Aligning Capital with Soil, Sustainability, and Purpose: A Conversation with Doug Heske

You've been working in this space for a couple of decades now. Most of your career has been about helping individuals and organizations align their financial resources with purpose. What inspired you to create Causeway Impact, and how has your personal journey shaped this mission?

It's been a long personal journey. Growing up in my hometown in Connecticut, I saw firsthand how my grandfather—who ran the local community bank—was embraced by people who were grateful for his support during difficult times. That experience shaped my understanding that being a businessperson is not just about commerce, but about actively supporting the well-being of your community.

Over the past two decades working in impact investing and philanthropy, that ethos has guided both my professional path and my personal commitments. I've had the privilege of serving organizations such as the Georgie Bedell Foundation, which focuses on clean water, sanitation, and women's empowerment in West Africa, and more recently joining an initiative led by a Lost Boy of South Sudan to support development in his home country.

Causeway Impact was created to bring these experiences together. Our goal is simple but ambitious: to provide individuals and institutions with practical ways to operationalize their purpose—to align their capital, their values, and their actions in ways that can help solve some of the most pressing challenges facing our planet and our communities. Supporting organizations working to heal our planet—including those focused on regeneration and healthy soils—is a core pillar of our work.

At Conscious Planet we focus on soil as the foundation of life. How do you see philanthropy playing a role in addressing global challenges like soil degradation, food insecurity, and climate resilience?

Philanthropy plays an essential role, but its greatest power comes when it works as part of a broader system of capital and participation. We often describe this as blended finance and blended participation.

Public markets influence corporate behavior that has historically contributed to soil degradation and environmental stress. Private markets can drive innovation and scale new solutions. Philanthropy supports the on-the-ground organizations doing critical work that venture capital alone cannot fund. And consumer behavior—millions of small actions taken by individuals—can shift markets and priorities.

Organizations like Save Soil and Conscious Planet are incredibly important in this ecosystem. They are not only raising global awareness about the urgency of soil regeneration, but also helping bridge the gap between intention and action. With reductions in public aid in many parts of the world, philanthropy will play an increasingly important role in sustaining and scaling solutions that protect soil health, food systems, and climate resilience.

Can you share a project or partnership that showed you the power of giving in action?

There are many powerful examples. One that has stayed with me is the work of The Fred Hollows Foundation, which focuses on preventable blindness. Roughly 90% of blindness globally is preventable or treatable, often connected to issues like access to clean water and basic healthcare. Restoring someone's sight with relatively small resources can transform an individual's life, their family's future, and their community.

Another example is Safe & Sound, formerly the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center. Seeing how prevention, education, and family support can alter a child's life trajectory reinforced something we believe deeply at Causeway: long-term change requires systems thinking. That's why we organize our work around six interconnected impact pillars: climate action, air quality, water quality—including oceans—regeneration and healthy soils, conservation and biodiversity, and human equity.

Human equity sits at the center of all of them. Healthy soils, healthy ecosystems, and healthy communities are deeply interconnected.

Many people want to contribute but don't know where to start. What advice do you have for someone who wants to give consciously and align donations with their values?

My advice is to start simple and stay consistent.

For many years, we worked with families who felt they had to choose between financial returns and impact. Over time, we’ve helped many of them shift toward becoming what we call “impact first” investors and donors.

At Causeway, we've built a platform that allows anyone to participate—whether through impact-oriented portfolios in public and private markets, or through supporting nonprofit partners via philanthropy. Contributions can start as small as five dollars.

What we've learned is that small, repeatable contributions from many people can ultimately exceed a single large gift.

We think about engagement through three pathways: Get Informed. Get Engaged. Get Invested. Learn about the issues that matter to you. Take actions that support solutions. And deploy capital—through giving or investing—in ways that reinforce the future you want to see.

How do you communicate impact to small donors so they understand what their dollars do?

Transparency is key. One of the approaches we use is mapping what we call "dollar pathways to impact." We show people clearly how a $5, $50, or $500 contribution flows through an organization and contributes to measurable outcomes.

People don't expect perfection. What they want is honesty. No nonprofit, company, or initiative is flawless, and progress rarely happens in a straight line. Sharing both successes and challenges builds trust—and that transparency creates a deeper relationship between donors, organizations, and the work itself.

The next generation has instant access to information and expects transparency. How do you see their role in driving change?

Young people today are shaping a cultural shift that feels similar to what happened in the 1960s, when many people chose service-oriented careers and lifestyles.

What's different now is the speed and accessibility of information. Younger generations can research organizations instantly, compare claims with evidence, and hold institutions accountable.

In many ways, they are becoming very powerful consumers and participants in change. They expect authenticity, transparency, and measurable outcomes. When that expectation meets platforms that allow people to participate easily—whether through volunteering, advocacy, philanthropy, or investing—we have the potential to accelerate meaningful change.

Any final thoughts?

Awareness is important, but awareness alone isn't enough. I often say at the end of every presentation that if we walk away saying, "That was an interesting discussion," then we have failed.

The reality today is that we need action.

There is a paradox in the world right now. Many of the communities already feeling the most direct impacts of a changing planet often feel they have limited agency to influence the system. At the same time, many people who do have the ability to influence outcomes underestimate how much their individual actions matter.

But the truth is that we have reached a moment where every action counts.

Whether it’s how we spend our money, how we invest our capital, what organizations we support, or how we engage in our communities—each of those decisions contributes to shaping the future.

Organizations like Save Soil and Conscious Planet are critical partners in helping translate awareness into meaningful action. Among more than sixty nonprofit and NGO partners we work with globally, they play a unique and vital role in mobilizing people around soil health and regeneration.

At Causeway Impact, our role is to help people operationalize their purpose—to learn, to engage, and to invest in ways that align their values with real-world impact.

Ultimately, this is about responsibility. Every citizen has a role to play in helping secure a healthier planet and a more equitable world for our children—and for their children as well.

When millions of people begin taking small, intentional actions together, those actions can create the systems-level change our planet needs. The moment we are in now calls not just for awareness—but for participation.