Building a Better World through Hope
Hope is the belief that we can build a better future. It helps us see possibility and motivates action. On an individual level, hope has been found to be correlated with positive outcomes including increased athletic and academic performance, life satisfaction, lower mortality and improved health. Hope encourages resiliency through negative and stressful life events (such as the COVID-19 pandemic), and the development of realistic optimism, a necessary component of personal efficacy and corporate success.
Researchers have found evidence that hope is a form of “psychological capital” that contributes to positive outcomes at the individual and organizational level, including desired employee behaviors, attitudes like work satisfaction and commitment, and job performance. Hope has also been found to be a critical element in successful organizational change. As an impact fund, Builders’ is inherently hopeful that the combination of human and financial capital can make a positive impact in addressing the significant social and environmental challenges of our time. We find the combination of critical realism and audacious hope to be key elements of a purpose-driven culture, which we seek to amplify among our portfolio and our team.
As we near the end of 2022, we asked our portfolio companies, our “Builders,” and our team to reflect on their sources of hope and motivation for the year ahead. Resilience, or the ability to persevere through adversity, emerges as a key theme, as does the human-centered nature of hope. Hope is generated by all of us, and amplified when shared through families, companies, networks and social movements. We hope to share it with you.
Image courtesy of Lydia Carlis, imagined using Midjourney and Discord
Lydia Carlis, Chief People and Program Officer, Acelero Learning
At Acelero, Inc., we envision a world where children become champions of their own making; where historical biases and systemic inequities no longer stand in the way of their infinite promise. In the last year, our company embarked on an inclusive process to create our first ever company vision, and refresh our mission and core values to better reflect our longstanding commitment to dismantling inequities. As we approach 2023, I am hopeful because stakeholders from our classrooms to our boardroom, including folx who do not hold historically marginalized identities, care deeply about education equity and invest their time and talent daily to realize our audacious vision, together. I am hopeful because our collective actions are demonstrating our commitment to the hard work of achieving equity in early childhood education. There are many important, even critical, societal issues leaders can rally around, but I can not think of one that is more important than equitable early learning.
Steve Burt, Chief Compliance and Policy Officer, PosiGen
I have two children, boys aged 16 and 13. We were chuckling about a meme going around to the effect of “how can we be a month from 2023 when I’m still processing 2020?” We then realized we hadn’t talked about their time as young people during the pandemic, not in any real way. We’d just done as most people did — fought through, and moved on. After talking about it, I realized that my boys and their generation are more resilient, and more focused on what’s important, than maybe any generation since the Greatest, who fought in World War II. I’m more committed than ever to leaving them a world worth living in, and more hopeful than I was before that when they take over things will get better.
FairWild Licorice Sourcing Community, Kazakhstan, photo courtesy of Traditional Medicinals
Drake Sadler, Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Visionary Officer, Traditional Medicinals
We believe medicinal herbs hold the power to create change. Being visionary pioneers is a blessing and a curse. While we are capable of seeing a brighter future in which we are actively connected to plant wisdom in service of people and planet (and are inspired by that vision), the emergence of darkness is challenging to witness and navigate. In moments of struggle, I am reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
Ann MacDougall, Co-Founder & CEO Dunollie Fund; Builders Investment Committee
As 2022 draws to a close, a number of developments give me hope: the “green shoots” of democracy in the US and abroad, the courage of women and girls in Iran, the protests in China, the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people, and this week’s news that the global transition to renewables is going faster than forecast, overtaking coal by 2025!
Howard Fischer, Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist, Gratitude Railroad; Founder and CEO, Basso Capital Management; Builders Investment Committee
The world seems to have shifted in a positive way these past few months, from midterm elections, the IRA, Warnock’s victory, the unshakable resoluteness of the Ukrainian people, and uprisings in Iran and China. I am hopeful for an increase in peace, cooperation, engagement on the environment and social justice.
Thomas Knowles, Managing Partner, Gratitude Railroad; Partner, The Builders Fund
Our experience in both PosiGen and Acelero of seeing large, established pools of capital invest alongside Builders gives me hope that we will have the capital and resources needed for the mission-driven founders we partner with to build and scale their deeply impactful businesses.
Amelia Ahl, Director of Impact Measurement and Management, The Builders Fund
I’m inspired by the growing social and environmental activism of employees, customers, and businesses. This past year has shown that responsible business practices are becoming increasingly standard. Consumer trust in purpose-driven brands is on the rise, employees are advocating for flexibility and political responsibility, and the B Corp movement surpassed 5,000 certified companies last year, all demonstrating how individuals and communities continue to play a crucial role in supporting an ecosystem of responsible business. Amidst these important and hopeful developments, the Builders Fund continues to work alongside our partners to achieve meaningful impact.
Katharine Hersh, Vice President, The Builders Fund
I draw hope from our portfolio’s commitment to impact amid challenging economic times. Builders’ portfolio companies have responded to rising labor costs by centering living wage discussions, engaged the Treasury Department to ensure the IRA benefits low-income communities, and approached supply chain dislocations as an opportunity to improve sustainability. Their actions demonstrate how disruption can be a catalyst to double-down on impact.
Mike Dutton, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, The Builders Fund
In the last year we have had several interns spend time with our fund. I am inspired by the intelligence, dedication and ingenuity of college and graduate students, and their commitment to use their talents to build a better world. The next generation of investors, founders and CEOs will use capitalism as an incredible force for good.
Tripp Baird, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, The Builders Fund
In a world which seems too often to give us reason for despair, I find Hope with a capital H in the fierce commitment of my colleagues at Builders, our partner company leadership teams and employees, our values-driven investors, and our varied industry collaborators working every day to heal the world around us.
