Social Finance From An Investor’s Perspective: Fifth in a Series

Leslie Christian, our Board Chair, also serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of RSF Social Finance, and has contributed a series of fantastic essays about impact investing in the 21st Century.

This fifth essay in the series details the three investment strategies – Ecological Carpetbagging, Global Good, and Transition to Community – and offers example investments that fit the strategies.

Leslie’s description of “Transition to Community” investing also sums up Upstream 21 quite nicely: “Employees, community, the environment, customers, and suppliers all contribute to building strong companies and deserve consideration in the allocation of revenues.  There is a subtle, but critical, shift from an emphasis on maximizing profits to allocating revenues — to pay living wage salaries and engage in profit-sharing with employees, to restore and preserve physical resources, to support community activities, and to give customers and suppliers a ‘fair shake’ now and over the long term.  In so doing, Transition to Community investing takes an interest in economic value rather than in short-term profits for shareholders.  It also views risk as an integrated proposition — a function of ecological limits as well as trust, relationships, and transparency.”

Read the full essay here.