Community Impact Investing

Fostering an economy that is diverse, vital, and innovative, that grows strong businesses and business districts, and creates family-sustaining jobs with living wages and benefits for residents. Empowered to creates a compassionate social, economic, and political environment where people have full opportunities to meet basic needs for themselves and their families (specifically housing), to build assets, and to advance themselves.

The Program, consistent with the Foundation’s mission of improving lives by bridging resources and fostering collaboration, keeps money made in Barry County invested in Barry County. The Foundation collects gifts of all sizes from a wide range of individuals and organizations, pooling these contributions into an endowment that is partially, prudently, invested in Barry County for impact. 

The Program is designed to be consistent with the Foundation’s values: 

• It provides individuals and businesses opportunities to make charitable investments through permanent endowments that directly benefit the community. 
• It strengthens leading and effective community-based organizations with new kinds of capital. 
• It promotes inclusivity and equity for all residents, businesses and organizations through equitable access to capital. 
• It encourages community participation, new partnerships, and new collaboration that result in successful responses to community challenges and opportunities. 

The Program’s investments will: 

1. Measurably advance the mission of BCF. 
2. Preserve the Board’s fiduciary responsibilities. The Board has an obligation to use an investment strategy that reflects the financial needs, charitable mission, and public benefit purposes of BCF. The Policy assumes that local investments come with risk. Foundation staff, Committee, and consultants will do what they can to understand the risks and mitigate them. BCF may tolerate potentially higher level of risk in local investments if local investments generate measurable community impact consistent with the Foundation’s charitable mission and public benefit purpose.