Emerson Collective

A huge congratulations to our partner Elemental Excelerator, along with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), on today's release of "Traversing the Climate Technology Scale Gap", a report detailing critical challenges and opportunities in scaling climate technology! 👏 Dive into the report to learn how, despite the Scale Gap hindering early-stage climate technology projects, we already have what it takes to de-risk investments: https://lnkd.in/g6gMXhep

While Congress, which is charged with creating the nation’s immigration policies, remains mired in political machinations, the executive branch has to step in and take action. Today, the Biden Administration did just that by announcing two impactful immigration policies promoting family unity and economic growth: 1. Undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens, who have been in the U.S. for 10+ years, can now receive work permits and protection from deportation. This will provide peace of mind to 500,000 U.S. citizens, enable spouses to contribute to the economy, and help local employers facing labor shortages. 2. New policies for Dreamers, with or without DACA, will enhance their ability to secure employment visas, allowing them to pursue professional careers and potentially become permanent residents. These common-sense initiatives benefit everyone and take us closer to a more sensible and humane system, opening up opportunities for people who want to contribute and injecting talented, motivated workers into the labor pool. While Congress dithers, President Biden continues to innovate in service of American families and a stronger economy.

Your business was built to make an impact—not just in your industry, but in your community and potentially the world; working with policymakers is a key way to stand out and stand up for core issues that you believe in. But, how do you actually make an impact? EC’s Alicia Molt-West has your back. Her stand-out presentation at our venture event this past April helps you cut through the noise and engage with policymakers to take your business to the next level.

It's really easy for people who are deploying AI technology to look at numbers as a cold, hard reality, which they are, but we also need to remember that every data point is a person. Once we start looking beyond the numbers, a.k.a. the data, a technology’s impact becomes very different. And that is probably the best way to look at all this. https://lnkd.in/gNPnQJWg In last week’s Technically Optimistic newsletter, we explore the ethical questions around when it’s okay to deploy AI systems. It’s something that I think about every day in my work at Emerson Collective, because if, say, a chatbot we developed to help immigrants apply for asylum gives the wrong answer, the consequences for the people using it can be devastating. We’re not just trying to develop cool products. We’re trying to help people. And that’s something I wish the tech community would talk about more.

When people work together to build a stronger local community, they create the condition that help democracy thrive: trust in each other, a sense of agency, and a belief that everyone's participation matters. We're excited to be part of a new grantmaking collaborative with the Trust for Civic Life that invests in community-led change. Learn more at: https://lnkd.in/eDEvrXkc

Investing in proactive measures to reduce migration pressures is far more cost-effective than reacting to large-scale irregular migration. If we keep pretending we can manage migration with border policies alone, we will invite a costly future of chaos, conflict, and human suffering. Instead, with historic numbers of people on the move, we need strategies to manage and order these flows safely and humanely.   This includes: • Mitigating displacement drivers through climate adaptation and resilience investment • Creating legal pathways for those who need to move • Integrating those already displaced As highlighted in this story by Mark Gongloff, a strategy addressing the root causes of migration enhances economic efficiency, political viability, and humanitarian benefits.

BTW: Episode 7 of Technically Optimistic is available now! This week EC’s Raffi Krikorian and special guests explore tech in the global south, more specifically India. They delve into the pros and cons of the massive tech boom that created a mass amount of jobs but also brought along social issues, including poverty, oppression of women, and class stratification. Guests include caste and technology scholar Murali Shanmugavelan; anthropologist Sareeta Amrute; Manu Chopra, CEO of Karya; Pratik Rajurkar, educator and co-founder of Polymath AI; and the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, Amandeep Singh Gill. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. 🎧

Emerson Collective's Chief Technology Officer, Raffi Krikorian, has built an internal team of engineers, data scientists, and technicians to serve as a resource for nonprofit partners. Hear from Raffi on EC's vision for how nonprofits can harness AI, data, tech, and more in The Chronicle of Philanthropy: https://lnkd.in/ei6PrmqR

Come behind-the-scenes with us in Detroit! 👀🎥 Effective solutions don't happen in a vacuum—they require everyone working together, which is why we gathered leaders from across sectors to dive into the impacts of historic federal investments, like the Inflation Reduction Act, that are creating good jobs and unleashing a manufacturing boom across the nation and in Michigan. So we invite you to learn more and join us as we move forward toward a clean economy! Elemental Excelerator Climate Power E2 Ceres, Inc.

Social media is hard. Period. But there are ways to make it easier. In this week’s venture series on building a consequential company, we’re diving into all things social with brand strategist and copywriter Nick Fisher. To him, the best thing a business can do is create quality, compelling content. No matter the platform, your content should be funny, interesting, and teach your audience something. Turn post notifications on and be the first to view next week’s set of tips from another expert! 📲