What is the Solidarity Economy?
“Solidarity Economy refers to a wide range of economic activities that aim to prioritize social profitability instead of purely financial profits.”
United Nations Economist Network
Community Organizations
“Happiness is very much a product of relationships. Relationships are a product of long term connections with the institutions that are embedded and embodied in our neighborhoods”
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You work hard to build a better future for your family. You shouldn’t have to worry that it could be lost due to events outside of your control.
Working people have long lacked education and access to financial tools that the Wealthy utilize every day.
We empower our working clients by lowering the barrier to entry on those tools and make it simple so help families can protect their most important resources, eliminate their debt quickly, and grow assets for the future that are contractually guaranteed to never lose a dime.
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Small Businesses are the backbone of America.
Two of every three new jobs in the country are created by small independent business. When you shop local, your money re-circulates locally.
We support the independent business community by making things like employee/member benefits, key person insurance, buy-sell agreements, and executive bonus plans easy and affordable.
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Faith-based organizations have a unique role in leveraging their social capital to address key neighborhood priorities and support marginalized communities.
They are embedded in communities and therefore have the power and agency to guide masses while ensuring inclusion of vulnerable groups.
With over a decade experience in Faith and Non-Profit Leadership, the Skene Agency helps the helpers by offering debt and local investment education, as well as employee benefits.
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A social enterprise or social business is defined as a business with specific social objectives that serve its primary purpose. Social enterprises seek to maximize profits while maximizing benefits to society and the environment, and the profits are principally used to fund social programs.
Many Social Enterprises us a Triple Bottom Line framework of Profit, People, and the Planet. Firms can use these categories to conceptualize their environmental responsibility and determine any negative social impacts to which they might be contributing.
Se love our Social Enterprises by making things like employee/member benefits, key person insurance, buy-sell agreements, and executive bonus plans easy and affordable.
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“Congress shall make no law prohibiting he right of the people peaceably to assemble” - Bill Of Rights. 1st Amendment
A union is an organization formed by workers who join together and use their strength to have a voice in their workplace. Through their union, workers have the ability to negotiate from a position of strength with employers over wages, benefits, workplace health and safety, job training and other work-related issues. Unions also serve an important role making sure that management acts fairly and treats its workers with respect.
Together we bargain, alone we beg.
We support Organized Labor by making member benefits easy and affordable.
Regenerative & Equitable Investors
“We are all systematically over-investing in Fortune 500 companies, and underinvesting in Local Business.” - Michael Shuman
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These retail-facing financial advisors job is to manage the asset allocation of their client’s financial plan and to help them align that plan with their values.
Values-based financial planning incorporates the client's personal values, core beliefs, and goals into the financial plan. These factors influence the decision-making process.
Skene Financial has deeply rooted connections to the best Values Based Advisors Network in the country who can guide your journey of growing your wealth and impact.
We also support Values Advisors by meeting their clients’ protection needs with the highest level of care and in alignment with their values. -
The emerging markets of Local and Impact Investing Funds are a passion of ours.
We sponsor a series of educational deep dives and a database of these funds hosted by The Main Street Journal, Impact Alpha, Neighborhood Economics, and The Mindful Marketplace Show to help educate the public on these opportunities.
We work with Values-Based Advisors and directly with all kinds of investors to create Enduring Acceleration and Downside Capture Strategies that are in alignment with clients values.
Learn More
Community Finance
“The models that we need are here: They work. Proof of concept has been demonstrated… They are superior if the measure of success is something other than share price.” - Marjorie Kelly
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The 20 largest banks control 60% of the nation’s money. Yet those same 20 banks only lend 18% of their money to small businesses.
On the other hand, small businesses are the heart of local banks. When you keep your money with a community bank or credit union, it’s directly invested back into local businesses. Community banks lend money to small businesses in the area, building a robust, stable economy for our towns, creating more jobs for you and your neighbors, and spurring growth for other locally owned companies.
Local banks don’t gamble with your money or focus on looking for high-stakes rewards. Instead, they invest in something safe and close to home: local businesses and entrepreneurs they know by name. This difference of priorities means a different way of doing business altogether.
We support Local Banks by meeting the protection needs of borrowers with the highest level of care, and in alignment with their values.
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A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit cooperative financial institution.
Unlike banks that are typically for-profit entities owned by shareholders, Credit unions are not-for-profit, member-owned cooperatives that are committed to the financial success of the individuals, families, and communities they serve.
This cooperative structure means that credit union members are also owners who have a say in how the credit union operates, and any profits generated are reinvested into the credit union or returned to the members in the form of lower fees or better interest rates.
We support Credit Unions by meeting the protection needs of borrowers with the highest level of care, and in alignment with their values.
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Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are lenders with a mission to provide fair, responsible financing to rural, urban, Native, and other communities that mainstream finance doesn’t traditionally reach. Where others see risk, CDFI’s see opportunity.
Unlike traditional banks, they specialize in lending to individuals, organizations, and businesses in under-resourced communities, offering clients financial education, business coaching, and low-interest rate loans that increase economic potential and help build wealth.
CDFI’s lead to small businesses and homeownership, creates living wage jobs, supports the development of schools, grocery stores, and health care centers, finances climate change solutions, and so much more.
We support CDFI’s by meeting the protection needs of borrowers and grantees with the highest level of care, and in alignment with their values.
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Venture philanthropy is the application or redirection of principles of traditional venture capital (VC) financing to achieve philanthropic endeavors.
Often, it is exercised in the context of charitable startups, green companies, or B corporations, as the venture capitalists offering funding to these types of firms will have the greatest breadth of experience in these areas.
We support Venture Funds by meeting the protection needs of borrowers and grantees with the highest level of care, and in alignment with their values.
Democratically Owned Companies
"I can't help but believe that in the future we will see in the United States and throughout the western world an increasing trend toward the next logical step, employee ownership."
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As of 2021, more than 7,000 US companies are owned wholly or in part by their employees—the people who work there every day. As a result, 10 million people in the US already have an ownership stake in their workplace.
These employee-owned businesses are more connected to their communities, better for their workers, and are measurably more stable and productive than traditional investor-owned corporations. They represent the seedbed of a new kind of economy based on democratic participation, shared prosperity, and a shared sense of responsibility for our communities and workplaces.
We love and support Worker-Owned Companies by making things like employee/member benefits, key person insurance, buy-sell agreements, and executive bonus plans easy and affordable. -
Theres a reason Skene Financial prioritizes our member owned institutional partners.
A mutual insurance company is one that is owned by its policyholders, not by outside investors. This makes it different from a stock insurance company, which is owned by shareholders and traded publicly.The primary mission of a mutual insurance company is to offer insurance at reasonable cost to its member-policyholders – not to maximize profits for stockholders.
For instance, by signing on with a mutual insurance company, you can experience the following benefits:
*You'll receive dividends. Mutual insurance companies try to pay out dividends each year to policyholders.
*You get to have a say in major decisions that could impact the company by casting your vote.
*Policyholders can’t sell their interest in the company to outside investors, who could disrupt the business or have an adverse impact on customer service.
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A community land trust is a nonprofit corporation that holds land on behalf of a place-based community, while serving as the long-term steward for affordable housing, community gardens, civic buildings, commercial spaces and other community assets on behalf of a community.
CLTs balance the needs of individuals who want security of tenure in occupying and using land and housing, with the needs of the surrounding community, striving to secure a variety of social purposes such as maintaining the affordability of local housing, preventing the displacement of vulnerable residents, and promoting economic and racial inclusion.
Across the world, there is enormous diversity among CLTs in the ways that real property is owned, used, and operated and the ways that the CLT itself is guided and governed by people living on and around a CLT’s land.
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A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members.
Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit.
Many cooperatives, however, do have a degree of profit orientation. Just like other corporations, some cooperatives issue dividends to owners based on a share of total net profit or earnings, or based on a percentage of the total amount of purchases made by the owner.
Most consumers’ cooperatives will offer owners discounts and preferential access to good and services.
We support Co-Ops by making things like employee/member benefits, key person insurance, buy-sell agreements, and employee-benefit savings plans plans easy and affordable.
Want to Learn More?
Joel Skene hosts a show all about the solidarity economy on BizRadio.US
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