When we announced that hunger was the first major health challenge we set out to tackle in Kansas, many businesses and organizations stepped up to partner with us.

From the private sector, Thrive Restaurant Group provided funds to help with coordination and training. The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund supports two coalitions working locally to address the issue. As time goes on, our list of partners continues to grow, and this is a direct result of activating one of the six key strategies in our strategic framework.

Strategy #5: To inspire and align additional resources behind our vision to lead the nation in health. 

We know our endowment and grant funding are not enough to make real change happen on health outcomes in Kansas. We need other businesses, foundations and organizations to come alongside us and align their resources toward the same effort through purposeful investments into the businesses and nonprofits that carry out this important work. 

We’re not asking these organizations to invest alone. We’re joining them. Kansas Health Foundation is committing additional capital to support ideas that are driving health forward in Kansas through impact investing.

What is Impact Investing?

Impact investing is the practice of putting money into projects that generate both a financial return and a measurable social impact. For us, that looks like investing in businesses and organizations that help solve the problems we care about. Specifically, improving health outcomes in Kansas.

Our efforts take funds from our endowment and, instead of investing it in stocks and bonds in the larger market, we’re reinvesting them in Kansas.

In simple terms:

• We’re investing in both nonprofit and mission-aligned for-profit Kansas-based organizations.

• Investments may come in the form of loans, equity, deposits, and other financial tools.

• Projects might be community facilities, healthy food businesses or sustainable farming startups.
  

When making these types of investments, the most important question we ask is: “How is your project going to help Kansas lead the nation in health?”

Why Impact Investing?

Our founding came from the sale of a critical community asset: Wesley Hospital. The wealth that built this foundation came from our community, and as stewards of those resources, we believe it is critical that a substantial portion be reinvested in Kansas.

Impact investing allows us to support projects that have the potential to transform health outcomes across the state, especially those that might be overlooked by traditional funders. That’s one of the most exciting parts of this strategy: we get to say “yes” to good ideas that might not check all the boxes for bank loans or investments by private equity firms. 

Unlike grant funding, impact investing provides a return on our investment that can be reinvested into new projects. We might make just 3% on a loan, but that 3% can go back into our Kansas investment portfolio to fund even more ideas and projects. 

That’s the beauty of impact investing: it allows us to align our capital with our mission, activating the kind of change we want to see in Kansas now and for generations to come.

What’s Next?

We have a core group of 30 nonprofit partners in our Building Power & Equity Partnership (BPEP) initiative, and some of these partners’ projects have become our first impact investing recipients, which we’ll be announcing later this summer. 

Stay tuned!