Impact Investment

2013

Glass Pockets

The Foundation Center

Glass Pockets is an online resource from The Foundation Center that promotes transparency in philanthropic foundations. The site gives the public access to the published finnancial records of major foundations, providing profiles of major organizations and links to their transparency profiles.

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Program-Related Investment Rules for Private Foundations

This free course, which covers the basic legal rules for program-related investments, takes about forty-five minutes to complete. The course is part of Learn Foundation Law,  a free resource devloped by legal staff at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation that provides training on legal issues in grantmaking for private foundations.

AccountabilityCentral.com

Launched in 2006, Accountability Central aims to serve as a clearinghouse for news, intelligence, insight, perspective, opinion, and advice on issues concerning corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, shareholder activism, and socially responsible investing and related issues.

BWB Solutions

BWB Solutions is a consulting firm that helps foundations and corporations make social investments and program-related investments in the form of loans, equity investments and recoverable grants to nonprofits or businesses committed to social change. The website contains a number of publications on these themes.

Business Ethics

Founded in 1987, Business Ethics magazine is the only U.S.-based business magazine focused on ethics and corporate social responsibility. Published exclusively online since 2006, it is read by leaders in business, investing, academia, government and civil society organizations interested in corporate social responsibility issues.

Calvert Foundation: Community Investment Profiles

Investing in a professionally managed portfolio of loans to more than 240 nonprofits and social enterprises working in over 100 countries to alleviate poverty, the Calvert Foundation provides a searchable database of these different organizations. These investments are clustered in four principle impact sectors: housing, microlending, small business, and community development. The site also provides a tool for individuals to calculate the impact their investment will have based on the amount, duration, and sector of the investment.

Center for Responsible Business

Founded in 2003 and housed at the Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley, the Center for Responsible Business strives to be a leader in corporate social responsibility research, both in the academic and practitioner arenas. This site contains a series of working papers on stakeholder engagement, with a focus on developing quantitative measures.

Ethical Markets

Ethical Markets is an independent media company that strives to promote a global economy that is sustainable and just.  Providing a perspective on the Green Transition, Reforming Global Finance, SRI and more, Ethical Markets provides a useful research resource for information relating to this global shift.

FSG Social Impact Advisors

Founded in 1999 by Michael Porter to be a for-profit consulting firm, FSG Social Impact Advisors became a nonprofit organization in 2006. The group aims to change the practice of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility both through client-based consulting work as well as through field-spanning conferences and reports, a number of which are available for free download from its website.

Future of Philanthropy

This website contains a number of reports on trends in the field, including different means of leveraging more effectively, such as through the use of social investment tools like PRIs.

Green Money Journal

Founded in 1993, this journal covers a broad range of issues in the socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility world. Back issues of magazine articles since 1999 are available on line.

Hazel Henderson

Based in St. Augustine, Florida, Dr. Hazel Henderson is a syndicated columnist, producer of the television series, Ethical Marketplace (broadcast on PBS, see: www.ethicalmarkets.com), and a consultant on sustainable development. The website includes a wide range of her writings on socially responsible investment and related issues.

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

Since 1976, NCRP has advocated for the philanthropic community to work toward social and economic justice for disadvantaged and disenfranchised populations and communities. The website contains a number of publications on these issues.

Neighborhood Funders Group

The Neighborhood Funders Group is a national network of foundations and philanthropic groups that support community-based efforts that improve economic and social conditions in low-income communities. NFG maintains a number of working groups, including the PRI Makers Network.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

This chapter on program-related investments, from a much longer anthology, provides a thoughtful overview of the nature of PRIs and how the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in particular has used them to finance the construction of community health facilities.

Social Funds.com

SocialFunds.com features over 10,000 pages of information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news.

Social Funds.com

SocialFunds.com features over 10,000 pages of information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news.

Studies of Socially Responsible investing

Assembled by Lloyd Kurtz, a professional portfolio advisor and a Research Fellow at the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business of the University of California, Berkeley, this site contains links to a group of studies that compare the financial performance of socially screened funds against comparable conventional investment funds.

Glass Pockets

The Foundation Center

Glass Pockets is an online resource from The Foundation Center that promotes transparency in philanthropic foundations. The site gives the public access to the published finnancial records of major foundations, providing profiles of major organizations and links to their transparency profiles.

Program-Related Investment Rules for Private Foundations

This free course, which covers the basic legal rules for program-related investments, takes about forty-five minutes to complete. The course is part of Learn Foundation Law,  a free resource devloped by legal staff at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation that provides training on legal issues in grantmaking for private foundations.

AccountabilityCentral.com

Launched in 2006, Accountability Central aims to serve as a clearinghouse for news, intelligence, insight, perspective, opinion, and advice on issues concerning corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, shareholder activism, and socially responsible investing and related issues.

BWB Solutions

BWB Solutions is a consulting firm that helps foundations and corporations make social investments and program-related investments in the form of loans, equity investments and recoverable grants to nonprofits or businesses committed to social change. The website contains a number of publications on these themes.

Business Ethics

Founded in 1987, Business Ethics magazine is the only U.S.-based business magazine focused on ethics and corporate social responsibility. Published exclusively online since 2006, it is read by leaders in business, investing, academia, government and civil society organizations interested in corporate social responsibility issues.

Calvert Foundation: Community Investment Profiles

Investing in a professionally managed portfolio of loans to more than 240 nonprofits and social enterprises working in over 100 countries to alleviate poverty, the Calvert Foundation provides a searchable database of these different organizations. These investments are clustered in four principle impact sectors: housing, microlending, small business, and community development. The site also provides a tool for individuals to calculate the impact their investment will have based on the amount, duration, and sector of the investment.

Center for Responsible Business

Founded in 2003 and housed at the Haas Business School at the University of California, Berkeley, the Center for Responsible Business strives to be a leader in corporate social responsibility research, both in the academic and practitioner arenas. This site contains a series of working papers on stakeholder engagement, with a focus on developing quantitative measures.

Ethical Markets

Ethical Markets is an independent media company that strives to promote a global economy that is sustainable and just.  Providing a perspective on the Green Transition, Reforming Global Finance, SRI and more, Ethical Markets provides a useful research resource for information relating to this global shift.

FSG Social Impact Advisors

Founded in 1999 by Michael Porter to be a for-profit consulting firm, FSG Social Impact Advisors became a nonprofit organization in 2006. The group aims to change the practice of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility both through client-based consulting work as well as through field-spanning conferences and reports, a number of which are available for free download from its website.

Future of Philanthropy

This website contains a number of reports on trends in the field, including different means of leveraging more effectively, such as through the use of social investment tools like PRIs.

Green Money Journal

Founded in 1993, this journal covers a broad range of issues in the socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility world. Back issues of magazine articles since 1999 are available on line.

Hazel Henderson

Based in St. Augustine, Florida, Dr. Hazel Henderson is a syndicated columnist, producer of the television series, Ethical Marketplace (broadcast on PBS, see: www.ethicalmarkets.com), and a consultant on sustainable development. The website includes a wide range of her writings on socially responsible investment and related issues.

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

Since 1976, NCRP has advocated for the philanthropic community to work toward social and economic justice for disadvantaged and disenfranchised populations and communities. The website contains a number of publications on these issues.

Neighborhood Funders Group

The Neighborhood Funders Group is a national network of foundations and philanthropic groups that support community-based efforts that improve economic and social conditions in low-income communities. NFG maintains a number of working groups, including the PRI Makers Network.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

This chapter on program-related investments, from a much longer anthology, provides a thoughtful overview of the nature of PRIs and how the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in particular has used them to finance the construction of community health facilities.

Social Funds.com

SocialFunds.com features over 10,000 pages of information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news.

Social Funds.com

SocialFunds.com features over 10,000 pages of information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news.

Studies of Socially Responsible investing

Assembled by Lloyd Kurtz, a professional portfolio advisor and a Research Fellow at the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business of the University of California, Berkeley, this site contains links to a group of studies that compare the financial performance of socially screened funds against comparable conventional investment funds.