FFx3

Today I went to three lectures: Positive Investment (how do we steer our investments toward positive ends), QUB FF (Queen’s University Belfast Fossil Free campaign), and Fossil Free Faith, a discussion among liberal Christians of the proper response to climate change.

One of the speakers was from Oikocredit a Dutch cooperative and one of the world's oldest, leading social impact investors: "Using our investors' capital, we offer loans, equity and other investments to revenue-generating, early-mid growth stage microfinance institutions, cooperatives, fair-trade and small-to-medium-sized enterprises. These social enterprises use our investment to provide finance and technical support to financially-excluded communities in low-income countries so that they can create their own path out of poverty.”

I ended up having dinner with Mr. Oikocredit (a former Dubliner who lives in Amsterdam) and mentioned the difficulty I’m having with my job search. He offered to share my resume with a friend in London who recruits within the SRI/CSR/ESG areas. (Socially responsible investing; corporate social responsibility; and environmental-social-governance. I haven’t been getting anywhere with organisations in these spheres because my background is not in the non-profit or ESG arena. Here’s hoping he follows through and his contact follows through. At the London and Maynooth conferences, I’ve met people who later didn't respond to e-mails I've sent. So disappointing.

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