Elizabeth Funk is a leader in bringing for-profit investment dollars to help solve the world’s toughest problems. She is founder and CEO of Dignity Capital, a collection of Impact Investing funds and projects. She is the Senior General Partner at DevEquity an innovative fund providing for-profit venture-style investment funding to social enterprises in Latin America.
Elizabeth’s latest project is DignityMoves, focused on creating transitional and interim housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness.
Elizabeth was one of the early pioneers in impact investing. She created the Dignity Fund in 2004, one of the first for-profit funds mobilizing investment capital for the Microfinance industry.
Elizabeth continues to be an active voice in the impact sector, as a board member, investment committee member, public speaker, investor, advisor and mentor. She is dedicated to harnessing the power of capital to address the world’s most pressing problems.
Impact investing is investing money with a purpose. The person who makes the investment wants to profit from the investment. However, they also want to help realize a measurable community improvement goal.
The world’s most pressing problems are just too enormous to be solved by donated dollars alone. Put bluntly, if people make money solving the world’s problems, those problems will get solved. We believe it is not unethical or inappropriate to make a profit while helping others; These positive returns are what allow us to attract the scope of capital necessary to make substantial, lasting impact. Structuring an organization to be sustainable means the management can focus their attention on growing the business, rather than fundraising for donated dollars.
We work with a select group of funds and projects that all have one thing in common: a dedication to making the world a better place, while making investors and stakeholders a fair and attractive return on their money.