Watch this video summary of leading community investing expert Jed Emerson's presentation on the possibilities for community foundations.

 

 

Initiatives

Community Investing

In simple terms, community investing is defined as a process whereby foundations directly invest some of their assets in the community, or social/environmental enterprises consistent with their mission.  The investments can take the form of an investment into ventures operated by charities or non-profits engaged in a social purpose – for example, affordable housing. They may also take the form of a loan, (rather than a grant), to qualified organizations, for charitable purposes which also further our mission. 

The concept of community investing has been successfully pioneered by a number of foundations, including Edmonton Community Foundation.  The collective experience shows it offers a significant opportunity to increase the leverage of a portion of capital for the good of our community.  Last spring, HCF’s board agreed that community investing offered a significant opportunity for the Foundation to increase the leverage of a portion of its capital,  and has made a commitment of $5 million of the Community Fund (the portion of assets which are directed by the Board to serve the best needs of the community) to community investing.  

Read a summary of the experience of Canadian public and community foundations here. 

Read three community investing stories from Edmonton's Social Enterprise Fund here.

Read more about the concept and background on community investing in these links:

• Why You Should Care: How Charities, Nonprofits, and Foundations can Benefit from Social Finance.  There are programs, platforms, and experienced organizations with track records of successfully providing financing to charities and nonprofits in Canada and internationally. This article from The Philanthropist  tries to encourage nonprofits and charities to consider an additional range of financing options that might help stabilize and grow their organizations.
• This paper brings together two ostensibly disparate definitions of equity—one which relates to the distribution of resources across economic and racial groups and the other that looks at capital market concepts and processes—into a single frame for consideration. It also provides examples of community investing in action.
  
• Bill Young is the founder and President of Social Capital Partners (“SCP”). SCP is a social finance company whose primary goal is to prove that businesses with a financial and a social purpose can succeed at both.  Read his latest perspective on community investing.
• Canadian Task Force on Social Finance’s new report says foundations can maximize impact through mission-related investing.  Read it here.