NEWSLETTER VOL 24 | May 2026

Relationship, Regeneration, Returns

We know that the soil needs regenerating. Often times, so do our relationships, our organizations, and the conversations inside our families. As Humanize Wealth approaches our three year anniversary in the business, we’re zooming out and pondering a key question. What does it actually take to build something that thrives over the long term? Not just financially, but relationally and even inter-generationally?

We’ve been pondering that very same question from an ecological lens, too. Last week, Jenae traveled to Bogotá for the Latin American Regenerative Investment Summit (LARIS), a gathering bringing together philanthropists, impact investors, farmers, ecologists, and entrepreneurs who are asking what it would mean to put money in service of one of the most biodiverse and most threatened regions on earth. She had a chance to connect with some of the teams we have invested in as well as consider the future of regenerative investing.

Similarly, we’ve been learning about “empathy as infrastructure” as it pertains to organizations, communities, and families. Both pieces in our What We're Reading section this month remind us of something we see constantly in our own work. While financial earnings and returns certainly matter, the organizations and families that thrive over the long term are the ones who have done the inner work of getting aligned around values, purpose, and what they're collectively building towards.

Jenae with the Regnera Ventures team / LARIS organizers

WHAT WE’RE READING

Empathy Is Not Soft. It's Infrastructure.

In a recent Substack article, Jenna Nicholas makes a compelling case that empathy isn't a nicety. Rather, it's the foundation of any thriving community, organization, or relationship. In an era of rapid change and eroding trust, the people and groups that endure are those who prioritize alignment between their values and their actions. Her core argument: purpose can't live only in a mission statement. It has to show up in how we treat people, how we handle conflict, and whether those around us feel safe enough to tell the truth. This is where empathy becomes tangible.

A few of her reflections that we’re sitting with this month:

• Presence is leadership. The ability to truly listen may become one of the rarest skills in modern business.

• Coherence matters more than optics. Alignment between values and actions builds trust.

• Belonging may be one of the defining economic and organizational advantages of the future.

Want to learn more? Subscribe to Jenna’s Substack or read her recent book Enlightened Bottom Line which explores the powerful intersection of spirituality, business, and investing.

On Wealth, Family, and the Conversations That Haven't Happened Yet — A Case Study

Susan Weingartner is the founder of Weingartner Legacy Co., a private advisory practice working with families, investors, and advisors on the human complexity that surrounds wealth across generations. Her work sits in the territory that legal and financial planning alone often can't reach: questions of identity, responsibility, fear, and the relationships that shape how wealth is experienced and carried forward at the family level.

Her recently published case study offers a look at how one family moved from unspoken assumptions to shared clarity. We're grateful for thought leaders like Susan doing this work because in our experience, the families who have clarity around values, purpose, and shared expectations are the ones who navigate mission, transition, and legacy with the greatest confidence and cohesion.

EVENTS WE ATTENDED

Latin American Regenerative Investment Summit 2026 (LARIS)

Latin America is an extremely ecologically rich region but is degrading at alarming rates. Just as one data point, 75% of soils in Latin America and the Caribbean are considered degraded, leading to economic losses of up to $60 billion per year due to reduced agricultural productivity. This is the backdrop for LARIS, which brought together impact investors, foundations, policy folks and regenerators to ask: what would it look like to mobilize capital in service of regenerating the region rather than extracting from it? It was incredibly inspiring to meet so many entrepreneurs and organizations who are working to innovate, build and steward regenerative businesses and financial systems.

The presentation on “Advanced Regenerative Finance” by Ernesto van Peborgh of the SEVA Institute was particularly intriguing. Ernesto traces a path from extractive capital, to impact investing, to what he calls living capital: finance that doesn't just fund living systems but participates in them. He argued that money is not a neutral force sitting on top of reality. Rather, it actively shapes what becomes real. Capital should circulate rather than accumulate, and generate value through relationship and reciprocity instead of pure extraction.

Check out Ernesto’s substack to learn more on these topics.

Magic Cabinet - Paramount Theater

In early May, we had the pleasure of attending an afternoon celebration at Seattle's historic Paramount Theater, hosted by Magic Cabinet to welcome their new CEO, C'Ardiss "CC" Gardner Gleser, to the helm. Magic Cabinet is a Seattle-based foundation built on the belief that communities know what they need. For more than 15 years they have put that belief into practice through long-term, flexible funding and by inviting nonprofits into shared decision-making. CC made an immediate impression: direct, unapologetic, and deeply grounded in the realities facing Black and Indigenous communities in the region. We left energized and look forward to following the organization’s next chapter.

Learn more about CC and Magic Cabinet.