Investments that help other people

MathI

I inherited about £60,000 from my grandparents and as I'm fortunate enough to not currently have any debt or immediate need for it I want to invest it in a socially productive way until I may need it in the future.
I've considered buying a property and renting it out at reduced rates for disadvantaged young people but had no response from any charities on how to go about this, and I've also looked at a microfinance company called Deki .org.uk
I'd like to be able to invest it in a way that it could grow over time but as I said its important to me that it will help other people.
Any advice or suggestions would be really helpful!
Thanks

masonic

https://www.kiva.org/about might be worth a look.

londoninvestor

Perhaps worth looking at initiatives that use the government's Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) - which would provide an income tax benefit.

An example of one that was raising money earlier this year:
http://www.innvotec.com/ACSITR-Fund/

The Adolescent Care SITR Fund has been designed to fit the joint criteria of being;

- a good investment in its own right, and

- delivering a real positive impact by helping young adolescents whose wellbeing is the responsibility of the Local Authorities

Innvotec’s Strategic Partner for the Fund Young London Today is dedicated to helping young people over the age of 16, in or shortly about to leave local authority care, make a successful transition to independent living, education or employment. These young people need to be taught life skills and the majority continue to need help in being able to address historic issues, many of which have been traumatic and the effects long-lasting. Such specialist support is best given in purpose-fitted and permanent accommodation, which is at the centre of the Fund’s offering.

I should stress I know very little about this particular fund or investment manager and am not making any kind of recommendation - this is just intended as a starting point for your own research. If this kind of investment would achieve the aims you have in mind, you might want to research similar ventures.

short_butt_sweet

again i'm not endorsing them, but might be worth looking at triodos: see https://www.triodos.co.uk/individual (and click 'Investments')

kiva (already mentioned by masonic) is microfinance, as is one of the options with triodos. some research suggests that microfinance may not have such positive effects as are sometimes claimed for it. e.g. try searching for "microfinance and poverty".

Tropically

You could invest with Abundance. I have a number of small investments with them and have had really good returns so far. They are usually fixed rate debentures on social energy projects but they also do housing. I like them a lot.

steampowered

There are a number of ethical investment funds out there which might suit.

There is a bit of subjectivity with ethical investing. There are some funds who just invest in everything except for things like gambling/alcohol/weapons. Others are more focussed.

Perhaps something like The Theadneedle UK Social Bond Fund might suit? http://www.columbiathreadneedle.co.uk/en/threadneedle-funds/funds-and-prices-uk/prices-data/oeics/retail-z-(acc)/fixed-income/uk-social-bond-fund/

kidmugsy

Invest in start-up companies in oil and gas exploration: cheap energy will do more for the poor of the world than almost anything else except, maybe, clean water.

badger09

masonic wrote: »

https://www.kiva.org/about might be worth a look.

I’m a supporter of KIVA and have been lending for many years. However, I definitely wouldn’t consider it as one of my investments.

I view it as charitable donations, which, if repaid, can then be lent out again.

Malthusian

MathI wrote: »

I inherited about £60,000 from my grandparents and as I'm fortunate enough to not currently have any debt or immediate need for it I want to invest it in a socially productive way until I may need it in the future.

You say you don't have an immediate need for it which suggests you might need it at some point in the future. When are you likely to need it?

The kind of philanthropic investments you (and some others) are talking about should only be used for money you will never need, as they are at minimum extremely high risk in nature. They are therefore only suitable for high net worth investors who genuinely have money they can afford to lose or give away (i.e. money that they will never spend no matter how long they live), which a £60,000 inheritance doesn't amount to on its own. I.e. don't invest unless you are happy to not see a single penny back and write it off as a £60,000 charitable gift.

seacaitch

I would take an approach similar to that of university endowment funds: invest it for the long term using a sensible strategy and then periodically siphon off some of the returns to give to specific causes that interest you, while maintaining the long term real (inflation adjusted) value of the capital.

AnotherJoe

kidmugsy wrote: »

Invest in start-up companies in oil and gas exploration: cheap energy will do more for the poor of the world than almost anything else except, maybe, clean water.

Is that a joke? In multiple respects, there's nothing cheap about ff based energy, apart from already existing Saudi and similar resources, its now more expensive than wind and solar, it despoils the local and remote environments (we are all breathing in noxious fumes created by its use) and its highly risky. Expenditure on exploration of new oil resources is falling off a cliff because of financial reasons (long term price of oil is only going way way, down and the easy oils already been found) so you'd need to get very lucky with a cheap-to-extract oil find.


And I havent even mentioned global warming. If you find that credible, thats another reason not to.