Community Investing

Community investing refers to financing that creates resources and opportunities for economically disadvantaged people and people under-served by traditional financial institutions. Capital generated through community investing initiatives enable local organizations to generate jobs, fund small businesses, create affordable housing and provide financial and other vital community services to financially disadvantaged people. Community investments are known to make a greater impact in helping communities in need than charitable giving. It is perhaps for this reason that community investing has become an attractive investment option for wealthy individuals, interested in making a social impact, even earn monetary gains. Corporates have also found a good avenue in community investing to fulfil their social missions. Today, community investors are playing a crucial role in alleviating poverty in many countries like the US, the UK, South Africa and India. In fact, community investors have been at the forefront of rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of the disastrous tsunami, hurricane Katrina and after the war in Afghanistan. This book captures the recent developments in the area of community investing across the globe. It is divided into three sections: the first section titled "Introduction" introduces and explains the concept of ‘Community Investing’, the second section "Experiences" showcases a few country experiences and the third section "Corporate Community Investments" is devoted to studying the progress of corporate community investing initiatives.