Transforming Individuals into a Community
December 23, 2009
By Taryn Goodman
In 2007, RSF decided to restructure and further refine its Donor Advised Fund Investment Portfolios by implementing a more direct and transparent program in order to achieve the deepest possible social impact. Included in these changes was the creation of three separate portfolios based on liquidity, risk, and return factors. The portfolios have since been created and named Impact, Liquidity, and Transformation. At the time, it was unclear what the Transformation Portfolio would look like beyond the fact that we wanted to create an investment vehicle that supported innovative and mission-driven businesses and ideas.
Much has happened since the idea for these portfolios was surfaced in 2007, including the formal launch of RSF’s Transformation Portfolio earlier this year. This particular option for our Donor Advisors is not the typical mission-related investing portfolio – which, generally, is when capital is deployed to support socially and environmentally conscious organizations (although that is certainly a part of our portfolio). Beyond that, the Transformation Portfolio is a learning community in which inspired investors come together to see how they can make a meaningful difference through their investments. It is a way for impact investors to get elbow deep in the investment process through a shared learning circle with shared thinking, shared risk, shared return, and shared impact.
I recently returned from one of the first Transformation Portfolio meetings in Boston, MA, which was attended by Don Shaffer (President & CEO of RSF), John Goldstein (co-founder of Imprint Capital), myself, and the three women who are the initial investors. Unlike most investment meetings, this one was quite informal; there were no conference tables and no suits. Instead, the group casually gathered around a coffee table at one of the investors’ homes and discussed many challenging, thought-provoking questions about the real potential of impact investing – questions that invoked the eagerness and excitement each participant has for creating social and environmental impact with their investments.
As we went around the circle, everyone voiced their interests and passions as they relate to social change and we then mapped these passions to the potential investment opportunities that were presented. The process of examining different investment choices was by no means an easy one. Many questions arose, including: is the support of increased consumption okay if a retail organization is creating jobs? Should we inhibit access to international financial markets in order to build self-reliant local economies, or is this stifling growth? Should we focus on servicing the unmet needs of people at the base of the socioeconomic pyramid, or on creating innovative organic, natural, and environmentally-friendly products to be sold in places like Whole Foods?
In working through these questions, the group of us realized that much of the learning involved in this community will come from determining a balance as it relates to finding answers to questions like the ones above and being comfortable with the investment decisions. Even more so, we all began to appreciate the fact that some questions may not have just one answer or even a “right” answer – but we all agreed that this method of making decisions together will result in some truly innovative, ground-breaking impact investing.
To learn how to open an RSF Donor Advised Fund and invest in our portfolios, click here. Or for more information, contact me at taryn.goodman@rsfsocialfinance.org or 415.561.6195.
Taryn Goodman is Manager of Impact Investing at RSF Social Finance.
- Published by Jillian McCoy
- Categories: Donor Advised Funds, Giving, Investing, Money, Social Finance
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