Gather and network over drinks and snacks with social economy businesses and startups from around New Mexico. Then learn from leaders at Vault Pickleball, Source Verified Good Wood, and Positive Energy Solar, three dynamic enterprises from Albuquerque’s growing sustainable business community, as they talk about how they approach their goals, their mission, “the work” – and creating new futures.
Finally, round table discussions facilitated by the Prospera Partners team will connect you with social economy champions from the worlds of impact investing, grantmaking, CDFIs, banking, green business, and more. Attendees will leave with a rich packet of resources from around the state.
This event is sponsored by Prospera Partners and the University of New Mexico Anderson Center for Responsible Entrepreneurship, and facilitated by SEA Board member David Gaines and the Prospera Partners team.
This event is part of the SEA Local Lens series: learning and networking events to unite regional social enterprise ecosystems.
Megan Bott (Positive Energy Solar)
With over 14 years of extensive experience in communications, spanning community outreach, marketing, and journalism, Megan Bott currently holds the position of Business and Community Impact Manager at Certified B Corporation Positive Energy Solar. Throughout her career journey, Megan has consistently fused her passion for amplifying community voices into her professional endeavors. She is driven by cultivating connections and establishing partnerships within the business landscape to contribute to greater social and environmental good, fostering stronger, more equitable communities. In her current role, Megan ensures that Positive Energy Solar effectively utilizes its resources to uplift the communities it serves, with a keen focus on prioritizing stakeholders crucial to fulfilling its mission as a local Benefit Corporation. Megan’s dedication to empowering community voices serves as the cornerstone of her professional philosophy.
Colton Davies (Vault Pickleball)
After years of feeling stuck in a cycle of career dissatisfaction, Colton realized the uselessness of dwelling on the “what ifs” (what if I’d chosen a different major in college, what if I’d grown up somewhere with more opportunity, what if I’d eaten my sandwich crusts as a kid). He shifted my mindset to “what now,” which led him to embrace ethical entrepreneurship. Today, alongside his business partner Jessica Moose, Colton is immersed in the UNM Anderson Center for Responsible Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program building Vault Pickleball, Inc. in Albuquerque. Their mission is to promote community wellness through inclusive pickleball experiences in an elegant and hip, yet accessible setting. Vault is currently moving forward with multiple community partners and they’re thrilled to introduce pickleball to new audiences while creating jobs and supporting the local economy.
Rachel Wood (Source Verified Good Wood)
Rachel Wood has worked as a consulting forester for over 25 years ,mainly as a consultant for private landowners, and as a tribal forester, forest contract inspector for NM State Forestry, and a forestry expert in wildfire litigation. Rachel integrates client’s objectives for forest health, fuels reduction, wildlife, soil, timber, water, fish, recreation, and aesthetics with the condition and capability of the immediate and surrounding forests, economic and social conditions. Society of American Forester’s Certified Forester #2029. Source Verified Good Wood®, is a wood branding program that allows consumers to support forest restoration and local wood companies through their purchases. The GoodWood® brand verifies that wood comes from trees harvested for the purpose of restoring and protecting forests and that have been harvested using best management practices that optimize the ecological and social benefits of forest thinning while mitigating any potential adverse impacts. GoodWood members get a fast, easy, and right-sized approach to product certification and markets, while consumers get a simple way to support sustainable forest practices, healthy watersheds, and their local economy.
Lynn Johnson (One Hope Financial Institution)
Lynn Johnson is the CEO of One Hope Financial Institution (OHFI) and believes that the solutions to our most pressing problems lie with those who have been historically silenced, ignored, and left out. She’s spent her career amplifying these voices as an expert facilitator and visionary leader through her thirty years championing executives, management teams, boards of directors, artists, and entrepreneurs. Her expertise as a consultant has been grounded in her own experiences as a successful entrepreneur – Lynn’s social ventures include Hella Social Impact™, a women of color-owned consultancy that engages organizations to authentically and impactfully show up for racial justice; Spotlight: Girls, a for profit social venture based in Oakland, CA; and her latest social impact company, High Desert Playback which is igniting community dialogue, cultural healing, and collective liberation through theater. Lynn’s social ventures have been recognized and financed by SheEO, the Force for Good Fund, RSF Social Finance, and Ashoka Changemakers.
David Gaines (La Terza Coffee)
David Gaines is the Chief Visionary for La Terza Coffee, and author of the new book Radical Business: The Root of Your Work and How it Can Change the World. As David discovered the business model of social enterprise, he saw how all businesses could make the world a better place, and that realization changed everything.
About Our Sponsors
Prospera Partners is a social-good consulting firm offering strategic facilitation and workshops for small businesses, social entrepreneurs, and nonprofits in order to create real change for communities. We facilitate and design systems change, communities of practice, and strategic program planning to help organizations rethink their approach and transform their work for the greater good. Prospera Partners also offers workshops and events to connect, inspire, and transform community leaders and social entrepreneurs, offered in partnership with BIG – Bold Impact for Good, a program fiscally sponsored by the nonprofit Community Ventures.
University of New Mexico Anderson Center for Responsible Entrepreneurship aims to create a community where socially conscious entrepreneurs can learn, launch and scale their concepts into successful for-profit business enterprises in New Mexico. Operating in Santa Fe, the Center for Responsible Entrepreneurship offers pre-acceleration and accelerator programs for entrepreneurs.
Parking and Directions
TBD
About the Organizer
Our vision is to create a new equitable economic norm by catalyzing social enterprises in the U.S. to grow their revenue and their impact. SEA empowers social enterprises to become sustainable and expand their impact. We support them by building awareness, advocating for change, and providing access to resources. Learn more and become a member at socialenterprise.us.
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