Excerpt from Input Fort Wayne:
As a society, we’ve been conditioned to think about our money in two buckets: The money we give away as philanthropy to do good, and the money we invest to earn a profit.
But what we forget is that the money we’re giving away has a negative 100 percent financial return, yet we’re expecting it to carry the heavy burden of our social impact projects, Gripne explains. Meanwhile, the money we’re investing to make a profit is often being funneled into companies that don’t necessarily strengthen our communities or align with our values.
Impact investing is what happens when we pause and take a step back from traditional funding models, and ask: Is there a better way to achieve our goals?
It’s thinking creatively and strategically about investments to stretch them to go further and to create win-win-win scenarios that allow investors, beneficiaries, and communities to rise together.