Your clients are asking sharper questions about their philanthropy than they were even a few years ago. It’s no longer only how much they want to give, or when. Increasingly, it’s how the capital will work once it’s committed — and whether it can do more than one thing at a time.
That question sits at the heart of a growing field known as impact investing, and it is one that community foundations are increasingly engaged with.
Impact investing seeks to generate both a financial return and a measurable community benefit. It can take many forms: affordable housing projects, small business lending, community development financial institutions, environmental initiatives, and other efforts designed to address local challenges while preserving or growing capital. A traditional grant used to support affordable housing may be spent once. A recoverable investment, structured appropriately, could help finance the same project while creating the possibility that capital is repaid and later redeployed to support another community need.
At Pinellas Community Foundation, our board has been actively exploring this field, learning from foundations across the state and country that are using a broader range of charitable tools. We are asking careful questions about governance, risk, alignment with local priorities, and the balance between long-term financial stewardship and community impact.
For advisors, these questions are relevant for a few reasons.
Client conversations are changing. Donors, particularly next-generation wealth holders, are asking whether their charitable assets can align with their values not only in what they fund, but in how those assets are invested along the way. Advisors who can engage that question with fluency, rather than deferring it, deepen client trust and expand the strategic depth of the planning relationship.
Community foundations offer a distinct advantage here. Unlike a national donor-advised fund platform, a community foundation has a defined geography, a board that understands local capital needs, and existing relationships across the nonprofit and public sectors. That combination makes local impact investment credible in a way that would be difficult to construct through a national custodian.
Grants and impact investments are not competing approaches. Communities benefit from both. Traditional grantmaking remains essential for many nonprofit services and community initiatives. Impact investing simply adds a tool that may be appropriate in certain circumstances, and understanding when it is — and when it is not — is the kind of nuance that separates a competent charitable planning conversation from a strategic one.
For clients considering a donor-advised fund, a legacy fund, or a more complex charitable planning structure, impact investing may not be a defining factor today. But it is a conversation worth being ready for, particularly as more donors ask what their charitable capital is doing in the years before it is distributed.
Community foundations occupy a unique position at the intersection of philanthropy, civic leadership, and long-term community stewardship. Exploring these approaches thoughtfully, and inviting the professional advisor community into the conversation, is part of that responsibility.
If you have clients thinking about the fuller potential of their charitable assets, we would welcome the conversation.
Duggan Cooley is Chief Executive Officer of Pinellas Community Foundation and brings more than two decades of nonprofit leadership and fundraising experience to the role. Since joining PCF in 2016, he has expanded its grantmaking, increased its regional visibility, and helped grow the Foundation’s assets to more than $130 million. A longtime Pinellas County resident, Duggan works with donors, advisors, nonprofit organizations, and community leaders to address the region’s most pressing needs.
Connect with Duggan Cooley, CEO https://www.linkedin.com/in/duggancooley/
