SEEDS Innovator and Hypha Strategist Stephen Gomes believed so much in the social investment and KINS network created by his friend Susan Davis, that when she left the country, he tracked her down with the intention of preserving her legacy. This legacy now highlights a growing relationship with SEEDS, and a foundation to launch one of the first markets using the Seeds currency in Vilcabamba, Ecuador. Five decades ago, Susan launched “The Chicago Network”, which thrives to this day. It was the first gathering of 12 female business leaders in Chicago to support each other in manifesting their dreams. Susan, now know as the grandmother of social investment, later redirected her capital investment experience to create a social investment company, Capital Missions Company. This evolved into 40 KINS networks of men and women professionals and social entrepreneurs across the United States, Nigeria and Ecuador. Through Stephen’s efforts to preserve the legacy, Susan and her husband Walter Moora are now stewards for SEEDS alliances and campaigns involving Kinship Earth, Finca-Sagrada and the Upper Catamayo River Watershed Regeneration project.
As co-founder of the Global Transformation Corps (GTC) of Legacy International, Stephen is leading the project to create new entrepreneurs in Vilcabamba by offering workshops and onboarding enrollees to the Seeds platform. The GTC empowers sustainable initiatives around the globe in business and social sectors focusing on emerging leaders (20–35 years) and providing the skill sets necessary to build resilient businesses and socially impactful ventures. They will establish a SEEDS training hub to assess how the team on the ground can effectively roll out Seeds, fund their own grant programs, and demonstrate GTC training components.
To read more about these projects, see Walter Moora’s story, a progress report on Finca-Sagrada.
