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What We Are
SHF is currently a coordinated initiative to build the infrastructure necessary to make Social Investing more accessible to the general public. Donation/Grant based funding is the principal method of financing social causes and movements, but it is a highly inefficient way of doing so. It is also failing to adapt to the growing "social entrepreneur" movement, that is businessmen and women creating companies that blend for-profit models with social impact missions.
How We Do That
SHF's programs are part of a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to help fulfill our mission.
Educational Workshops and Social Events
The first step in achieving SHF's goals is answering the question "What is Social Investing?" for the public. By offering free workshops on Social Investing and Financial Education, SHF helps raise awareness and teach good investing strategy to communities that may lack the knowledge and experience to fairly identify these opportunities. SHF's workshops are not just about teaching Social Investing, but also more basic skills to ensure the investors are able to do their due diligence. The workshops are coordinated with Social Events to facilitate club development, bringing people with similar passions together and helping them coordinate and reach their goals.
Building a Network of Clubs
The investing club model serves to lower the costs of Social Investing to the individual and thereby expand the market into demographics with the necessary passion and commitment for social change, but not the financial means. Networking the clubs together also plays an important role in the advancement of the mission as the impact of one club is limited while the impact of an ever expanding network of clubs is infinite.
Consulting
By developing a consulting program to help Nonprofits and Social Enterprises identify the best way to issue Social Investments SHF not only establishes a secondary source of revenue, but we expand the opportunities for Social Investors both within the SHF system and outside. More investment opportunities will attract more investors to Social Investing and more investors will make Social Investing a more viable source of financing for the 3rd Sector.
The Network of Clubs also serves to complement the consulting activities of SHF, by providing an existing market for any securities that are produced as a result of the consulting program. Social Investing options are not thriving because they are unknown, they are failing to reach their true potential because the organizations that stand to benefit from them the most cannot find enough willing investors in order to make Social Investments a worthwhile venture. This is not a failing of the concept of Social Investing, it is a deficiency in the infrastructure facilitating entry into the market. The Club Network plan provides a platform from which to reach out to a large number of potential investors from diverse populations.
What We're NOT
First and foremost we are not an investment company, a hedge fund, a mutual fund or anything in between. When SHF was first started the intent was to create something like a SRI mutual fund (hence the name) with more direct active investments but we quickly decided that not only were we unprepared for something like that, but that there was a whole lot MORE that needed to be done other than opening yet ANOTHER fund. So with time, research and debate the model shifted while the name stuck.
We cannot offer you investment advice, nor should anything here be interpreted as such. All information about investments found via SHF is an evaluation of their SOCIAL merits, not financial ones. Please consult a professional and do your research before investing.
We are also not a 501(c)3, although we intend to become one eventually, and therefore cannot offer tax deductions nor solicit donations.
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