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 deployed, not just given, to 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).
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
Impact First Fund Investor. No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.
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 candid, cooperative, and highly effective.
Mollie Carter
Investor in the Tuesday Fund. No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.
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.
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, Investors in the Impact First Fund
No compensation was provided in exchange for testimonial.
Related Resources
Social Finance Impact First Fund
A fund specifically designed for investors who want to put philanthropic capital to work for impact. The Impact First Fund is a professionally managed vehicle that brings flexible capital to scalable models that expand economic opportunity.
Impact Investing Education Series For Family Offices
Social Finance offers a multi-part learning series geared toward family offices interested in the potential of impact investing, amplifying mission within existing portfolios, and aligning their wealth more directly with their values.
Made possible by a generous commitment of $25M from philanthropist Mollie Carter, the Tuesday Fund is a pool of impact capital investing to advance economic mobility for low-income individuals across the United States.
The Social Finance Impact First Fund is pleased to share our Q1 2026 quarterly report, which covers Fund activity through March 31, 2026. The Impact First Fund is built to deliver flexible, risk-tolerant capital to…
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