Many of our lenders and donors are referred to Shared Interest by individual financial advisors or institutional financial managers such as Trillium Asset Management, Loring, Wolcott and Coolidge and Just Money Advisors. (A full list of these and others committed to socially responsible investment can be found at the Social Investment Forum’s website).

“Whenever my clients show interest in overseas community development investing, Shared Interest is one of the first options that I talk about with them. Shared Interest helps people in South Africa with economic empowerment. It’s that simple.”
— Andy Loving of Just Money Advisors and Investment Advisory Representative of First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC

For financial professionals who would like more information about community investing

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has become a popular buzz phrase, but it can be daunting to understand exactly what your clients mean when they talk about SRI. A growing number of clients want their investments to create a positive change in the world around them – even as they seek to minimize their risks and increase the size of their portfolios. Shared Interest is one of many “community investment” vehicles that directs investments and loans for productive purposes to low-income communities in the U.S. and abroad. The organization provides an increasingly popular business-based vehicle that enables clients to use their money to make positive and measurable change in the world.

Community investing is perhaps the least well-known sector of socially responsible investing, but it is the fastest growing and the one that has the most direct impact on disadvantaged communities. Instead of an investor's capital being channeled to companies that are simply known by their stock symbols and how well they adhere to basic environmental, social impact and governance standards, community investing places funds that build affordable houses, essential services and wealth directly in underserved communities. These loans and investments enable low-income people to launch viable enterprises and work their way into sustainable jobs and out of poverty.

For information about community investing, please visit the Social Investment Forum’s website: www.communityinvest.org.
Some financial managers may suggest that their clients interested in community investing make direct loans to or investments in funds that are not managed by their firms. To learn more about how Shared Interest’s guarantee fund works, and to determine whether or not it might be appropriate for your clients, please contact us.

Some information that might be helpful if this is the first promissory note that you are managing.

Most money managers review Shared Interest and all community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in a process analogous to the approval of a stock for its suitability for a specific portfolio. You should be aware, however, that all promissory notes and most certificates of deposit from CDFIs are regarded as "non-standard assets," since they are held in physical form rather than as book-entry assets,“ and since there they do not trade in a secondary market. This means that the pricing, receipt of interest payments, and booking of assets by the custodian are largely a manual processes with most money managers. Often the community investments are not priced for the client – they are shown as “un-priced assets”. The absence of a secondary market means that an arms-length “trading price” cannot be established. This means that the value shown on your client’s statement may not match, and will be lower than the actual value. For this reason, some managers recommend that their clients make direct investments in Shared Interest.