Impact Investing

Connecting Your Investments to Our Social Good

The Community Foundation of New Jersey offers fundholders the ability to participate in impacting investing  — activating another way to solve social problems and make a difference. 

Impact investing not only allows for critical investments to improve a community, but also holds the potential for delivering a financial return. These returns are often recycled into more and deeper investment in worthwhile community projects or as traditional gifts to non-profit organizations. 

Like most investments, there is no guarantee an impact investment will generate a return or even be repaid. However, the goal of impact investing is to generate a positive, measurable return that also results in a social good. 

The Community Foundation can help fundholders explore and vet a variety of impact investment types, including low-interest loans, credit, and equity. Fundholders make these investments with the expectation that their fund will be repaid with the return. Impact investments may be used to seed the construction of affordable housing in a community, improve schools, fund projects that improve public health, or expand access to the arts. 

In 2024, we collaborated with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation as seed partners in the Seelaus Housing Equality Fund, LP, an impact investment strategy that addresses access to affordable housing in underserved communities while offering a competitive rate of return to investors. Increasingly, more foundations and individuals across the nation are exploring ways to tap new capital to connect investing to lasting social change, so we welcome your questions about impact investing.

To learn more, read our fact sheet or contact us.