www.slowmoney.org

2013 PROGRESS REPORT

“What a pleasure to be part of a gathering that wasn’t just talking about the future but bending it! Slow Money is one of the keys to a healthy future.”

—BILL MCKIBBEN, FOUNDER, 350.ORG

“As venture capitalists increasingly bet on food start-ups, Slow Money, a nonprofit that catalyzes the flow of capital to small and local food enterprises, is committed to healing and investing in a broken system.”

—THE NEW YORK TIMES, MAY 2013

INTRODUCING SLOW MONEY INSTITUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PROGRAMS UPDATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Investment Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Chapters and Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

National and Regional Gatherings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Slow Money Gatheround . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Master Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Earthworm Angels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Credibles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

OPERATIONS UPDATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Staff Developmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Board Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2013 PROGRESS REPORT

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There is ample evidence from the last four years of public exploration and co-creation that Slow Money’s approach to food, money and the soil inspires and connects individuals in catalytic ways, resulting in emergent investment activity and spawning a portfo-lio of programs:

pp Investment Activity. A wide range of funding types, including angel investments, peer-to-peer loans and grants.

ppChapters and Clubs. A volunteer-led network of local chapters, working groups and investment clubs in the U.S., Canada, France, Switzerland and Australia.

ppNational and Regional Gatherings. Convening funders, entrepreneurs, farmers, luminaries and just plain regular folks who want to know where their food comes from and where their money goes.

ppSlow Money Gatheround. A Web portal hosting virtual gatherings of small food entrepreneurs and funders.

ppSlow Money Master Class. Training and education on everything from economic history to soil biol-ogy to how to organize a public meeting and make a small loan.

ppEarthworm Angels. A network of angel investors and foundations collaborating to place investment capital in small food enterprises.

ppCredibles. A Web-based service developed by a Slow Money local leader, enabling pre-purchases from local small food enterprises.

Our progress on these initiatives, described in more detail below, depends upon our capacity to explore

S

“Slow Money has the potential to impact food policy and climate policy in profound

ways. Connecting soil, food and money, really connecting them—this may just be a

threshold moment in the history of sustainable agriculture.”

—MARGARET MELLON, DIRECTOR, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS

INTRODUCING SLOW MONEY INSTITUTE

low Money facilitated more than $11 million of funding for 82 small food enterprises in the 12 months between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, bring-ing total funding since inception to over $30 million invested in 221 small food enterprises.

This investment activity is the result of strong progress on a range of programs and organiza-tional activities, as well as the continuing strength of public response to Slow Money’s vision and brand. We are now poised to take important strategic steps, building on our early success, positioning Slow Money for lasting impact by introducing Slow Money Institute.

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strategies for scaling and monetizing, broaden our communication and education programs, develop new Slow Money applications and support our con-tinuing thought leadership. For these reasons, Boul-der headquarters will begin doing business as the Slow Money Institute in 2014. The foundation for this shift has been solidly built this past year with strategic staffing and board development.

The mission of the Slow Money Institute is twofold:

To catalyze the flow of capital from individual investors to small food enterprises, promoting healthy local food systems, soil fertility and the transition to a restorative economy.

To “bring money back down to earth,” promot-ing new concepts of fiduciary responsibility that incorporate principles of carrying capacity, sense of place, care of the commons, diversity and nonviolence.

Current Slow Money programs, seen in the context of this mission, may be thought of as the minimum viable products of a lean startup. It is entirely possi-ble that Slow Money has not yet found its “killer app.” Design solutions to the structural problems of food and finance require financial expertise, entrepreneurial cre-ativity, ecological grounding and system thinking.

Slow Money Institute will bring together and develop these requisite skills and resources, following the lead of sister organizations that we greatly admire. Rocky Mountain Institute brings Amory Lovins’ vision of radical energy efficiency to market. Biomimicry 3.8 brings Janine Benyus’ vision of nature-inspired design to market. The Land Institute serves as a labo-ratory for Wes Jackson’s paradigm-busting research and advocacy. Savory Institute builds the legacy for Allan Savory’s school of holistic livestock and land management. The Berry Center carries forward Wen-dell Berry’s lifetime of leadership with respect to agrarian values and small farming. Over time, Slow Money Institute will seek to complement the work of these pioneering initiatives.

Responses to the major social and environmental problems of our time will come not only from work

at the level of multinational corporations, nations, industrial policies and technological paradigms, but also from local entrepreneurship and processes of disintermediation, decentralization and reconnection that small food enterprises, and their investors, are uniquely positioned to nurture.

PROGRAMS UPDATE

Progress from July 2012 through June 2013 has been substantial. Below are summaries of each of our pro-gram areas.

INVESTMENT ACTIVITY During this period, $11 million of funding flowed to 82 small food enterprises across the country. Invest-ments ranged from $3 million from a single inves-tor to a few thousand dollars from several individuals. Here are some recent examples:

pp In April 2013, four Slow Money Northern Califor-nia members loaned a total of $15,000 to Sarah Greene Lopez and Aurelio Lopez, owners of Fiesta Farm, as part of an $85,000 financing of equip-ment and operations.

pp In May 2013, $3 million was invested in MOOMilk, a Maine-based dairy cooperative, via Slow Money Maine. The CEO of MOOMilk, Bill Eldridge, told the Bangor Daily News, “It puts us on firm finan-cial footing for the first time in our existence and

MOOMILK FARMER.

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INTERNATIONAL

FRANCESWITZERLANDVANCOUVER, B.C.AUSTRALIA

PACIFIC NORTHWEST

SOUTHERN OREGON

SAN LUIS OBISPO

SANTA BARBARASOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

ARIZONA

COLORADO

WISCONSIN

ST. LOUIS

NASHVILLE

AUSTIN HOUSTON

VERMONT

OHIOIOWA CITY

LOUISVILLE

GEORGIA

SARASOTA

MAINE

GREATER BOSTONPIONEER VALLEY

NYC

NORTH CAROLINA

EUGENE

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

CHAPTERS

EMERGING

NEW

EXISTING

completely changes how we look at the company going forward. This will provide us the opportunity to support our brand and the company as we go for-ward with marketplace initiatives.”

pp In May 2013, the North Carolina Slow Money chap-ter facilitated a $3,000 loan to Keith Hill, farmer and owner of Robinson-Hill Organic in Efland, to cover the cost of a small tiller and other farm equip-ment and supplies, enabling him to expand his operations and sell at four local farmers markets this season.

pppIn 2013, the 20 members of Colorado Food Invest-ments, our Boulder, Colo. investment club, made three investments totaling $36,000 in LoCo Foods, Aero Farm and Ozuké Pickled Things.

CHAPTERS AND CLUBS Five new chapters (San Luis Obispo County, South-ern California, Southern Oregon, Georgia and France) and two new investment clubs (Stevens Point, Wis. and Telluride, Colo.) were formed over the past 12 months, bringing the total to 18 chapters and seven investment clubs, with a robust pipeline of new chap-ters and clubs in formation. Chapters in formation include Louisville, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; Sarasota, Fla.; Vermont; Arizona; Houston, Texas; Eugene, Ore.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Iowa City, Iowa; Vancou-ver, B.C.; and Australia. To date, more than 1,000 people are involved in Slow Money chapters and investment clubs.

We are currently exploring the formation of our first nonprofit investment club in Aspen, Colo., in col-laboration with Social Venture Partners, the Seattle-based venture philanthropy network with 27 affiliates and more than 2,500 members. This model enables capital to be contributed as a donation, with returns reinvested.

MARA KING AND WILLOW KING OF OZUKÉ PICKLED THINGS.

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NATIONAL AND REGIONAL GATHERINGS Our fourth Slow Money National Gathering was sold out, attracting 650 attendees from 37 states and five countries to Boulder. Twenty-five food entrepreneurs presented during the entrepreneur showcase, with Revision International winning the first-ever $50,000 Mamma Chia Entrepreneur of the Year award. The gathering grossed $375,000, including over $150,000 in sponsorships, our highest amounts yet, and gar-nered significant media coverage from Barron’s, the Denver Post and the New York Times, which reported on “planting the seeds of nurture capital” and the work of

“food-ish-iaries,” who are “committed to healing and investing in a broken system.”

This year’s national gathering included three new ele-ments: a local leader retreat; a fundraising reception with Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, and Mary Berry, the daughter of Wendell Berry and executive director of the Berry Center; and a daylong Earthworm Angels session for angel investors and foundations.

Regional events were held by Slow Money leaders in Texas, Wisconsin, Maine, Washington and New

“What makes Gandhi, Schumacher and Petrini special is remarkable storytelling. This

is also what Slow Money has—a powerful new narrative and a voice that is capable of

mobilizing a great many people.”

—ARVIND ASHTA, PROFESSOR OF MICROFINANCE, BURGUNDY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

n CAROL PEPPE HEWITT SPOKE ABOUT HER NEW BOOK, “FINANCING OUR FOODSHED: GROWING LOCAL FOOD WITH SLOW MONEY,” WHICH TELLS THE STORIES OF 22 SLOW MONEY ENTREPRENEURS AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR COMMUNITIES WHO BECAME THEIR LENDERS.

“The national gathering just keeps getting better and better.”

— JONI PRADED, SENIOR EDITOR, CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING

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by food sector, such as grain mills, fermented foods and grass-fed beef, to facilitate investment into the presenting small food enterprises.

With the consulting help of Northern California chap-ter co-leader Marco Vangelisti and a volunteer com-mittee of Slow Money members, last fall we conducted test marketing for an Internet funding platform that we had been calling the Soil Trust. This work was funded with seed capital from several Slow Money founding members, along with end-of-year contri-butions from 235 individuals and a donation from organic food and beverage company Mamma Chia. The results of this test marketing indicated that revi-sions to our strategy and messaging were necessary. We retained Boulder-based Environmental Com-munication Associates to assist us. At our national gathering, we presented the repositioned portal to an enthusiastic reception. The first online event is sched-uled for October 2013.

MASTER CLASSIn 2014, we will host the first Slow Money Master Class, a several-day intensive training and education program for Slow Money leaders. The program will cover everything from the positioning of Slow Money vis-à-vis capital markets, philanthropy and food sys-tems, to the nitty-gritty of on-the-ground activities, including deal flow, due diligence, local organizing and securities law. The faculty will include recognized leaders in mission-related investing and local food systems, as well as food entrepreneurs, farmers, law-yers and experienced community organizers. We are just beginning to develop the curriculum but believe it will play a critical role in supporting the develop-ment of our network and movement over time.

York. Slow Money Northern California organized its third Farm Fest. Two entrepreneur showcases were held in Boston.

Our gatherings have nurtured a number of significant collaborative relationships. To date, we’ve partnered with the Berry Center, Mother Earth News, New Hope Natural Media, 1% for the Planet and Whole Foods’ Local Producer Loan Fund. We anticipate that these partnerships will deepen in the months ahead, creating significant opportunities to broaden out-reach, build deal flow and enhance our ability to pur-sue our mission.

SLOW MONEY GATHEROUNDSlow Money Gatheround is a new crowdfunding plat-form that uses bimonthly virtual gatherings to bring together investors, entrepreneurs and thought leaders

“As a first-timer to the Slow Money gathering, I was blown away. I found the event

moving, provocative, inspirational, daunting, overwhelming and heartwarming.

I left the meeting wondering what I could do personally as well as professionally to

galvanize, encourage or participate in the happy, healthy, positive change that you,

your colleagues and all the participants believe in and are making happen.”

—MARY MCBRYDE OF LYME TIMBER, A LEADING MISSION-RELATED INVESTING FIRM

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CREDIBLESThis innovative company was founded by Arno Hesse, Slow Money Northern California’s co-leader. Credibles makes it easy to fund local food businesses by allowing customers to pay for their food ahead of time, in exchange for edible credits. Credibles are store credits issued by food enterprises for money paid in advance. Customers and fans prepay the busi-ness on Credibles.org and subsequently “eat up” their balance over time, transacting and tracking it with iPhone and Android mobile apps. Credibles was piloted last year and launched nationwide at the Slow Money National Gathering in April with seed money from a number of Slow Money funders. It now ser-vices more than 40 businesses in five states.

OPERATIONS UPDATE

COMMUNICATIONSWe made substantial investments in communica-tions and social media this year. We redesigned our newsletter and launched a webinar series. Demand for founder Woody Tasch as a speaker continues to be strong, and we continue to attract major national

EARTHWORM ANGELS As presented in our 2012 report, over the past year we began to develop programs targeted at three key groups of constituents: the Slow Money Gatheround targets a large number of small donors; investment clubs target individual investors at the local level; and Earthworm Angels focuses on angel investors and foundations.

The first Earthworm Angels meeting was held in the Bay Area last fall, and a second meeting was held in Boulder immediately following this year’s national gathering. A total of 95 angels and foundations attended these sessions. Small amounts of seed fund-ing have been committed to support this emergent network. At the Boulder meeting, $60,000 was com-mitted by nine attendees to Revision International, topping off the $110,000 funding request for this Denver-based inner city co-op that had received the Mamma Chia Entrepreneur of the Year award the day before at the national gathering.

We are currently in discussion with Earthworm Angels participants regarding the design of services and activities going forward.

“Earthworm Angels is the beginning of the next stage of movement building.”

—KATHERINE PEASE, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GILL FOUNDATION

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coverage, including features in the New York Times, and stories by Barron’s, Forbes, NPR and USA Today. Our connectivity with constituents increased through social media, and 30,000 people have signed the Slow Money Principles to date.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT Slow Money has made major strides in the develop-ment of our core team. Jake Bornstein, Senior Asso-ciate, joined us after three years at the nation’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates; Meghan French, Development Director, comes to Slow Money after five years at the Environmental Defense Fund; Jean Weiss, Director of Content and Media Relations, is a seasoned journalist and editor and was with New Hope Natural Media for six years; Maren Keeley, our Events Manager, is a natural foods chef with event and kitchen management experience from Whole Foods; and Kyle Bahr, our Social Media and IT Man-ager, helped launch an online hub called Sprout that connects locals to green merchants. They join Woody Tasch in the Boulder office. Michael Bartner, our Vice President, continues from his location in York, Maine.

BOARD DEVELOPMENT We are also making important additions to the Board of Directors. As the board terms of Cathy Berry and Chris Lindstrom came to an end, we were joined by Gary Nabhan and Janie Hoffman.

Gary Nabhan has been called the father of the local food move-ment. A MacArthur Fellow, Gary co-manages Sabores Sin Fronteras Foodways Alliances and the borderland food system program at the University of Ari-

zona. He raises heritage grains and heirloom fruits on two farms in rural Arizona and has been involved in a three-year effort with Western Ranchers to value the ecosystem services of working landscapes. His 26 books have won numerous awards.

Janie Hoffman is the Founder and CEO of Mamma Chia, an early-stage organic beverage company that is growing rapidly and is widely recognized as a category leader. The company is a Certified B Corporation and a

member of 1% for the Planet, through which the com-pany supports farmers, community groups and orga-nizations that are building healthy local food systems. Janie is a founding member of Slow Money. She and her husband, Lance, enjoy growing Hass avocados and pineapple guavas on their small farm in rural San Diego. Janie was honored with BevNET’s 2012 “Per-son of the Year” award.

Gary and Janie join Leslie Barclay, Eliot Coleman and Woody Tasch on the board. We anticipate making fur-ther additions to the board in the near future.

Leslie Barclay spent a good deal of her childhood on a fam-ily farm in Millbrook, N.Y. Her love of land began there and continues to be the main focus of her life. As the founding chair of the Dutchess Land Con-

servancy in 1985, she became increasingly involved in the national land trust movement and served on the board of the Land Trust Alliance for nearly a decade.

Eliot Coleman has over 40 years of experience as an organic farmer, including with field vegetables, greenhouse vegetables, rotational grazing of

JAKE BORNSTEINJEAN WEISS

MEGHAN FRENCHMICHAEL BARTNER

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lenges of entrepreneurship and stewardship that are commensurate with this opportunity.

Building a decentralized and dynamic network, supporting extensive amounts of volunteerism, innovating along the boundaries of investing and philanthropy, and nurturing thought leadership that is sparking across multiple constituencies nation-wide—all of this requires team building, shared learn-ing, technical support and a multiyear perspective.

From July 2012 to June 2013, approximately $800,000 was donated to Slow Money. In turn, we catalyzed $11 million of funding into 82 small food enterprises. That is, for every dollar donated to Slow Money, approximately $14 of funding was catalyzed and significant social capital built.

That said, a movement is not an investment fund, or, even, an investment strategy.

This creative tension is at the heart of Slow Money. After all, what two aspects of human affairs are more apparently divergent than investing and activism? The two have been conjoined effectively at a few junctures—think: the Sullivan Principles and vari-ous divestiture or shareholder activism campaigns, including today’s 350.org campaign urging college endowments to divest from oil stocks.

The largest frame through which to understand pub-lic resonance with the vision of Slow Money is this: We are giving our money to people we don’t know very well, to invest in things they don’t understand very well, halfway around the world in places most of us will never visit. Does this seem like a recipe for a healthy future? A small, partial but heartening response: Invest in

livestock and range poultry. He is a lauded author and expert in organic agriculture. He served as Executive Director of IFOAM, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Move-ments, and was an adviser to the

Department of Agriculture during its landmark study “Report and Recommendations on Organic Farm-ing.” Eliot owns and operates Four Season Farm, a year-round market garden that grows winter green-house crops and summer field crops in Harborside, Maine.

Woody Tasch, the Founder and Chairman of Slow Money, pio-neered the integration of asset management and philanthropic purpose in the 1990s as trea-surer of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and founding chair-

man of the Community Development Venture Capi-tal Alliance. For 10 years, through 2008, Tasch was chairman of Investors’ Circle, a network of angel investors, family offices, and social purpose funds and foundations; it has invested $150 million in 230 early stage sustainability-promoting ventures and venture funds since 1992. Woody is the author of “Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered” (Chelsea Green).

CONCLUSION

The staff and board are heartened and humbled by Slow Money’s progress. We see both the opportunity that lies ahead and the considerable continuing chal-

“Slow Money is the vortex around which the relocalization movement is happening.

Investment is the next step that will enable the revitalization of food enterprises,

supporting infrastructure and soil fertility.”

—GARY NABHAN

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munity resilience, Slow Money has a particular con-tribution to make to the broader process of cultural, economic and ecological transformation.

In historical terms, we can see that a several-hundred-year swing of the economic pendulum, starting with East India Company and accelerating through the era of millisecond computer trading, may be getting ready to swing back in the direction of High Mowing Organic Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange. If eating, in Wendell Berry’s words, is an agricultural act, then investing must become a cultural act.

We look forward to continuing to develop the resources, working relationships and thought leadership to sup-port this vital process in the decades ahead, steering hundreds of millions of dollars or more “back into the soil,” helping thousands of small food enterprises and sharing the seeds of a restorative economy.

things that we understand, near where we live, starting with food.

Joseph Stiglitz says: “We are not fixing the structural problems of the economy because we don’t know what the structural problems are.”

Tom Steyer says: “We need to help people see that we can move in a direction other than the lowest common denominator, other than seeing all things through the perspective of Internal Rate of Return.”

We agree and would add: Reconnecting investors to the places where they live and rebuilding local food systems are part of the solution. Because the growing of food connects us to the land, the sharing of food connects us to one another in profound ways, and the building of small food enterprises offers such tangible opportunities for personal empowerment and com-

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“Slow Money is medicine for our diseased relationship with money and the tangible resources that it was originally intended to represent. It is a poetic, profound de-conditioning of our standard, abstracted views of economics. Slow Money speaks the lingo of investing with aplomb, while also breaking ground for the new language that is needed to start this critical conversation. Slow Money is exactly what our soils and the people that depend on them (read: all of us) need, and it brings poetry to economics in a way that is deeply and unexpectedly healing to our collective psyche.”

—LOPA BRUNJES, CO-FOUNDER, THE BIOCHAR CO. AND SOIL REEF

“I am not sure if you have ever had the experience of listening to a few words spoken in a certain order at a certain time and having them act like a key, unlocking deeper understanding. Slow Money is like that for me.”

—DOMINICK SEKICH, MOYE WHITE LLP, ATTORNEYS AT LAW

P.O. Box 2231, Boulder, CO 80306www.slowmoney.org

Woody Tasch, Chairman303.443.1154

woody@slowmoney.org

Michael Bartner, Vice President207.361.3427

michael@slowmoney.org

Meghan French, Director of Development303.909.7026

meghan@slowmoney.org