THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Susan Davis Moora

“I believe that one of the most powerful accomplishments of the women’s movement is…women leading and initiating the social investment industry, which is creating transformation that proves that social investments outperform, and through this is gradually creating a seismic shift that does allow a globally sustainable economy.”

VFA – “Unfinished Business of the Women’s Movement,” Honoring Midwest Feminists, Chicago, IL,  August 27-28, 2004

I moved to Chicago in 1968 and became active in the women’s movement right away and remain so to this day. Although four years ago, I moved to an eco-village in Wisconsin called East Troy. It began when my friends and I started speaking and raised women’s issues. And shortly we decided to organize the first non-racist, non-sexist childcare center in Chicago, Sojourner Truth. I then was working for a national urban affair publishing company and decided to start collecting news on women.

That led to the publication in 1969. The first national women’s public women’s movement publication, The Spokeswoman, which I published for a number of years. That led to a group of eight of the top women in Chicago doing the first women’s venture capital deal to launch a national women’s news magazine called Woman News. At that time, in 1970, venture capital firms did not finance women. So, we gave the concept to the Chicago Tribune, which published it for many years. I realized that I began reading the work of Carol Gilligan at Harvard about how for men, the highest value was independence, and for women, the highest value was interdependent. And this spoke to me because I believed that it was crucial to find balance between the masculine and feminine for a healthy and sustainable society.

I was very interested in economics and finance and began to try and find a route for women to integrate finance. When I graduated from Brown in 63, we couldn’t even interview for finance jobs. But to integrate into finance, to create balance there, to create a sustainable economy. A globally sustainable economy has been my vision. I’ve worked with hundreds of women over the last 25 years to create that by using a network structure that we’ve developed together that operates on the principle that a deal is a good deal when it’s good for all concerned. So, we began with creating a group in Chicago called the Chicago Network.

We identified the top women in Chicago in all fields and brought them together into a support network, which has created one initiative after another that’s good for Chicago, including particularly Chicago’s women. The Chicago Network flourishes today after 25 years. That led to us starting the Chicago Finance Exchange for the top women in Finance in Chicago, which also flourishes to this day for top women in finance. That led to the Committee of 200 based in Chicago, but a national network of the top women business owners that foster entrepreneurship for women and have a target of achieving business equity for women in this country.

That led to me working for Harris Bank, creating a network for families of 100 million plus to be stewards of their wealth and a network for the wealthiest women in Chicago called the Financial Forum, which they designed as a finance class to educate women about finance so that Chicago’s wealthiest women began taking control of their wealth. In 1990, I decided to start my own company with the vision of achieving a globally sustainable economy and using the networking skills that I developed on the side as a volunteer, doing my regular jobs so that it could become mainstream.

Capital Missions has worked, particularly with women, but with other finance leaders, to create one network after another in finance that have the goal of a globally sustainable economy. Organizing groups of social investors to demonstrate that social investments perform or outperform financial benchmarks. We started with a group of venture capitalists called the Investor Circle, and that has demonstrated that social venture capital can perform as well as regular venture capital.

We then created a network for women investors who wanted to invest in women led companies called the Capital Circle in 1993, and that eventually led to Springboard 2000, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital for women led businesses, has been very successful. We did the National Women’s Economic Summit in 1990 with a program to create a blueprint for the future for women’s economic empowerment.

In 2002, we created a network for financiers for the top women business owners in the country. That’s called Vision Keepers Forum. And basically, from creating these ten investor networks that particularly feature women in fields from social venture capital to institutional treasurers, to micro enterprise financiers, to solar investors, to the Vision Keepers Forum for financiers of top women led businesses in ten different niches of finance.

Now we’ve created business leadership networks and a social investor network to invest in a socially responsible way to prove that these investments match or outperform financial benchmarks, and to prove that it’s more profitable to do business on the principle a deal is a good deal when it’s good for all concerned. In contrast to the traditional principle, a deal is a good deal if it’s better for me and my company, which is what’s legally institutionalized on Wall street. And we are proving that that does not work as well.

So, I believe that one of the most powerful accomplishments of the women’s movement is this principle of interdependence applied to finance, with women leading and initiating the social investment industry, which is creating this transformation, creating this database that proves that social investments outperform, and through this is gradually creating a seismic shift that does allow a globally sustainable economy.

It’s been a joy.