
CommonGood is a financial services firm aligning capital to facilitate returns, human flourishing, and meaning.
Financial Advisors
Create deeper, more meaningful intergenerational relationships with your clients.
Individuals, Families and Foundations
Create alignment with your capital and the local and global opportunities you care about.
Impact Fund Sponsors
Your source for advice and implementation of your impact investment opportunities.
Donor Advised Fund Providers
Bring Impact Investing to your donors from strategy to implementation.
Investment Banking
Capital Market services with a mind towards profits and the common good.
asset managers advised
funds on platform
Million capital committed
Billion DAF Consulting / Due Diligence
Companies Advised
Private REIT created
More Than an Investment
Investments can produce potential returns for your needs and dreams, but they also impact people, communities, and the planet. Your capital has the power to not only change your life, but also those around you- it’s more than just an investment.
CommonGood brings our expertise, experience, and passion for impact investing across real assets, private credit, and private equity. Within those asset classes we have several areas of focus.
Areas of Focus
- Housing
- Environmental Stewardship
- Small / medium business
- Africa
- Formerly incarcerated
Our world is hurting…
Capital has the power to change the world…
Capital is a tool and is used for good and for bad. The difference is the goal and the motives behind the capital. Imagine what would happen if we filled the gap between purely profit and purely charity. It would create another vision of success and undoubtedly unleash untapped creativity and innovation.


It’s the New Exchange
Historically, investing has been dominated by one major concept: risk and reward. However, in a 2017 survey, 75% of respondents said they were interested in investments that focus on achieving both financial returns and have a social or environmental impact. Impact investing is this New Exchange.
Trade fear and greed for joy and freedom
It is said that the markets run on fear and greed which are two natural emotions we have to deal with. But how do you move from fear and greed to joy and freedom? The key is to look beyond yourself. Align your capital with investment themes you have a passion for or care about. Let your capital work for you and for others.

CommonGood brings together a team of financial professionals with unique career paths and shared values to positively impact today’s transforming investment landscape and worldview.
Our Mission
To provide access and advisory services to Impact Investments that enhance both the financial goals and values of investors while creating meaningful impact in communities around the world.
Shelly Shafer on the joy found in Impact
Why Impact?
What is Impact Investing?
Investing in private investments with the intention of generating both financial returns and non-financial returns such as social, environmental, and spiritual.
Why impact investing?
Increasingly, investors are recognizing the power of capital and challenging the long-held views that investments should exclusively focus on financial returns with little regard for social and environmental issues. In addition, many recognize the shortfall that both non-profits and governments have to meet the ever-increasing needs and opportunities. In turn, it’s clear that business, done well, has the ability to impact people, planet, and profits for the common good.
It’s time for people to be connected to their investment capital. Every investor has their own risk, reward, and goals. With its unique and innovative approach to money management, Impact Investing allows investors to include their values and passions in their investment decisions.
Different types of Impact Investors
- Individuals
- Families
- Institutions
- Foundations and Endowments
- Governments
- Government Agencies
What are the elements of Impact Investing?
The key elements of Impact Investing are best described in an Impact Framework. This framework is important because it’s the working together of the four different pillars to enable the best possible long-term financial and non-financial outcomes.
- Financial Returns – Each investment needs to define the expectation of returns- from market rate to concessionary.
- Intentionality of Impact – Each investment needs stated objectives of positive social, environmental, or spiritual goals in addition to financial returns.
- Measurement/Reporting – Each investment must allocate time and resources to measure both financial and non-financial goals along with a transparent communication of the actual performance data.
- Sustainability – Each investment should evaluate their model and ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
How do impact investments perform financially?
Where do I start?
The best place to start is to consider what Impact themes match your passions and values, then ask questions of your financial advisor, or feel free to contact us.
Some common Impact themes include…
- Affordable Housing
- Agriculture
- Communication Technology
- Education
- Energy
- Environment
- Financial Inclusion
- Green Real Estate
- Health
- Small & Medium Enterprises
- Sustainable Consumer Products
- Transportation
- Wast Management / Recycling
- Water & Sanitation
Latest News
White Paper: Rooted in Science and Economics: How Regenerative Farming is Redefining Agriculture
Agriculture takes many forms from wet-rice production in East Asia to cattle ranching in the Americas. In all cases, people are environmental engineers. They change or remove vegetation, re-route water, use fertilizers, and modify the soil. Today’s agriculture...
Fortis Green Fund Update & Investor Closing
CommonGood Capital is proud to partner with Fortis Green Renewable Green Fund I, aimed at acquiring renewable energy investments to increase access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy to the over 600M Africans (52%) that still lack access to power. As we...
CommonGood at Do More Good
Last week was my first time speaking at the Do More Good® Conference held at the Nebraska Innovation Campus. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, and wondered if it was going to be all heart and no substance. Instead, I found a gathering of people reimagining how...
Podcast:
A New Lens
#85 – Aaron Mbati on Turning Scarcity into Strength
Jeff Shafer, CEO of CommonGood Capital, chats with Aaron Mbati, Portfolio Director at The Schmidt Family Foundation where he manages a portfolio of impact investments in clean energy and sustainable food systems, with a focus on Africa and emerging markets. Aaron...
#84 – Ferdinand Turatsinze on Impact Investing from Rwanda to Notre Dame
Jeff Shafer, CEO of CommonGood Capital, speaks with Ferdinand Turatsinze, a young African investment analyst working with Fortis Green on renewable energy investment projects. Ferdinand details his professional path from schooling in his home country to earning his...
#83 – Robyn O’Brien on Accelerating Healthy Food Systems
Jeff Shafer, CEO of CommonGood Capital, speaks with Robyn O’Brien - speaker, entrepreneur, and best-selling author of Seeding Innovation: The Path to Profit and Purpose in the 21st Century - on how her early financial services career found her covering the food...