How impact investors are using Wall Street principles in the battle against poverty

Hi Everyone and Welcome Back!

This week on The Nick Halaris Show we are featuring impact investor, Debbie La Franchi. Debbie is the founder and CEO of SDS Capital Group, an impact fund with over $1B of investments and a 20-year track record of success. A lot of people these days talk about impact, but Debbie and her colleagues at SDS actually walk the walk as well. They have been making strategic investments at the leading edge of two of the most important initiatives in America today. Their funds address both the housing affordability crisis and the attempt to revitalize the manufacturing sector. 

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I wanted to have Debbie on the show to learn firsthand what it takes to be a genuine impact investor. She is among the first few impact investors ever to emerge in America and obviously one of the most successful. We met through our mutual passion for civic activism earlier this year. I invited her to a meeting with some of my colleagues on the LA Coalition who had gathered to prepare some pro-housing recommendations for Mayor Bass here in Los Angeles and as she delivered a tour de force of understanding and insight of all the interconnections between business and government, I knew I had to have her on the show. In this fascinating discussion we cover:

• How SDS is working to alleviate poverty, address the housing affordability and homelessness crises and bring back manufacturing to America

• Why the pressure to generate competitive risk adjusted returns make impact investing a difficult art and distinguishes it from philanthropy

• Why Debbie believes it’s so important to recruit business to the fight against poverty, injustice, and inequity

• The inspiring origin story for SDS

  &

• Much, much more

Stay tuned to the end to learn how early experiences in Debbie’s life informed her steadfast passion for making a difference in the world and how an opportunity working for Mayor Riordan’s Administration in Los Angeles opened her eyes to a whole new world of possibility with impact investing. 

I hope you all enjoy this episode. Thanks for tuning-in! 

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