{"id":1527,"date":"2023-09-01T14:18:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T14:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/?p=1527"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:09:46","slug":"meet-three-community-bond-buyers-heres-why-they-invested","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/fr\/story\/meet-three-community-bond-buyers-heres-why-they-invested\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet three community bond buyers \u2014 here\u2019s why they invested"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Investors are an essential piece of the community bond puzzle. But who are they? What\u2019s important to them? What do they value? What do they need to know about you and your project to make the decision to invest?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answers to these questions are unique to each organisation and project \u2014 and Tapestry clients find those answers through <\/span>stage two of our process<\/span><\/a> working together \u2014\u00a0but to give you a glimpse into the minds and motivations of community bond supporters, we sat down with three different investors and asked an important question: Why did you buy?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what they told us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The community development organisation looking to publicly support affordable housing<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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When Haliburton County, Ont.-based affordable housing provider Places for People launched a community bond raise earlier this summer, one of the very first investors snapped up $50,000 worth of bonds \u2014\u00a0a pretty significant chunk of the $850,000 goal. That investor was the Haliburton County Development Corporation (HCDC), and executive director Patti Tallman says it was HCDC\u2019s longtime faith in Places for People\u2019s work that made investing a no-brainer. \u201cKnowing the affiliation with Tapestry\u2026we felt very comfortable in that investment,\u201d Patti adds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After working with Places for People for many years \u2014\u00a0HCDC has loaned the organization money in the past for its affordable housing work \u2014\u00a0Patti says the community bond campaign was a welcome opportunity to publicly support Places for People\u2019s work. \u201cWe wanted to be able to show that HCDC is a huge supporter of the concept of what Places for People is and what they do,\u201d says Patti. \u201cTo be able to help launch the program right from the get go, it\u2019s maybe going to [encourage] more people to think, <\/span>Yeah, I can make an investment here<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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HCDC typically invests in businesses in Haliburton, so an investment in a non-profit is \u201cunique and different\u201d from their other work, Patti says. It was a new concept for others, too: Patti says in some of the local media coverage, reporters called the investment a donation, which is not the case. All community bond investors receive their principal investment back, with interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

The interest HCDC earns from their investment will go back into its programs supporting economic development in the county, like its Local Initiatives Program \u2014\u00a0the only program of its kind hosted by a community development corporation \u2014\u00a0which provides non-repayable grants to nonprofits contributing to Haliburton County\u2019s resiliency and vibrancy. Community bonds are meant to build community wealth, and HCDC\u2019s relationship with Places for People is a great example.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The individual investor who believes in helping her neighbours out<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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After Deb Alore retired from her job in public health, she began to get more involved in community advocacy in Kamloops, B.C., which she\u2019s called home since 1987. When she started going to general meetings and potlucks hosted by the Kamloops Food Policy Council, she met Lindsay Harris, the council\u2019s food policy implementation lead. She\u2019d also heard of Myles Pruden\u2019s work in the community on net-zero, affordable housing construction.<\/span><\/p>\n

So when Lindsay and Myles came together to start another organisation,\u00a0Propolis Housing Cooperative, to build new affordable housing in the community, Deb took note. And when Propolis launched a community bond raise, she was in. \u201cI respect them very much. I think those folks have done great things with other projects,\u201d Deb says. \u201cI just wanted to be a part of something positive and solution-based. And given that I felt the people involved were really reputable, I just thought, <\/span>I can’t not support this. I need to do this.<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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As a longtime Kamloops resident, Deb can see firsthand how challenging the housing market is. \u201cWe’ve had our share of financial challenges too, but I’ve never felt like I was in danger of losing my shelter because of the cost,\u201d she says. As someone with the means to help her Kamloops neighbours, Deb feels a responsibility to do so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deb invested in the Worker Bee bond, a minimum $1,000 bond with 2.5 per cent interest paid at the end of a three-year term. This is the first community bond Deb has invested in, but she doesn\u2019t think it will be the last. One factor that limited the size of her investment this time around, though, was that it couldn\u2019t be held in an RRSP (some community bonds can be held in RRSPs and TFSAs, but for Propolis\u2019s first raise, their bonds are not eligible). \u201cI’m retired and a lot of my savings are in RRSPs,\u201d she says. \u201cI had to [use] non registered money that I didn’t need for other things.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Deb says she\u2019s not overly concerned with the returns. \u201cFor me,\u201d she says, \u201cthe investment piece of it was just sort of incidental. It was all about being a part of something positive, a positive change. The fact that I may earn a little bit of interest by loaning the Propolis group a bit of money over the next three years, that’s a bonus. But that is certainly not what drove me to be involved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The foundation with a national scope and a commitment to impact investment<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Toronto-based Inspirit Foundation has invested in a number of community bond campaigns, among them <\/span>SolarShare<\/span><\/a>, a cooperative that owns 52 commercial-scale solar power projects across Ontario.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jory says Inspirit is attracted to the \u201cclean and simple\u201d nature of community bonds:\u00a0investors buy a bond, and their principal investment is repaid with interest after a predetermined term, usually a few years. \u201cComparing that to private equity deals, comparing that to social impact bonds, it\u2019s just simpler. I think that’s certainly an advantage of it,\u201d Jory says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Inspirit isn\u2019t necessarily deterred by more complicated investments \u2014 Jory looks for good investments in solid ideas and projects,\u00a0<\/span>and focuses less on the format, he says. But Inspirit does tend to invest in projects and organisations with measurable or tangible outcomes. \u201cMost of the stuff that we look at is pretty concrete, and we were able to see or even interact with end users,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of why Jory is a connoisseur of impact investment formats is Inspirit\u2019s commitment to a 100 per cent impact investment portfolio \u2014 whereas some foundations make more traditional investments without ESG considerations in order to earn returns for their granting programs. \u201cSince Inspirit exists to create a more inclusive and pluralist society, our investments need to generate returns that transcend financial outcomes for our foundation and maximize stakeholder value,\u201d reads Inspirit\u2019s <\/span>investment policy statement<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jory predicts Inspirit will continue to invest in community bonds, and that he\u2019ll have more and more to choose from. \u201cI get the sense that more and more nonprofits are looking at the model and wondering if it\u2019s workable [for them].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1528,"template":"","format":[],"topic":[78,51],"class_list":["post-1527","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","story_topic-affordable-housing","story_topic-education"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet three community bond buyers \u2014 here\u2019s why they invested - Tapestry Capital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From individual investors to big charitable foundations, community bond investors buy in for all kinds of reasons.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/fr\/histoire\/meet-three-community-bond-buyers-heres-why-they-invested\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_CA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet three community bond buyers \u2014 here\u2019s why they invested - 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