CST & Investing Summit 2026 - Field Building
CST & Investing Summit 2026 - Field Building
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CST & Investing Summit 2026
In partnership with Duke Divinity School December 1–3 · Duke University · Durham, NC
Some of the most important work happens outside the usual rooms of finance.
Field building means finding the people doing that work and connecting them with the relationships and capital that help it grow.
This track is for people working where impact investing and faith-based mobilization meet, asking how to put their values into practice and see real change in their communities.
Entrepreneurs, fund managers, movement leaders, nonprofit and foundation leaders, theologians, advisors, organizers, workshop alumni, and connectors, we want you in the room.
Investors from the Investor Track join the plenaries and morning prayer, so the people who move capital are in the room with you, and you do not need an investment seat to belong.
Last year we turned people away in the final weeks. Come ask good questions and help build what comes next.
A look back at Summit 2025 at Georgetown University.
WHAT THE WORKING SESSIONS LOOK LIKE
Here is what some of the working sessions look like.
Felix Navarrete leads a working session on building valuable, actionable datasets that are owned and managed collectively and that support more and better investing aligned with CST. He opens with passages from Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and asks how artificial intelligence could help faith-first institutions act for the common good.
Simon Kent Fung gives a talk on narrative strategy, on undoing systems from within through storytelling and translating between secular and religious institutions.
Sr. Sue Ernster and Enith Williams lead a session on reparations finance, on what reparative investing requires and how to push governance to do it.
Wednesday's Shift & Share table rotations put you in conversation with community leaders facing the same challenges and opportunities, and Thursday's Open Spaces let the people in the room lead the conversations.
Our Sponsors
This year's theme: Reviving Courage
A working title, still evolving. The arc moves in three parts.
Down, into the lineage and grounding of Catholic sisters' history as pioneers of alternative economic institutions and active-ownership investing.
Up, into the inspiring vision of what becomes possible through collaboration.
In, to a moment of reacquainting with our inner purpose and why this matters for us & this distinct time in history.
Then mutual commitments, in the same spirit as our flagship workshop's own commissioning ritual.
Pledges often come easily. Follow-through is the harder discipline.
Courage is what closes that gap.
Our hope is to create an encounter that helps you find the others and rekindle the inner fire needed for the brave, courageous work that follows.
What you'll explore
- Governance — investment policy, board task forces, MRI programs, the 12 steps of CST embodiment
- Theology & Frameworks — theology of investing, ecumenical charisms, Pope Leo XIV's Magnifica Humanitas.
- Asset Classes & Portfolio allocation — private credit, fixed income, municipal bonds; Emerging strategies in church real estate, housing preservation, insurance, climate and energy
- Activating Capital — DAFs, capital formation, field-building for low- and moderate-income families
- Ecosystem, Narrative & Power — narrative strategy, AI and collectively owned data, dioceses, SEC and policy.
Three days, one rhythm
December 1 — Opening session at 1pm and first working groups. Dinner and lightning talks that night.
December 2 — Morning Mass, table discussions, working groups, and a session where fund managers rotate through the tables. Dinner and an evening session in Durham.
December 3 — Morning liturgy, final breakouts, closing commissioning. An optional immersion experience at The Industrial Commons follows, about 2.5 hours from Durham (Dec 3–4, limited spots, details & sign up here).
Meals, mass & prayer, and the closing commissioning will happen in -- or right outside -- Goodson Chapel, alongside the Investor track. Same room, same moments, all three days.
Who is this for?
The Field Building Track is for entrepreneurs, organizers, theologians, economists, workshop alumni, and nonprofit and foundation leaders doing the work of cultural change, whether or not you sit in an investment seat.
What's included
The Field Building Track includes three days of programming, all meals, morning prayer, and a seat at the closing commissioning. The only add-on fee is for the optional Industrial Commons immersion in Morganton, NC on December 3 and 4.
Now in its third year
We held the first CST & Investing Summit in 2024 in Chicago at Loyola University, then in 2025 in Washington DC with Georgetown University. This year, Duke.
Confirmed speakers include
Jim Sorenson, Sorenson Impact Group
Sr. Sue Ernster, President, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Matt Ahearn, Ahearn Family Foundation
Lindsay Zizumbo, Executive Director, Sorenson Impact Foundation
Kate Walsh, Director of Training, The Global Impact Investing Network
Nicholas Banovetz, Executive Director, Better Way Foundation
Kate Barron-Alicante, Director of Impact, Abacus Wealth Partners
Carolyn LaRocco, President, LCP Institutional
Heather Beatty, Founder & Managing Partner, HCB Capital Advisors
John Holdsclaw IV, President & CEO Rochdale Capital
Margot Kane, CIO, Spring Point Partners
Simon Kent Fung, Podcast Creator & Host, Dear Alana
Anand Dholakia, Program Director, J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation
Mike Silvestri, Vice President, Impact Investments Social Finance
Alison Lingane, Founder, Ownership Capital Lab.
Katrina Aitken-Laird, Founder & CEO, Refrontier Foundation
Melanie Rieback, Co-Founder & CEO, Radically Open Security
Enith Williams, Founder & Executive Director, Reparations Finance Lab
Michael Rauenhorst, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Social Investment Managers & Advisors
Felix Navarrete, AI Platonist, Theological Engineer, Kairos Lux Works
Kelley Shepherd, Director of Investments, The Leon Levine Foundation
David Harlley, CEO, ThirdWay Capital
Jimmy Wright, Co-Founder & President, Launch Capital Partners
More to come.
What you'll leave with
Real relationships with people walking a similar path.
A sharper sense of where your work can make a greater difference.
A deeper sense of purpose, grounded in something larger than any one institution.
"Such a gift for anyone looking to embark on impact investing."
- Sr. Sue Ernster, President, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
"At the Summit I met a community willing to risk the fire, to question what is, to build what could be, and to seek God in both interior conversion and structural transformation."
- Sr. Linda Romey, OSB
"I came into the Summit feeling vulnerable, and left deeply reassured. Doors opened, relationships converged, insights that immediately strengthened the projects we're developing..."
- Jackie Aldrette, Managing Director, AVSI
"It was sincerely one of the best conferences I've ever been to... the perfect intersection of my work and personal faith."
- Michael Reilly, CEO, Foodshed Capital
What it costs
The Field Building Track is $1,250 and includes three days of programming and all meals.
Workshop alumni register at $1,000. Email cameron@francescocollaborative.org for your code before registering.
Limited resources? We have a limited number of reduced-rate spots at $500 for select partners. Email us with details to request one.
Questions? Email cameron@francescocollaborative.org.
Where to stay
We have group rates held at two hotels close to Duke Divinity School. Both rates cover December 1 to 3.
- AC Hotel Durham: $149 per night, about 0.5 miles from Duke Chapel. [Book your room]
- Residence Inn by Marriott Durham McPherson/Duke University Medical Center Area: $149 per night, about 1.6 miles from Duke Chapel. [Book your room]
Staying on for the Investor Immersion in Morganton? Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Morganton Historic Downtown has a $139 per night rate for December 3 to 4. Book by November 4. [Book your room]
Questions before you register?
Join us live on November 13 at 10:30am ET to ask about the program and who is attending. Early bird pricing is still open when the Q&A ends.
Location
Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC