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Invest for Better’s Core Curriculum is our foundational course and tends to be the series most women chose to begin their values-aligned learning journey. Based on Janine Firpo’s book, Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World, the course starts with conversations that break the taboos around money, helps participants understand their current portfolio, and introduces them to values-aligned investment options. At the end of the course, they will be ready to move from knowledge to action.
Course Structure
The content of the Core Curriculum is delivered over a 6-month period, during which participants meet in a group of 8 to 20 women on a monthly basis. Discussions and exercises during the meetings take place in a combination of small and large groups to provide participants with both intimate settings and broader learning opportunities.
Each month, participants perform 1-2 hours of self-study to prepare for the conversations and discovery that take place in the meetings. During their first meeting, each participant is placed in a triad with two other women, who serve as accountability buddies for the remainder of the course. The triads also build continuity between meetings and provide an opportunity to collaborate on pre-work. Participants are able to ask questions during live sessions with financial advisors and other experts, which are conducted monthly.
Outcomes
By the end of the Core Curriculum, participants will have:
Prerequisites & Level of Effort
Although there isn’t a prerequisite for this course, it is recommended that women who are just getting started take our Starter Course, which is titled Back to the Basics: Financial Planning, at some point. The Starter Course can be taken prior to, concurrent with, or after the completion of the Core Curriculum.
Monthly Commitment: 3-4 hours
As mentioned earlier, there are 1-2 hours of self-study each month. The meetings themselves last about 1.5 hours, and there is another hour between Circle meetings when participants will connect with their triads. Together, this adds to about a 3-4 hour/month time commitment.
Course Content
The Core Curriculum was designed to build women’s confidence as investors, demonstrate the power of their investment assets, and show them how to activate those resources to enable a more just and sustainable world for all. Structured to guide participants through a series of steps, the self-study and meetings build on each other. Recognizing the busy lives we all lead, the course creators strove to minimize the pre-work and to make each meeting interactive, engaging, and informative. Prior participants have commented on the critical difference this course has had on their attitude about, and relationship with, their money.
Course Creators
Jill Bamburg
Co-Founder, Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Jill Bamburg was one of the co-founders of Bainbridge Graduate Institute/Pinchot University (now Presidio Graduate School), the first school to offer an MBA in Sustainable Business. Prior to that, she worked in adult education (Antioch University/Seattle), high-tech marketing (Aldus Corporation), and community and environmental journalism (High Country News, Jackson Hole News and Guide). She is the author of Getting to Scale: Growing Your Business without Selling Out. In addition to advising IFB on curriculum, she is the moderator for the Seattle Impact Investing Group.
Janine Firpo
Co-Founder, Invest for Better
Janine Firpo is a seasoned values-aligned investor and social innovator, with a long history of working at the intersection of women and their money. From the early years of Apple Computer to senior positions with Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Janine has always found herself making an impact. In 2017 she left a successful 35-year career in technology and international development to focus on how women can create a more just and equitable society through their financial investments. Janine walks her talk. She is taking action to move all her own assets into investments she feels good about and is watching them grow with market-rate returns. In 2021, she joined forces with Ellen Remmer to co-found Invest for Better.
