(Newswire.net— December 6, 2020) — As a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), Bo Parfet has gained knowledge, made deep personal and professional connections, and helped facilitate connections to develop businesses on a global scale through his own impact investment firm, Denali Venture Philanthropy.
Denali Venture Philanthropy (Denali) was co-founded by Parfet and his wife, Meredith, and fuses their love of business with their desire to foster positive global change. Denali makes debt and equity allocations in for-profit companies, non-profit organizations, and social impact funds using well-established portfolio fundamentals. The organization helps to build small and start-up businesses that focus on improving people’s lives by connecting them with individuals looking for alternative investment opportunities.
In early October, YPO hosted a three-part series for its members discussing the importance of impact investing and the ways in which individuals can engage.
Part one of the series began with defining impact investing and how it has evolved into an important guiding principle in building a portfolio. This event defined general terms important for understanding this type of investing, such as ‘ESG’ and ‘SRI.’
Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) refers to the three central factors in measuring the sustainable and social impact of an investment in a company or business. Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is any investment strategy that considers both financial return and the social or environmental impact to bring positive social change to a community.
The first session of this series also discussed how impact investments improve the diversity of individual portfolios. Often, these investments offer below-market rates, offering different levels of return. Due diligence must be performed within organizations and impact investment firms hoping to gain the attention of investors.
Due diligence assesses the organization’s financial and social goals and its capacity to achieve said goals. Due diligence includes verifying sources of income, accuracy, and status of financials, and other material information.
The second session of the YPO series on impact investing shared how an individual can move beyond the basics of building an impact portfolio and highlighted what they may look for in investment trends both privately and publicly, domestically and internationally.
A large portion of this session focused on understanding what to look for in a “socially responsible” company, including how the company uses its position to improve its community and not just the bottom line.
Parfet’s Denali Venture Philanthropy searches globally for these types of companies to provide opportunities to make their involvement go farther and help make the organizations more successful. Companies such as Tugende and Nisolo are great examples of those making great social and environmental impacts while building a successful business.
The conclusion to this three-part series is yet to come and will focus on the impact of the recent elections on investment trends, outcomes, and sectors. Like most investment opportunities, impact investments are not predictable, yet data plays a huge factor in making educated decisions on what and where to invest next.
The biggest opportunity that impact investing has over traditional investing is that those investors hold the power to make a positive difference in communities around the world. Making investments based on your personal beliefs and ideals can be an extremely motivating factor in advancing human efforts to build a more sustainable and cohesive planet for all of us.
About Bo Parfet
Bo Parfet is a real estate professional, philanthropist, mountaineer, naturalist, and author. He is co-founder and CEO of Denali Venture Philanthropy (Denali), an impact investment organization focused on promoting global social change.
Parfet began his career as a Research Fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and joined J.P. Morgan on Wall Street. He founded Iconic Development in 2012, a successful real estate development firm, and acts as Managing Director for DLP Real Estate Capital.
Parfet’s professional accomplishments have elevated him almost as high as his personal achievements. He is one out of about 85 people in the U.S. to have completed the Seven Summits, reaching the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. He shares his harrowing details in his book, Die Trying: One Man’s Quest to Conquer the Seven Summits. He is also a contributing author to the book, They Lived To Tell The Tale: True Stories of Modern Adventure from the Legendary Explorers Club.
Parfet is a member of the Explorer’s Club and Young Professionals Organization. He is an advisory board member for the non-profit, Adventure Scientists and sits on the board for the Gilmore Car Museum, a foundation started by his family.
Parfet has been recognized for his global-civic volunteerism and he has received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for completing more than 4,000 hours of volunteer service worldwide.
Parfet resides in Boulder, Colorado with his family. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Colorado State University, a Masters in Applied Economics from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.