⚡Illuminati for Climate Change
Happy Wednesday! For anyone who missed out on yesterday’s newsletter, here it is. Let’s get into it.
The NBA Lost Its Spine
On Sunday, the Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted in support of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Awesome, right? Over the past decade, the NBA has been the most progressive of the major sports leagues, with leading players and coaches speaking out against issues like police brutality, gay rights, guns, and more. It seems like this tweet was very on-brand.
Unfortunately, this time around, the NBA wasn’t so brave. The tweet was quickly deleted, and Adam Silver released a statement that evening calling the tweet regrettable.
Why? Backlash from China. Several Chinese businesses and the Chinese Basketball Association announced they were suspending cooperation with the Rockets. NBA preseason games won’t be broadcast or streamed in China, both on local TV and Tencent, the NBA’s exclusive digital partner in China. The NBA has invested significantly in China, and this is a significant threat to their bottom line.
Our Take: We saw the following comment on FB in reaction to the NBA’s position and wanted to address it -
At Tomorrow, we do believe in the power of mission-driven brands and the positive impact that they can have on society. However, it is critical that these missions are authentic to a brand and never compromised. Consumers can smell inauthenticity a mile away, and it is extremely damaging for a brand to shed its values due to a profit-driven inconvenience. While this may seem better for the bottom line in the short-term, it can be very damaging over the long-term. In the case of the NBA, Adam Silver’s reaction seemed to make sense for China, but it will have a long-term impact on its branding as progressive.
Also - last week we talked about how the old guard of democracy is failing as nations like the US are stepping away. The NBA’s lack of support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong is an example of how brands may be too.
Funding Change
Facebook produces some good
Social media addiction can produce some good in the world. A recent study found that a 10% increase in the number of likes on organizations’ Facebook pages is associated with a 1% increase in the number of donations they get. Specifically, a 10% increase in the number of Facebook posts a nonprofit made in the year before the Omaha Gives Day in 2015 was associated with it raising 2.6% more money during that campaign. More engagement = more money.
Nonprofits focused on women receive only 1.6% of all charitable giving
Last week, we wrote about Melinda Gates’ $1 billion pledge over the next decade to help close the gender equality gap. She’s doing this because of how ridiculously underfunded women and girl-based initiatives are. They only receive $1 for every $5 spent on art programs and $1 for every $10 spent on higher education. In fact, 90% of their total funding goes to only one area: reproductive health. We’re excited to see what the Gates pledge will do, but when total nonprofit funding in 2018 was over $410 billion in the US (yes, you read that correctly), this feels like a drop in the bucket.
Climate Change Illuminati
International protesting, a form of activism, has spiked in the last few months. These protesters require money to drive these protests (and to eat!). In July, a small group of environmental philanthropists created the Climate Emergency Fund. Unlike usual philanthropic projects that position themselves to work with the slow and bureaucratic, their goal was to source groups engaging in loud, disruptive, and nonviolent protest. Philanthropists involved include Trevor Nielsen (a clean-tech investor and co-founder of Global Philanthropy Group), Rory Kennedy (the youngest daughter of Robert Kennedy and filmmaker), Aileen Getty (Getty Family), and Sarah Ezzy (Manager of the Aileen Getty Foundation). They share the conviction that street protests are important to climate politics and want to capitalize on the populist energy.
Building a better global community to stop the Amazon fires
Continuation from yesterday’s conversation about Gran Chaco.
Most of us probably saw social media erupt when the Amazon caught on fire. A lot of fingers were pointed and photos were shared, but how do we prevent something like that again? Where do we need to apply pressure and move things around to drive long-term systematic change?
Government: Accountability. That’s really it here. Currently, farmers in the Amazon will use fire as the most efficient method to illegally clear a forest. They then sell the deforested land for up to six times the price of the fines. While this is a problem, it’s also practically impossible to patrol the forests and then enforce fines because it’s extremely difficult to understand who owns different pieces of land. This makes it hard to hold individuals responsible for deforestation.
Trade Agreements: The Amazon is cleared to raise cattle and the beef is largely purchased by European countries. While these governments have condemned Bolsonaro’s actions, the consumers in Britain, France, Germany, and other countries continue to consume more beef. In fact, the new free trade deal between the EU and Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, will increase the demand for beef. Fortunately, France and Ireland are now refusing to sign until action is taken to curb fires and deforestation.
Business: The traders and financiers: BlackRock, Santander, and JP Morgan Chase. The supermarkets: Costco, Walmart, and Ahold Delhaize, which owns Stop & Shop, Giant, and Food Lion. All these companies are complicit through their contracts with JBS, the world’s leading producer of beef and the largest herder of cattle in Brazil. While many businesses work to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains, it’s still very difficult to follow.
Investment: Through significant investments in agriculture businesses, pension funds have enormous influence. KLP, an $80 billion Norwegian pension fund has been pressuring agriculture businesses and their largest investors and banks to proactively pressure companies to end the destruction of the Amazon. A few weeks ago we wrote about how many big-time investors are calling for change. Another Boston-based nonprofit group, Ceres, recently released a statement signed by more than 200 large investors ($16.2 trillion), which asked for change and urgent action because they see the business risk. Interestingly, BlackRock was not in this group, though Larry Fink (CEO) has been widely credited from calling on businesses to resist short-termism. BlackRock is among the top three shareholders in 25 of the largest publicly traded deforestation-risk companies.
Our Take: A lot of work to do, but more and more people are seeing the necessary collaboration that’s necessary for change. You can see from the different parties, incentives are skewed towards actions that harm the world. We want to work on a few initiatives to challenge these. Reach out if you’re interested in being a part of it.
Short Takes
Plant-based meats are facing an angry backlash from CEOs of major corporations like Whole Foods and Chipotle, who claim the products from Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are too processed to be healthy. While they are still healthier and more sustainable than traditional meat, they aren’t considered “whole foods” (get it?)
The World Bank: Rising trade tensions are making it difficult for the world’s poorest countries to manufacture low-cost parts for multinational corporations, threatening to block a path out of poverty and push more people into it.
Germany is installing “mossy walls” called CityTree. These contain 2,000 pots of moss that can purify as much air as 250 trees, and each wall supposed to eliminate emissions from 42 diesel cars every month!
The Guess Corporation set a goal to employ 10,000 individuals released from prison over the next 10 years.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10
Renovating Democracy: Nicolas Berggruen, author of Renovating Democracy, on how technology and social media are impacting democracy. He’ll be joined by The World Post’s editor-in-chief and book co-author Nathan Gardels and Asia Society President and CEO Josette Sheeran.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16
Feeding Our Future: Perspectives Across the Value Chain in Food Sustainability
Join the NY + Acumen Impact Circle on World Food Day for a discussion on the future of food sustainability. They will explore different perspectives across the various parts of the value chain, including investment, production, distribution, and waste/renewability.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17
War Stories from the Trenches - Fundraising for Startups Solving the World’s Greatest Challenges: Early-stage fundraising can be very challenging, and this is even further the case for social enterprises. Check out this event for a discussion on best practices for opening and closing a round to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
MONDAY OCTOBER 28
Conversations on Plant-based Entrepreneurship: Vegpreneur is a global entrepreneurs community that is made up of innovators who are building a plant-based future and they’re hosting an evening panel on the state of plant-based entrepreneurship at General Assembly. Light snacks and refreshments will be served.
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