How many charitable investments do you know that continue performing well even during the current economic turmoil? The Edmonton Community Foundation has one: a Social Enterprise Fund launched in partnership with the City of Edmonton and the United Way. The fund supports new social enterprises and affordable housing. All its initial loans are either paid in full or returning between 5 and 6.5 percent. 

That’s just one example of the growing commitment to “responsible investing,” “socially responsible investing” or “mission-based investing” among Canada’s 168 community foundations. They and other charities are paying more attention these days to boosting their impact on the issues that matter most to their communities. 

“The key question is, how does community capital work for the good of the community, all the time?” said Community Foundations of Canada CEO Monica Patten. “There’s no question that the economic downturn forced us to look again at other ways of making an impact. But we began to explore this eight years ago because we believed it was the right thing to do.”

How and why to adopt RI

Social investing has been around for years in the U.S. and Britain, but is still fairly new among Canadian charities. The interest in responsible investing is now so strong among Canadian community foundations that Community Foundations of Canada has created a set of Web-based resources to guide foundations seeking to implement the strategy.

The website, www.responsible-investment.ca, is part of CFC’s Responsible Investing Pilot Project, which is helping community foundations to start or make progress with mission-based investing, set appropriate investment policies and programs and increase the percentage of assets that are directly aligned with mission through responsible investing.

That pilot project included working with some community foundations whose responsible investment initiatives are described on the site, and developing a case for the benefits of responsible investment and an outline on getting started. The next publication will be a primer on legal and regulatory issues developed in partnership with Philanthropic Foundations Canada. 

RI interest reaches tipping point

Patten presented the case and startup material to community foundation staff and board members at regional meetings over the past few months. She was pleased to find that interest and agreement were much higher than at previous national conferences where the concept had been introduced in seminars.

“People have a sense that this is the right time and the right thing to do,” she confirms. “I don’t want to pretend that everybody’s there yet. It will start with the visionaries and early adopters. Others will come along later.”