Fellowship Spotlight: Uplifting Capital

While leading a wealth management firm of almost 2 billion dollars in assets, Toussaint Bailey was hearing echoes of a desire to make more meaningful investments in the context of national and global uprisings against racism. “I was seeing all these clients who had a desire to do something with their assets that could make an impact,” Bailey reflects. 

Engaging With His Own Impact

Toussaint knew it was time to do something different. “After George Floyd was killed, I took a sabbatical and led a series of conversations throughout the industry, just getting people to talk about race openly.” 

In these conversations, one Black person sat across from one of their White colleagues, sharing first something about their humanity, and then past experiences with racism and bias. As Bailey says, “They’re not educating the person across from them about the experience of all Black folks; they are just talking about their own lived experience.” The results were powerful. 

“Seeing how that transformed people on both sides — from healing the trauma that came from sharing and then moving from a place of shame to empathy — led me to know I just couldn’t put back on this wealth management hat and go back to work. Engaging with that impact was something that was uplifting to me.” 

Bridging Assets & Client Needs

This experience gave Bailey the name for the fund he’d launch soon after in November of 2020. Uplifting Capital is an access point for wealth managers, foundations, and endowments to invest more inclusively and more impactfully in effective strategies for uplifting people, our planet, and our economy. 

The firm provides mission-aligned investment opportunities to those seeking private market options. “This company was born out of me engaging with my own impact,” Bailey says. “There was no bridge that connected clients who had assets and a desire to make an impact with these managers and companies that were doing impactful things. I realized I could find a way to make their assets and the client’s needs meet one another.”

Bailey’s life experiences shaped him into the perfect person to fill this gap. “I have lived experience being on the wrong end of every category of Uplifting Capital investments.” Bailey shares that growing up in the infamous smog of LA’s Inland Empire sharpened his lens on climate justice, and spending the majority of his life financially excluded gave him clearer vision of economic injustices. “I feel really uniquely suited on both sides. I speak wealth management; I speak investor. But I also speak about these problems, and I am an investment manager. I’m a bridge.” 

Increasing Access to Impact

With a clear goal in mind, Bailey spent more than a year creating the solutions along with an amazing team. “We launched mid-year 2022 with the idea of bringing a solution to both sides of the marketplace: the managers/companies, and also the investors.” 

Uplifting Capital’s portfolio strikes a unique balance of investments across sectors including affordable housing, renewable energy, and social justice. “We’re mixing together this thing that we know fits into an investment portfolio because we think that’s going to be an access point for new money coming into this ecosystem. Our focus is a different set of investors that we are intentionally building around.”

Uplifting Capital is concerned not only with the movement of money, but also with the integrity and impact of investments. “Part of what we’re trying to do is bring new capital in, but the other part of what we’re trying to do is get a new set of individuals to engage with the impact that they have on the world differently.” 

Bailey speaks to a certain level of education that he and Uplifting Capital are engaging in, saying, “You need to empower the people who are closest to problems to act upon those problems. For us, it’s not only pulling that money in, but also filtering how that money comes in.” On this point, he says, “The worst thing that could happen is if that money shows up in a way that distorts the ecosystem. It changes the incentives; people are showing up ignorant of the way to make change, ignorant of the fact that you need to empower the people who are already here to continue to lead.”

From Bailey’s perspective, this concern and care for the ecosystem is not typical and is part of what sets Uplifting Capital apart. “Sitting next to managers, company leaders, and making sure that capital shows up in a way that meets the needs of not only them but of their missions is part of what we do. That design is unique.” And that design has everything to do with the unique perspective of Uplifting Capital’s leader. “The firm is born out of who I am,” Bailey says, “and we’ll move forward in that light.”

Participating in the VC Include Fellowship

While Bailey was already well on his path in the world of investment and wealth management, the VC Include Fellowship catalyzed his growth even further. “On so many levels, the fellowship has been transformative for me and for Uplifting Capital. VC Include brought in unquestionably institutional lawyers, fund administrators, CFOs of funds who not only help us get the information that puts us on that level, but left me with the confidence that I’m functioning at that level. That gives me a different level of confidence when I go out and raise funds, and it also gives what we’re doing a different quality.” 

Bailey speaks to the power of representation, and the impact of being instructed and mentored by Black professionals excelling in their various fields and roles. “Representation matters,” he says. “Just the sheer fact of being in proximity to that level of greatness, and people of color producing that level of greatness was transformative for me as an individual and as a leader.” 

All of us at VCI look forward to witnessing the greatness of Uplifting Capital under Bailey’s leadership, and we’re honored to be a part of their story.