Socially Responsible Personal Investing

I’ve spent most of my lifetime working for or volunteering in nonprofit organizations, as well as nearly three decades of my professional life studying and teaching about the indispensable role that philanthropic and non-profit institutions play in solving social problems and facilitating social change. Self-Help has an impressive track record in doing both--using charitable support as leverage for multiplying governmental and for-profit institutional support to strengthen communities and families in impoverished areas. In fact, I was so impressed by Self-Help as an example of imaginative foundation grantmaking that my research assistants and I chose Self-Help as one of the cases to be included in a casebook on great foundation impact. 

More than two years ago, while researching various opportunities in which to invest some of my own savings, I came across Self-Help’s federally insured CD deposit products and competitive interest rates. I thought to myself “What a terrific way to engage in socially responsible personal investing!” and I have been a consistent investor in such Self-Help certificates of deposit since. They offer both the security of a government-guaranteed principal and the personal satisfaction of strengthening Self-Help’s ability to finance opportunity for those who cannot obtain it otherwise. What more could one wish to have in an investment vehicle?

Joel. L Fleishman
Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies
Director, Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center for Ethics, Public Policy, and the Professions
Director, Foundation Strategy and Impact Research Program
Duke University