IMPACT INVESTOR CASE STUDY: “BEN CARTER”

Year Started Impact Investing: 2005

Primary Focus: Total Portfolio Management of all family assets

Background: In 2000, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ben Carter emerged from the tech IPO boom with a pile of cash and the desire to make a positive impact on the world. The company that Ben had stock options in had gone public and he became a millionaire overnight.

Impact Trigger

In 2001, Ben met with a financial advisor to devise a plan for deploying his new wealth. When he asked what investment opportunities there were to put his money to work for positive impact, the advisor wasn't sure if there were such options but pointed him toward environmental social governance (ESG) mutual funds. ESG mutual funds screen out companies based on specific criteria, such as tobacco. The impact that Ben wanted to make was bigger and different than simply “screening out the bad.” He didn't want to make more money with his money but wanted to invest with people he trusted and in ideas and ventures that excited him. Helping innovative social entrepreneurs, for instance, or lending money to small business owners in the community were of interest to him. The entrepreneurial spirit was part of Ben's DNA and he wanted to integrate his interests and intentions in something personal, understandable and on a human scale.

Ben continued to search for a different answer and eventually found his way into impact investing, a way of investing that seeks a financial as well as social and environmental returns.

Investment Strategy

Over time, demand from other like-minded investors helped drive the development of more investment opportunities as well as financial advisor expertise in the marketplace. With the guidance of a financial advisor versed in impact investing and in lockstep with an evolving market, Ben's portfolio is now 85 percent invested in impact investments across a well-diversified portfolio by impact strategy, impact issue and asset class. Impact strategy includes sustainable and thematic approaches. Asset classes include public equity, fixed income, hedge funds, real assets and cash equivalents. Impact issues include energy, water, financial services, community development and information technology.