WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6

MORNING

8:30 AM MST | Mainstage Sessions

Location: Grand Ballroom

8:45 AM - 9:00 AM MST | Land Acknowledgement & Sense of Place

Speaker:

• Montoya Whiteman (Cheyenne and Arapaho), Managing Director of Editorial and Special Projects, AISES

9:00 AM - 9:15 AM MST | Welcome Remarks by Eric Stephenson, Co-Chair, Cordes Foundation and Confluence Board Member

9:15 AM - 9:30 AM MST | Plenary: Introduction to the Racial Equity Compass

Racial equity is a significantly important investment theme for values-aligned investors. However, it can be tricky to identify the right institutional orientation, especially when just starting out. To quote one Confluence member, “You need a compass, a roadmap, and the right navigators to succeed” when it comes to racial equity lens investing. This session will introduce the Racial Equity Compass, which was developed by a working group of 14 Confluence ‘coop-petitors’ — investment managers who collaborated over a year, through a consensus-based approach, to develop thought leadership on how to approach racial equity lens investing. Join us for the formal launch of their powerful project.

Speakers: 

• Ian Fuller, Co-Founder and CEO, Westfuller

• Susie Lee, Program Related Investment Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation (moderator)

• David Sand, Chief Impact Strategist, Community Capital Management 

9:30 AM - 10:15 AM MST | Plenary: Using the Racial Equity Investing Compass – Applications Across Investor Types
Organized with Sonen Capital

Following an introduction to the Racial Equity Compass, this discussion explores how asset owners can access racial equity lens investing, with practical insights and real-world examples that put the Racial Equity Compass into practice. This dynamic conversation will include speakers from a sunsetting family foundation and a philanthropist.

Speakers: 

• Brian Boland, Co-Founder, Delta Fund

• Raúl Pomares, Founding Partner, Sonen Capital (moderator)

• June Wilson, Executive Director, Compton Foundation

10:15 AM - 10:30 AM MST | Coffee Break

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM MST | Plenary: Ethical Tech x Capital Markets
Organized with the Ford Foundation

The explosion in AI has accelerated conversations around the ethical use of technology. Discussions about appropriate guardrails are taking place among both large incumbent technology companies as well as early-stage technology founders and investors. Similarly, public equities investors and venture investors are grappling with their role in responsible technology investment. Those two ends of the spectrum face different opportunities, constraints, and decision points, but they often do not meet in conversation about what is possible. This session will connect the dots between investor conversations on ethical tech across the capital continuum.

Speakers:

• Gaurab Bansal, Executive Director, Responsible Innovation Labs

• Margot Brandenburg, Senior Program Officer, Ford Foundation

• Hilary Irby, Head of Impact Strategy, Soros Fund Management

• Safiya Noble, Founder and Director, Center on Race & Digital Justice (CRDJ)

• Shu Dar Yao, Founder, Managing Partner, Lucid Capitalism

11:30 AM - 12:00 PM MST | Confluence Community Reflections
Facilitated by Dana Lanza, President & CEO of Confluence Philanthropy, and Michael Francisco-McGuire, Chief External Officer of Confluence Philanthropy.

A Confluence tradition! Join us for our Confluence member reflections on the field in an open-forum sharing session.

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM MST | Lunch and Ad Hoc Discussions

Room: Promenade

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM MST | Special Luncheon: Building Partnerships With Indigenous Women: A Direct Path to Securing a Nature-Positive Economy
Organized with UNDP

Room: Onyx

Creating a sustainable and nature-positive economy through values-aligned investing requires meaningful collaboration with Indigenous women, who are traditional knowledge bearers with unique insights and skills in sustainable resource management. Many projects exist that align with both the values of investors hoping to foster corporate accountability and protect biodiversity and the rights of Indigenous communities. Mutually beneficial alliances between both not only promote social equity but also ensure that conservation efforts are rooted in cultural wisdom, paving the way for a more holistic and resilient approach to building a nature-positive economy.

This luncheon session will discuss the challenges and opportunities that such partnerships present, discuss best practice cases, and outline steps to ensure the stewards of nature have adequate resources to continue their work on behalf of all.

Speakers:

• Nina Kantcheva, Senior Policy Adviser, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Engagement, UNDP (moderator)

• Louisa McCovey, Director, Environmental Department, Yurok Tribe

• Laura Yawanawa, President, Yawanawá Sociocultural Association (ASCY)

Move to Interactive Sessions

1:45 PM - 3:00 PM MST | Concurrent Interactive Sessions (choose one)

Interactive Sessions serve to strategically use the expertise and partnership of those in attendance. They are designed as small group discussions, rather than formal presentations. Participants will collaborate with the facilitators and other attendees in a variety of interactive formats.

AI’s Biggest Question
Organized with the Sierra Club Foundation

Room: Highlands

Artificial intelligence is garnering increasing attention, and its implications for work, life, and the planet are numerous. But like other technologies, AI takes after its creators — and operates in the parameters of the world it has. This begs a much larger, deeper question: what is the world we want?

Speaker:

• Pedro Henriques da Silva, Director of Shifting Trillions, Sierra Club Foundation

• Alissa Black, Strategic Advisor, Media Democracy Fund

Investing in Mental Health: Centering Communities for Collective Wellbeing
Organized with the Felix Family Foundation

Room: Stratton

This session introduces the principles of health equity as a transformative pathway to addressing the mental health crisis. We aim to create a space where funders and investors share successes in building and strengthening community-led efforts to support Black, Indigenous, and people of color in healing from trauma. Join us in understanding how you can partner in systems change for advancing community health and contribute to a more inclusive and effective mental health ecosystem.

Speakers:

• Rose Felix Cratsley, Trustee, Felix Family Foundation

• Zeke Smith, Executive Director, Empire Health Foundation

Community-Led Investing: From Local to Global
Organized with Possibility Labs

Room: Larimer

Working in collaboration with the communities most impacted by social and environmental injustices is a growing focus in the investing field. Recognizing that these communities possess firsthand insights into the challenges we confront, their perspective is increasingly shaping how funding happens, and where it is allocated.  Philanthropic organizations often have strong relationships with local communities, making them well-positioned to leverage capital for more impact. Yet, significant doubts remain around the impact of community-driven investing. This interactive session will provide participants with the opportunity to understand the how and why of community-focused fund management and how community control actually makes these funds more successful.

Speakers:

• Renee Morgan, Social Justice Director, Adasina Social Capital

• Raymond Pettit, Director of Partnerships, Possibility Labs

Investing in a Just Transition in Rural America
Organized with Coastal Enterprises, Inc.

Room: Tabor

From electrification to broadband internet, new technologies have been adopted in a trickle-down fashion. Meanwhile, rural communities, communities of color, and areas with low-income residents are left behind. However, impact-driven investments that provide low-cost, flexible capital can bridge the difference that makes a small or rural project more expensive than its large-scale equivalents. They also address the unfair costs borne by individuals who face systemic biases due to their location, race, or gender. This conversation will address the challenge of making this vision of a just transition a reality.

Speakers:

• Keith Bisson, President, Coastal Enterprises, Inc (CEI) (facilitator)

• Donna Holmes, Managing Director, Investor Relations, Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT

Transition Minerals — How Mining for Clean Energy Technologies Perpetuates Injustices and Harms Communities, and What Investors Can Do About It
Organized with the NorthLight Foundation

Room: Lodo

The world undoubtedly needs to move away from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy. The extraction of “critical” or “energy transition” minerals has skyrocketed in response to rising demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies. However, mining for these materials has consequences for Indigenous sovereignty, community health, biodiversity, local environments, and climate. Human rights and environmental abuses in the supply chain for these minerals — such as the violation of Indigenous rights to self-determination, the loss of livelihoods, water contamination, and exposure to toxic chemicals — are all too common. This session will explore how investors can marshal their resources to support a truly just transition in the supply chain.

Speakers:

• Trevor Thompson, Program Officer, NorthLight Foundation (facilitator)

• Chet Tchozewski, Board Member, Clementine Fund

FREE TIME

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM MST | Book Fair and Networking

Room: Mezzanine

3:30 PM - 4:40 PM MST | Net Zero Champions Reception (by invitation only)
Sponsored by Capricorn Investment Group

EVENING

5:15 PM MST | Transportation to Gala Venue

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM MST | Gather for Gala

Location: Denver Botanic Gardens (York St)

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM MST | Plenary & Networking Gala: Ethics, Resilience, and Restoration: An Evening Discussion About the Future and Poetry Performance
Admission is free for all Gathering attendees. Additional tickets are available to Confluence members who would like to bring guests. For more information, contact us here.

Resilience is ultimately grounded in hope. It arises from the interior conditions that make it possible for a life or a community to confront challenges and overcome unforeseen uncertainty, hardship, and even disaster. Engaging in resilience also means practicing ethical restoration, which is the process of righting harm to heal damaged relationships and foster greater resilience via those relationships. Ultimately, everything is connected. This provocative evening discussion is intended to move participants to action. At a time when we confront an uncertain future, in which capital stewards face tough choices between nature, people, profit, and ethics, what does it truly mean to invest with our values?

Location: Denver Botanic Gardens (York St)

Speakers:

• Amy Domini, Founder and Chair, Domini Impact Investments

• Bobby LeFebre, Poet Laureate of Colorado (2019-2023)

• Charles G. Lief, President, Naropa University

• Konda Mason, Co-Founder and President, Jubilee Justice

• Lourdes Rodríguez, CEO, David Rockefeller Fund

7:30 PM - 9:30 PM MST | Networking Gala Reception and Dinner

Location: Denver Botanic Gardens (York St)