Social finance

Social finance is an approach to managing money which delivers a social dividend and an economic return.

Social finance is often used to describe the lending and investment into companies who consider themselves social enterprises, charities, co-operatives, and other impact-focused organisations. The term can include community investing, microfinance, social impact bonds, investing into sustainable businesses, and social enterprise lending. Outcome-based philanthropic grantmaking and program-related investments, sometimes referred to as venture philanthropy, also fall under the umbrella of social finance.

These approaches to investment and funding share the twin focus of stimulating positive social and environmental returns for investors and the larger world. Some social investors try to effect environmental return, which is referred to as a regard for a triple bottom line. Similarly, it can be seen as 3D investing, which accounts for risk, return and impact for consideration by investors.

RSF Social Finance

RSF Social Finance, located in San Francisco, California, is a non-profit financial services organization offering investing, lending, and philanthropic services to individuals and enterprises. RSF has over one thousand clients and more than $120 million in consolidated assets. RSF Social Finance is the trade name of Rudolf Steiner Foundation, Inc. and its affiliates. It has lent over $100,000,000 and made more than $50,000,000 in grants to non-profit organizations and social enterprises.As of 2006, RSF was growing at a 60% annual rate.

RSF provides access to capital for organizations committed to fair practices and improving economic conditions. It was instrumental in introducing microfinance to Citi Private Bank. The company has supported early-stage fair-trade companies unable to access loans from traditional banking sector. The organization upholds transparency in lending: annually, borrowers are sent a list of those who made their loan possible, and lenders are sent the complete list of those to whom loans have been given.

Social finance (disambiguation)

Social finance is an approach in finance aiming to deliver a social dividend, see Social finance.

It may also refer to:

RSF

RSF is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to :

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms as applied to populations of humans and other animals. It always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary.

Etymology

The word "Social" derives from the Latin word socii ("allies"). It is particularly derived from the Italian Socii states, historical allies of the Roman Republic (although they rebelled against Rome in the Social War of 91-88 BC).

Definition

In the absence of agreement about its meaning, the term "social" is used in many different senses and regarded as a fuzzy concept, referring among other things to:

Attitudes, orientations, or behaviors which take the interests, intentions, or needs of other people into account (in contrast to anti-social behaviour) has played some role in defining the idea or the principle. For instance terms like social realism, social justice, social constructivism, social psychology, social anarchism and social capital imply that there is some social process involved or considered, a process that is not there in regular, "non-social" realism, justice, constructivism, psychology, anarchism, or capital.