What is Social Impact Investing?

Social Impact Investing, What does that have to do with real estate?

All healthy neighborhoods have three vital elements: healthy people, a healthy economy with opportunities for all, and a healthy environment.

Investing is becoming proactive and getting very personal.
Investors used to focus on socially responsible investing, through screened indices and mutual funds. Now make way for direct and active investment opportunities benefiting social initiatives of every type. Belief systems driving investment choices? Indeed.

Beliefs are impacting investment. Do you ever think of wanting to aid land conservation? Help people avoid foreclosure, keep their homes? How about Ocean conservation? Clean water for all? Maintain healthy forests by fighting deforestation?

Social impact investments exist and are designed to address these issues and even heavier issues like prison reform and drug rehabilitation.

The hardest part next to deciding which issues you believe in is finding an advisor able to vet the investments that are the real deal as opposed to investments looking to green wash their image to gain benefits from the spike of interest the social impact investment will give them. Socially-minded investing has long borne an inability to be successful. Is it destined to deliver sub-market results to people who lead investing more so with their heart than their head?

Skepticism is still abundant, many prefer to compartmentalize, make money the old-fashioned way in investments that may not necessarily always be that great for society at large then give back to society through philanthropy where the goals are clear and everyone knows it’s a money losing proposition. #CapitalizeOnProlongingtheProblem

Social impact investing’s changing reputation shows it is now possible to construct a diversified multi-asset class portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate, timberland and farmland, with real impact, and few, if any, return trade-offs.

Impact investing presents young people with a way to unite their values and their money. An appealing proposition to anyone, especially to Millennials who maintain an optimistic view about the state of the world held by their conviction they will solve the world’s problems through technology or other human advances. The baby boomer generation is passing everything over to their heirs, giving younger generations control over how these assets are invested.

The new inheritors, long felt alienated from the “investment” conversation that was the domain of their parents and their parents’ advisors, now own the social impact investing discussion. Values and causes are a key part of the conversation and by harnessing the power of technology and social media to mobilize and coordinate like-minded social impact investors the preservation of the family’s wealth is used for the better.

These individuals working collectively are reaching the critical mass required to launch grassroots initiatives, get the attention of corporate board rooms and effect shareholder-driven change at leading multi-national companies.

Governments are getting involved with public-private partnerships and task forces designed to hone standards for assessing impact.

This is just a few of the organizations you can research in your crusade to #DoMoreGainMore – SIRAN (The Sustainable Investment Research Analyst Network), As You Sow and US SIF (The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment).