Impact-First Investments

Individuals & Families

The Challenge

Older woman and young boy sit at an outdoor table with food, smiling and talking to each other during a meal.

Most individuals and families approach philanthropy and investing as separate activities. Assets are invested to grow, and a portion is granted to support causes over time. While effective, this approach can limit both the scale and durability of impact. 

At the same time, many of our most pressing challenges ranging from economic opportunity to housing and sustainability require solutions that can grow and sustain themselves. These issues are often not well served by either traditional philanthropy or by conventional capital markets. 

Increasingly, families are asking a more integrated question: how can capital be deployednot just givento drive meaningful, lasting outcomes? 


The Opportunity

Impact-first investing offers a way to align capital with purpose, deploying a portion of assets to support solutions that can scale, while recycling capital to extend impact over time.

Social Finance meets individuals and families where they are, offering a range of services and solutions that help you get started in or advance your impact investing, including:

  • Define a clear vision for impact rooted in your values
  • Translate that vision into a diversified portfolio of impact solutions
  • Track progress against meaningful, measurable outcomes
  • Redeploy funds over time for greater impact over time

Social Finance is a national nonprofit and registered investment adviser (SF Advisers, LLC). Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.

I've long wanted to deploy more of our assets toward impact, but navigating early-stage opportunities felt overwhelming and resource-intensive. Working with Social Finance—whose deep diligence guides every step—makes it easier to confidently mobilize capital toward meaningful, measurable impact.

Andrew Balson, recommended an investment in the Impact First Fund through a DAF.

No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.

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I couldn't be happier to be doing this work with Social Finance. The process of designing a fund to meet my philanthropic goals has been truly candid, cooperative, and highly effective.

Mollie Carter, Investor in the Tuesday Fund.

No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.

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In traditional philanthropy, dollars can only be granted once. Social Finance’s impact-first investments, which blur the line between giving and investing, offer a more impactful and scalable approach to using capital for good.

Laura Lauder, Founder, Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund and investor in the Impact First Fund.

No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.

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Social Finance finds projects that strengthen people's efforts to lift up themselves and their communities. The ROI comes in dollars, and a better world.

Individual Investor in the Social Finance Impact First Fund.

No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.

Our family has been exploring the space between philanthropy and market rate investing with the belief that it is an underused path to outsized impact. We are excited that Social Finance is working to scale this concept with its Impact First Fund and have made an investment through our donor advised fund at the Boston Foundation with great enthusiasm.

John Grossman and Kate Olmstead, recommended an investment in the Impact First Fund through a DAF.

No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.

Related Resources

Social Finance Impact First Fund

Impact Investing Education Series For Family Offices

Tuesday Fund

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