Why I Invest for Better
Real stories from real women investing for a better world
Investing in community development. Founded the Bookery, a Manchester, New Hampshire bookstore
Liz Hitchcock
Entrepreneur & Investor
Investing in women of color
Betty Francisco
Angel Investor, Member of Pipeline Angels
Creating new opportunities for impact investment. Mentors the next generation of purpose-driven business leaders
Priya Parrish
Partner, Impact Engine
Building public-private partnerships to drive social change
Tracy Palandjian
CEO & Co-Founder
Social Finance
Bringing impact investing to the mainstream
Jackie VanderBrug
Head of Sustainable & Impact Investment Strategy
Bank of America Global Wealth Investment Management
“Over the course of 35 years of building a brand, women have always been the heartbeat of the company. I am a passionate believer that if you give women the resources and platform from which to use their voice, they can have a tremendous impact across the business landscape and communities at large. Women bring a perspective that can fundamentally change the business model paradigm.”
Eileen Fisher
Founder & Co-CEO
EILEEN FISHER, Inc.
“I’ve elevated my approach beyond traditional methods like asset class and sector to invest in companies that are diversifying their leadership to include more women. As an investor and entrepreneur, I have seen that diversity of leadership is a competitive advantage. As a human being, I love that I can play a direct role in improving the lives of women and girls by supporting their businesses.”
Suzanne Lerner
President
Michael Stars
“As a passionate environmental philanthropist I am keenly aware of the ways my investments have contributed to the planet’s compromised health. I want my money to grow an economy based on clean energy and healthy materials. Now that we can expect market returns from companies that are improving our well-being I’m excited to deploy my money to help create a better world.”
Carolyn Fine Friedman
Chair
The Fine Fund
“I became an angel investor after learning that black entrepreneurs get less than 1% of VC funding. Previously I had worked at several startups which scaled and had successful exits. I knew the importance of funding and wanted to do something to help level the playing field.”
Lorine Pendleton
Portfolia Investment Partner and Member of Pipeline Angels
“I was raised by a school teacher and a social worker, who always emphasized the importance of supporting and being part of a community. As an investor I can contribute to many types of communities—geographically, but also by affinity. As a women and a person of color, impact investing is one tool at my disposal to empower those who have been left behind by traditional capital markets.”
Lisa Hall
Senior Fellow
The Case Foundation and Georgetown Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation
“Nonprofits and social entrepreneurs are businesses and require access to financial services and contingency. The philanthropic sector’s unwillingness to prepare for financial disruptions sets it apart from ordinary business transactions in which having a plan B is expected and routine. I find that providing contingency funding and bridge loans is an effective way to ensure that positive social impact is protected.”
Laurie Michaels
Senior Partner
Founder, Open Road Alliance
“Business and finance have a stake in maintaining great community environments. We work to make a difference with the corporations whose stock we own, not just to change them, but to change the dialogue and the systemic views that are prevailing — particularly regarding lack of opportunity and mobility within the U.S. as well as in the wider world.”
Geeta Aiyer
President
Boston Common Asset Management
“After many years of being told what I should do with my assets, and how I should do it, I now realize that I can be in the drivers seat. A new world of thrilling possibility has opened up to me. I realize I can marry my deep love of nonprofits with profitable companies that are doing a myriad of things to better the world in meaningful & sustainable ways. I am deeply appreciative of this opportunity.”
Meg
Investor and Concerned Citizen
“In order to catalyze more of our balance sheet for impact, we wanted to move beyond just the 5% dedicated towards philanthropic giving. By allocating the other 95% of our portfolio to impact investing, we are now using 100% of our assets to further our mission around providing economic opportunities for women and girls globally.”
Steph Cordes
Co-Chair
Cordes Foundation
“Angel investors tend to invest in what they understand. I think a lot of women who are able to invest just don’t know of the opportunities, or wait until they think they’re experts. That creates barriers. Surround yourself with people who are doing it. Take the leap.”
Betty Francisco
Angel Investor
Member of Pipeline Angels
“Our investment capital is a tremendously underused tool for achieving positive social change. We now live in a world where we can invest for positive return and have those resources be aligned with our values. This we can do. This we must do.”
Jacki Zehner
President
The Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation
“My wish is that every woman with wealth would look beyond philanthropy as a tool to move the needle on the issues they care about, and realize that their investment dollars have impacts. Don’t let any adviser or others tell you it can’t be done. If we demand more from capitalism we will get it. That’s how the invisible hand works.”
Jessica Droste Yagan
Managing Partner
Impact Engine
“I believe that the traditional paradigm for how foundations drive social change should be turned upside down. If we think about our endowments and our investment strategy as the primary engine of social change, that is going to unleash a huge amount of capital and really drive change in a way that we could never have dreamed of.”
Ruth Shaber
Founder
Tara Health Foundation
“We’re seeing impact investing go beyond the realm of a do-gooders’ experiment to become front and center on Wall Street. Women are coming together—and our male allies are getting on board.”
Jenny Abramson
Founder & Managing Partner
Rethink Impact
“I had a wake-up moment that I could manage assets in the new way: a way that better matched my values. I will be seeking ways to invest to advance racial equity by addressing income inequality, access to affordable housing, and access to capital.”
Amy
Boston-based investor
“For the first time in my life, I feel connected to my assets in a very personal and powerful way. It’s not just about what they are doing for me, but how they are shaping the world I want to live in and leave for my children. Impact investments are sustainable, scalable tools to address the social issues that I used to support only through my philanthropy.”
Ellen Remmer
Senior Partner
The Philanthropic Initiative
“I want a world that works for all, and investment is one vehicle through which I can support the social and environmental change we need for a better, cleaner, more prosperous and fairer world. We need to back the companies and projects that are creating the world we want.”
Suzanne Biegel
Founder,
Catalyst at Large
“We are women in our community who use their wealth and business acumen to make a difference by investing in women. We’re a committed capital fund, so we’re all in on every deal we decide to invest in. We provide access to capital, access to our experience and access to our networks around the world.”
Carolyn Cassin
Co-Founder and General Partner
BELLE Impact Fund
“While it is still early days for impact investing, the movement’s momentum is strong. As an investor and a philanthropist, I’m energized to see how much the sector has grown in the last 10 years. Impact investing is here to stay, and I look forward to a day when all investments are made with impact in mind.”
Jean Case
CEO
The Case Foundation
“We are inextricably linked with the activities our money supports and can gain power way beyond ourselves in aligning our banking and investing with our values. Seize your worth!”
Kat Taylor
CEO
Beneficial State Bank and Managing Partner, Radicle Impact Partners
“Aligning my personal capital with the vision of a just, verdant and peaceful world is essential to eliminating dissonance in my life and getting a good night’s sleep.”
Lisa Renstrom
Co-Founder
Values Advisor
“As soon as my foundation board read an investment policy statement that put values first, they were all in. I don’t want to see women working at the edge of a coal pit and realize that I’m part of that system. The Weissberg Foundation envisions a just world that builds access, opportunity, and power so all can thrive.”
Nina Weissberg
Trustee & Vice Chair
The Weissberg Foundation
“To unlock game-changing advances in science, investment is needed across the spectrum of returns. I’ve dedicated the entirety of my estate to philanthropy and scientific research. Balancing profit with purpose is how I use capital to make the world a better place.”