Reimagine Money: August 2012

kristyCommunity Development Solutions, SRI/ESG News

August 2012

We hope you have time to read this summer, because we’ve just released 2 new reports – one on impact investing within philanthropy, and another on financing a sustainable food system. Additional beach reading includes our summer newsletter, featuring an article on The Economics of Happiness. Also, John Bloom reflects on the Libor scandal, and RSF shares more financial information, in our ongoing effort to be more transparent.

Ultimate Impact: Unifying an Investment Portfolio within a Donor Advised Fund

At RSF, we have long valued the potential of Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) to maximize the impact that our clients? funds can have in the world. Through our unique Impact Investing Portfolios, DAF dollars that have not yet been distributed as grants are placed in a mix of mission-aligned investment portfolios.

Donor Advised Funds have grown in use over recent decades, serving as the core philanthropic vehicle for community and public foundations and, more recently, being offered through commercial investment firms as a philanthropic option for clients. When linked with an impact investing strategy, the DAF may serve as a unique, focused asset management vehicle for creating a unified portfolio generating financial performance with social and environmental impacts. This Issue Brief co-authored by ImpactAssets, RSF Social Finance, and Tides introduces the concept and structure of DAFs and explores their potential as impact investing vehicles. The DAF as a core component of a unified investment approach is explored together with discussion of why DAFs are especially suited to impact investing.

Click here to download the full brief.

To learn more about this, please join us at 11 am PST, Tuesday, September 18 for a webinar featuring Tim Freundlich, President, ImpactAssets; Taryn Goodman, Director of Impact Investing, RSF Social Finance; and Melissa Bradley, CEO, Tides.

Click here to read the newsletter