society.
The top sectors receiving FO impact investments:
- Education - 64%
- Climate Change - 64%
- Healthcare - 61%
- Agriculture - 55%
- Economic Opportunity - 52%
In theory, FOs seem to be a very suitable type of asset owner for impact investing, since:
- they have experience in private fund and direct investing, with an expectation to do even more going forward
- they have long time horizons
- they have multiple pools of capital from which to invest
- they can have flexible return expectations, and
- a younger generation with progressive values is set to inherit a significant amount of capital

For many, there are few things as exciting as launching your own business; yet bringing an idea to fruition comes with the need for investment. Subscribers to this newsletter are already familiar with the array of debt and/or equity financing approaches, and with the ONE WORL D mission of helping impact organizations profitably scale social impact. And, as referenced in our January newsletter, we are focusing on Family Offices (FO) in 2023, given the significant opportunity they represent to support the impact economy.

We also launched a benchmarking study on “Sustainable Family Offices” which uncovers what family offices are doing to ensure their longevity as an organization and how they involve the next generation, as well as their involvement and roadblocks with respect to sustainable and impact investing.

We want to hear from you:

Do Family Offices represent a good opportunity for Impact CEOs and Fund Managers?
What experience do you have working with such organizations?
Family Office members- what roadblocks have you encountered trying to make sustainable and impact investments?
As a social entrepreneur, do you think Family Offices represent a potential investment source? What are the pros and cons?

Do you have a family office?
Or do you you know a family office that should participate?
If so, please participate in our benchmarking study and/or forward this newsletter to family offices.

We welcome a new company to the ONE WORLD portfolio:

Suma Wealth is a digital platform to teach the Latinx Community how to build and sustain wealth. Co-founded CEO by Beatriz Acevedo, Suma uses the holistic approach of digital media, FinTech, and virtual experiences to spice up dry and complex topics of investment, debt management, and creating and sustaining wealth. The topics are translated to the global community of Latinx individuals.

Join a supportive peer-to-peer CEO cohort in 2023. As we have seen over and over, “leaders learn best from leaders”!

The ONE WORLD CEO Network is designed to accelerate learning and business success for its participants. Each cohort is a group of carefully curated CEO's, all of whom have or will soon be raising outside capital for their company. Members share a strong desire to both "give and get" from a values-aligned community of for-profit social enterprise CEOs. We are currently accepting new applications for 2023.

If you are interested, you can learn more about the impact of the CEO Network first hand from entrepreneurs here. To request more details, fill out the form here.

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