Jeff and Jonathan Shafer were recently guests on the Nuance podcast, hosted by Dr. Case Thorp, to discuss impact investing, the intentional placement of one's investment capital in projects that both generate profit and positive social outcomes. The Shafer brothers...
Context Matters: People Are Using Their Money to Help Find Meaning and Purpose
When I started my career in 1996, socially responsible investing (SRI) was the main vernacular and methodology used to describe screening out companies or “sin” stocks. Candidly, I was not really interested at that time. Then came ESG, but it was Impact Investing...
Jeff Shafer on the Avant-Garde Entrepreneur podcast
CommonGood Capital CEO Jeff Shafer was recently a guest on the Avant-Garde Entrepreneur podcast, chatting with host Trisha Bailey about investment readiness from the impact investor standpoint and the metrics, values, and opportunities impact...
The Core Tenants of Impact Investing
At CommonGood Capital, we believe Impact investing is about aligning your capital with your values. While making a profit is important, making a difference in the world with your investments is equally valued. In looking at the heart of impact investing, there are...
10 Questions to Ask Your Client
One of our big goals at CommonGood Capital is to be a resource for RIAs and Investors by providing education and access to world-class impact investments that have been vetted through our due diligence process, making your job easier. The evidence is showing that the...
Affordable Housing is Key to my Impact Investing Journey
In 2015, I was increasingly concerned with protecting the downside in our personal investments. At that point in my career, I had been in the financial services industry for 20 years. Nearly 18 of those years were directly involved in different types of real estate:...
Impact Investing by the Numbers
Opportunities for Impact education is a key part of CommonGood Capital's long-term vision to transform investors, businesses, financial markets, and the world through the power of stewardship and capital. Recently we hosted a well-received webinar focused on answering...
Could 2023 Be the Year?
Right now, leaders from across the globe are meeting in Davos at the World Economic Forum. The theme for this year is 'Cooperation in a Fragmented World’. Some of you are cheering Davos and others are sneering it. What I make of it is that there are real needs, a...
The Great Wealth Transfer Is Upon Us
CNBC recently published an article on the 'Great Wealth Transfer', shorthand for the 68 trillion expected to be passed down from boomers to the younger generation, and several strategies for advisors to navigate the shift... Between Bill Gates’ pledge to...
Change Your Mindset
Forty minutes south of Orlando, I sat in an old prison “classroom” with 40 men all working towards improvement, change and new beginnings. While an observer could easily tell the outward difference between the volunteers and the men in “blues,” that same observer...
Businesses Transformed By Impact
Momentum in integrating impact into business continues to transform businesses both small and large. Recently the founder of Patagonia, a US leader in Outdoor clothing that operates stores in 10+ countries globally, decided to give away his company to help fight...
Bridging the Disconnect
One of the central missions of CommonGood Capital is to bridge the disconnect between the growing number of investors wanting to see their investments making a positive impact in the world and wealth managers struggling to incorporate these relatively new ideas into...
The Scale of the US Affordable Housing Crisis
There are numerous human and financial factors pertaining to affordable housing. As of the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, over 30 U.S. states, including Florida, California, and Texas – the three largest by population - have at least 5% of adults...
The Values Of Older And New Generations Are Increasingly Difficult To Reconcile
Wealthmanagement.com recently published a great article on how family offices are seeing new challenges in succession planning due to the increasingly wider investment values differences between older and younger generations... "In particular, succession...
Advisers who ignore ESG do so at their own R-I-S-K
Investment News wrote a great article detailing how as interest in ESG investing grows over time, advisers are rapidly reaching an inflection point with clients who want their assets to line up with their values… A FlexShares survey last year of 285 people who work...
Celebrating 5 Years of Impact
At 40, as an executive at a leading alternative asset management firm, a back surgery forced me to slow down and become acutely aware of my own limitations physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Five weeks into that journey I sat at my couch and watched a DVD...
Jeff Shafer: On Impact
Jeff Shafer, CEO of CommonGood Capital, on the origins of Impact Investing, the benefits for investors, the balance of traditional and impact investments, and more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsnQBCLy_p0
Green Loan Principles Explained
The Green Loan Principles (GLP) have been developed by an experienced working party, consisting of representatives from leading financial institutions active in the global syndicated loan markets, with a view to promoting the development and integrity of the green...