Investing in Community: Impact Initiative

What does it mean to “be invested” in someone? It’s one way of saying, “I believe in you.”

YouthBridge Community Foundation believes in our community’s potential, and is demonstrating it through our new 25×25 Impact Investing Initiative. We are making a long-term commitment to invest 25% of our portfolio by the year 2025 in local and regional projects that will have a social impact.

The concept of “25×25” is simply moving investment assets from Wall Street to Main Street. It matches heart and soul with dollars and cents. It supports real change, real people, and the real world around us by leveraging our assets to meet the capital needs of nonprofits and social enterprises in our region.

YouthBridge has a history of supporting innovative ideas and big, bold moves through programs like Think Big For Kids and pioneering investment in social enterprise. The YouthBridge 25×25 Impact Investing Initiative is another forward-thinking strategy for fueling positive social change that we’re excited to champion in St. Louis.

Keeping our impact investments in the region will also enable us to benefit a broader segment of our community. We are proud to be the only community foundation in St. Louis to be investing our endowment assets locally to this level.

Sheri Flanagan-Vasquez with Justine Petersen, a Community Development Financial Institution which makes social impact investments such as micro-enterprise lending and credit building, gave her thoughts on the 25×25 Impact Initiative. “In our local St. Louis market this puts YouthBridge as a leader in the forefront of social impact investing. This commitment is really above and beyond what we’ve seen. Especially in our community, where this is new and innovative, we’re hoping that a lot of foundations will jump on board and follow this lead.”

We would like to thank the YouthBridge Community Foundation Board of Directors for their support and vision in embracing the substantial commitment this initiative represents. We believe our regional impact investing strategy continues our mission to strengthen the St. Louis community, and look forward to sharing our progress. If you’d like to stay informed about our 25×25 Impact Initiative, please join our email list.