You may have been hearing the words "impact investing" or "social investment". If you care only about making money, read no further. If you care about making a positive difference in the world while making money, read on.
Using for-profit impact investments to solve social problems.
Here is decent video from Forbes featuring the authors of Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference. This new breed of "investment" achieves social and environmental good while earning an investor a decent return. Formerly, donations were the main way to make a difference while having some financial incentive. Now, you can do good and get a good return simultaneously.
I see opportunities for Impact Investing in Real Estate by purchasing properties that are occupied by tenants whose business practices you support (i.e. Goodwill or Whole Foods), buying a green or LEED building, or doing redevelopment projects on existing buildings (i.e. adaptive reuse or historic preservation).
Impact Investments: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference
A ground-breaking book on the transformative power of impact investments: Impact Investing Book
This is the first book to chart the catalytic path of Impact Investing, explaining how it is and can be a positive disruptive force. It shows how impact investments are a transformational vehicle for delivering "blended value" throughout the investment spectrum. Written by two leaders in the growing field of impact investing, the book defines the emerging Impact Investment industry for participants on all sides of the funding equation (investors, funders and social entrepreneurs).
What types of impact and social investments would you consider? What rate of return would you require?
Learn More about Impact Investing in Real Estate
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