Annie E. Casey Foundation – Social Investing

In the late 1990s, Trustees of the Annie E. Casey Foundation allocated $20 million for “Social Investing”— leveraging the endowment through investments that would generate a financial return and simultaneously enrich grant-making activities. By 2002, the Foundation had established a formal Social Investments program and the following year, the Trustees increased the Social Investing allocation to $100 million. Today, Program Related Investments (PRIs) and Mission-Related Deposits (MRDs) are just two of the many investment tools the Foundation makes that also complement its Making Connections Initiative.

Because the Foundation sought to enrich its grant-making activities through these investments, program officers and other initiative leaders needed to be facile with the essential concepts of social investing to help identify and facilitate investment opportunities in the cities where they worked.

To maximize the synergy between the programmatic and investment sides of the Foundation, the LGI team created a series of strategically targeted communications products to demonstrate the programmatic benefits of PRIs and MRDs. From simple informational tri-folds to more in-depth offerings including examples of how the investments support intended grant outcomes, the materials are being widely distributed internally and externally at the foundation. Based on their success, additional communications activities are currently under development.

Other LGI success stories in initiative development and internal communications include the Ford Foundation Asset Building and Community Development Program, the Emirates Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.