BOOKS

The Beardstown Ladies’ Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market – and How You Can Too by Lisa Whitaker. This book, originally published in 1994, chronicles the financial club started by a group of women from Beardstown, Illinois to teach themselves about investing in the stock market. The book became a best seller and resulted in the formation of thousands of similar clubs around the country. Janine’s experience in one such club led her to write Activate Your Money with the goal of helping today’s women become modern Beardstown Ladies: Confidently investing to grow their wealth and help others, with the modern advantages of a broader range of investment opportunities and the choice to align investments with values.

VALUES-ALIGNED EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

Invest For Better Circles. Invest for Better is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women understand the power of their investment assets, learn how to align investments with values, and activate resources to make a more just and sustainable world. As part of their mandate, Invest for Better helps women start and manage their own investment clubs. The organization trains Circle leaders, uses the Activate Your Money curriculum, and provides a mechanism for the ongoing support of the clubs.

Women With Capital. This is a pitch-free, members-only educational series for women. Members need to be accredited investors and are assigned a curated cohort of women with common concerns, interests and goals. The year-long membership starts with an educational series covering topics including the psychology of wealth, working with advisors, and the range of impact investing (including angel investing and strategic philanthropy). Once-a-quarter member discussions include guest appearances by women who are pioneers in their fields.

Activate Your Money: Impact Investing 101. Jill Bamburg, who designed and developed the Activate Your Money curriculum is partnering with Nancy Reid to offer a curated 5-week starter course on impact and values-aligned investing. Drawing heavily from the book, as well as their prior experiences leading values-aligned investment clubs, Jill and Nancy will be helping their participants build community and move into action. You can find out more about their offering through this link.

CHAPTER REFERENCES

Establishing Investment Club Goals and Culture

Determine the club’s goals and core principles up front, in writing. Adjust them as circumstances warrant. The following are examples of core principles that can help guide a successful investment club.

Build a Safe Space: Build a community of trust, developing a culture of confidentiality and safety. Though the curriculum provides ideas for establishing this, it is up to the group to enforce it.

Set Expectations: Ensure all members understand expectations around time commitments, privacy, communications, and other factors.

Reinforce Continuity: Though each member will have her own personal journey, a group journey focused on learning and action is an essential part of the experience. Encourage full participation, not occasional drop-ins.

Personalize, but Structure: Have an overarching structure or curriculum with agreed-upon objectives while still allowing each member to meet her own needs.

Build in Time for Networking: Encourage fun and relationship building by allowing time for informal socializing and networking.

Emphasize Action: Build a culture of mutual accountability. Have members identify actions to take and schedule regular check-ins for members to report on their progress.