John Kluge
@klugesan.bsky.social
Moving private capital to refugee entrepreneurs. Author, Banking on Belonging (July ’26). Mead-maker on a regenerative VA farm. Occasional writer, frequent board member, FTE husband and dad.
Today is #EarthOvershootDay 🌎. $345B of private capital went into AI last year. $23B went into nature. Money moves when something in the structure compels it. #Nature has no seat, no vote, no standing. A creditor that cannot file! More here: open.substack.com/pub/klugesan...
Earth Overshoot Day & The Creditor That Cannot File
On Earth Overshoot Day, a note on why the money keeps going somewhere else
open.substack.com
Private capital is critical to closing the climate finance gap but won't reach women without the right market infrastructure. Our latest paper, submitted to UNFCCC under the Belém Gender Action Plan, outlines what it takes to scale gender-responsive climate finance. www.2xglobal.org/knowledge-hu...
Gender-Responsive Climate Finance: Scaling Private Investment — 2X Global
2X Global's input paper to the UNFCCC Belém Gender Action Plan outlines how blended finance, common standards and gender technical assistance can unlock private investment in gender-responsive climate...
2xglobal.org
Advocacy hasn’t shifted the politics around #refugees. Capital might. We joined @ImpactAlpha.com’s Agents of Impact podcast to make the economic case for investing in displaced entrepreneurs. The US #resettlement program alone has generated close to $500B in tax contributions. tinyurl.com/3rpkf9h6
The economic case for investing in refugee entrepreneurs (podcast)
Advocacy has fallen short in changing the political climate around refugees and migrants, who have been castigated as a burden on economies. Perhaps ...
impactalpha.com
1 million Ukrainian refugees make up 2.5% of Poland's population but contribute 2.7% to the Polish GDP (Deloitte/UNHCR), helping prevent economic stagnation. 8% higher economic contribution per capita by Ukrainian refugees to Poland than the Poles.
Igor Sushko@igorsushko.bsky.social · last mo.Poland sabotages Ukrainian economy during war time while 1 million Ukrainian refugees (2.5% of population) add 2.7% to GDP. Grain: 2023 import ban, informal transit ban. Steel: 2025 lobbied to end Ukraine exemptions. Now EU quotas cut Ukrainian duty-free steel ~50%. Russian semi-finished steel is OK
Today we celebrate America’s 250th birthday Monticello the best way we know how—by welcoming 75 new Americans from 36 countries as they took the Oath of Allegiance.
Fact: 80% of terrestrial biodiversity lives in forests. When trees vanish, species vanish.
Tomorrow #America turns 250. I spent some time this week asking what James Madison -the guy who literally built the guardrails of our #democracy- would make of where we are. #july4 #usconstitution open.substack.com/pub/klugesan...
A Fellow Citizen's Address to the Present Hour
Reflections on the state of the Republic at 250 years, offered in the spirit — though not, of course, the actual hand — of James Madison
open.substack.com
Impact investors can successfully serve as a counterbalance to governments that are ambivalent, obstructionist, or even hostile to refugees. SSIR’s David Johnson speaks w/ Christine Mahoney and John Kluge Jr. about their new feature article, “Building the Refugee Economy.” Tuesday, July 14:
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Building the Refugee Economy: An SSIR Author Conversation. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
As humanitarian aid agencies buckle under the collapse of financial support, should the private sector step in to invest in refugees and integrate them into the economy? Christine Mahoney and John K...
stanford.zoom.us
#Virginia produces <4% of the honey we consume, and ours is the most valuable in the country, pound for pound. But we’re barely producing it. My case for making the pollinator economy a real focus of Virginia's Farm & Forest Plan ran in the @richmond.com: 🐝 #bees richmond.com/opinion/colu...
Virginia's pollinators are on everyone's balance sheet. It's time we counted them. | Guest column
Virginia’s pollinator economy is quietly collapsing under imported fake honey and disappearing habitat, and the smartest, most profitable move we can make is to finally put bees — managed and
richmond.com
Grateful to @porchlightbooks.bsky.social for featuring an adaptation from BANKING ON BELONGING (out 7/21). Investing in #refugee entrepreneurs builds stronger economies for everyone. 8 strategies, free to read. CC @unhcr.org porchlightbooks.com/blogs/changethis/banking-on-belonging
A Blueprint for Belonging: Scaling Refugee Lens Investing Worldwide
John Kluge and Christine Mahoney's book, Banking on Belonging, makes the case that investing in refugees not only helps displaced communities, but also builds more prosperous and resilient economies w...
porchlightbooks.com
Something I’ve learned about refugee entrepreneurs: the business plans are often sharper than what I see from founders who had every advantage. Scarcity is a brutal teacher. The talent was never the missing piece. It’s capital and access that is the market failure.
People hear “refugee” and picture need. I spent a decade learning to picture risk-taking. Someone who crossed a border with nothing and rebuilt a life is, almost by definition, an entrepreneur. Our book is about what happens when capital finally treats them that way.
The phrase I keep coming back to: from donor to partner. Refugees don’t need rescuing so much as backing. A grant says “I’ll help you survive.” An investment says “I believe you’ll build something.” The latter is the paradigm shift.
Newly back (and actually posting this year)! Short version: I work to move private capital to refugee entrepreneurs — not as charity, but because they’re some of the best founders most investors never meet. Book on it, “Banking on Belonging”, out July 21. I also make mead in Virginia. 👋 #refugees
This morning, an exec at a big NGO asked me: "Will #USAID come back?" My answer: Probably. But it doesn't matter. 123M displaced people can't wait for Congress to decide. The humanitarian sector is fighting the wrong battle. Here's what they should do instead: open.substack.com/pub/klugesan...
Will US Foreign Aid Come Back?
(And Why It Doesn’t Matter)
open.substack.com
🌳 Our bond with nature is fading, threatening our health & planet. My new op-ed, reflecting on new research documenting a 60% loss of connection to nature, explores why reconnecting is vital—for body, soul, and survival—and how we can act now! 🌍 #Nature substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Reconnecting with Nature: A Call to Heal Ourselves and Our Planet
We’re losing something vital, and it’s not just the forests or the wildlife—it’s us.
substack.com
Join me on Tue, Aug 12, 6-8pm for a fireside chat & book launch with Dr. @Rosa Vásquez Espinoza! Celebrating The Spirit of the Rainforest—exploring the Amazon, stingless bees, & indigenous wisdom. RSVP: spiritofthe rainforest.eventbrite.com #AmazonConservation #BookLaunch #ThistlerockMead #virginia
Grateful for our community for showing up on July 4th in protest of government overreach and fighting to protect academic freedom! Please consider signing our petition to the Virginia General Assembly to shield our institutions from a despotic federal government! #uva Change.org/handsoffUVA
The Environmental Protection Agency has drafted a plan to eliminate all limits on greenhouse gases from coal and gas-fired power plants in the U.S., according to internal agency documents reviewed by The New York Times.
Documents Show E.P.A. Wants to Erase Greenhouse Gas Limits on Power Plants
nytimes.com
💐Why hit up your local farmers market? Fresh, tasty produce, direct support for local farmers, and less environmental impact. Plus, you’ll find unique goods and connect with your community. Visit one this weekend! 🐝🍷 #FarmersMarket #SupportLocal #thistlerock
Grateful for good people doing good in the world. My buddy Brian Woerner from the #WorldHoneyExchange stopped by the farm for an impromptu rare honey tasting and to hatch collaboration plans for the next year. 🍯🐝🍷✈️🌍🎥
Honored to join the board of @jmmontpelier.bsky.social ! Grateful for the opportunity to help steward the legacy of the Father of the Constitution and engage with an incredible team dedicated to preserving history and fostering dialogue. #Montpelier #JamesMadison
He is a dose of positivity to get your Friday started- a case study on the #innovativefinance work for #affordablehousing being led by @redlightmanagement.bsky.social & DMB’s Bama Works Fund in #Charlottesville, VA ssir.org/articles/ent...
Crash Into Housing (SSIR)
How the Bama Works Fund mobilized private, public, and philanthropic capital to transform public housing
ssir.org
“Protecting free and independent thought in the United States is going to take more than just one institution fighting back.” Let’s go. www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025...
Into the breach
To my fellow Lions,
columbiaspectator.com
Here in Virginia, because we don’t have many large commercial beekeepers or move our bees across state lines for pollination (at least the majority of VA beekeepers), we are thankfully somewhat insulated - for now. That could change but it’s crucial we stay ahead of this.
🚨🐝 extremely concerning letter, went out last night. U.S. commercial beekeepers are reporting catastrophic hive losses of 50-100%, worse than CCD days. Immediate economic impact of - $140M but will have a bigger, more profound impact on American food security in months ahead.
This matches, step by step, the playbook we’re witnessing from the White House and DOGE. The first half of this narrative is background and context of the ideology while the second half is the roadmap for implementation. Very disturbing. m.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpP...
DARK GOTHIC MAGA: How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America
YouTube video by Blonde Politics | The Silly Serious
m.youtube.com
