And so the poem by Carl Sandburg goes. He is describing Chicago, the city we call home. To us, his words also describe how Builders Vision - an impact platform using philanthropy, investment, advocacy and coalition building – is working hard to shovel, wreck, plan and yes build a more humane and healthy planet.

Our mission at Builders Vision is to shift markets and minds for good by collaborating with each other, our communities and our partners to create meaningful opportunities for humans, animals and the planet. Our goal is to examine and help shift current thinking and approaches in order to facilitate positive change and demonstrate the ability to drive returns in service of building a better world. To achieve this, we know we must do more than revise the margins of our economies.

We believe markets must fundamentally shift and the most successful businesses in the future will be those driven by purpose. Our efforts to shift markets for good goes hand in hand with our commitment to help increase engagement and transparency and to build awareness and shift behaviors. This important work requires collaboration with consumers, policy makers, the private sector, non-profit leaders, media, and the arts and academic communities.

While we both agree on the type of change we know is needed, we are two very different people with different approaches on how to affect change. Instead of allowing those differences to separate our work, we have worked hard together to create an organization that is built on the strength of how seemingly disparate ideas and approaches can work together. We come at this with a humble awareness that we are still learning, and we think it is essential that we all cultivate a beginner’s mind to open us up to different possibilities and outcomes.

Together, we believe that all systems are interconnected and that to see positive change, markets must work in tandem with compassionate, concrete and innovative forces to make our environment, community and world a better place.

Most importantly, as humans, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of life on this planet. We begin with more questions than answers, but also with a belief that we cannot accept the status quo. We can no longer go for what’s easiest or most profitable in the short term. Nor can we continue business as usual while waiting for quick fixes or expecting that someone else will fix things that are broken.

We commit to being responsible stewards of our resources. We will always listen to those closest to the problem and invest in interconnected strategies with the goal of helping society become more just and prosperous and our environment to be more sustainable and flourish.

Sincerely,

Lukas and Samantha