Social Investment Australia (SIA) provides social investment products to investors who are seeking a financial and social return.
SIA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Foresters Community Finance Limited (Foresters). Foresters is a Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) providing finance and investment capital to the community sector in Australia. Foresters' goal is to employ community finance and social investment strategies to service and support people, organisations and communities who have limited access to mainstream financial institutions.
Foresters comes from the tradition of Friendly Societies in Australia and has been delivering community finance and social investment in Australia for more than 150 years.
Social investment defined
Social investment, sometimes referred to as social impact investment or socially responsible investment, is defined by the act of actively sourcing and placing capital in investment products that generate social and/or environmental good with a market related return to the investor.
In 2009 the Monitor Institute released a report on catalysing the emerging social impact investment market. Their view was that “…impact investors want to move beyond “socially responsible investment,” which focuses primarily on avoiding investments in “harmful” companies or encouraging improved corporate practices related to the environment, social performance, or governance. Instead, they actively seek to place capital in businesses and funds that can provide solutions at a scale that ...
