Socially Responsible Investments
We invest in sustainable agriculture and forestry, local food systems, renewable energy, and local community building enterprises.
Investments for Social Good
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and initially established as a real estate investment company in 1995 to invest in the Thoreau Center for Sustainability, Highlands SRI has become increasingly drawn to innovative social enterprises that are locally focused and responding to the needs of marginalized and underfunded communities.
We recognize that a lack of access to capital for communities comprised of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color is both a symptom and a cause of a broken, extractive economic system based on racism and inequity, that this is a global phenomenon, and that low-cost, patient, integrated capital is needed to build capacity, diversify wealth systems, and promote racial and economic equity.
Highlands SRI and associated entities occasionally invest in third-party managed funds as intermediaries, and we also greatly value our direct, long term relationships with highly creative and dedicated small businesses, non-profits, CDFIs and other organizations working to expand the field of socially responsible investments.
We do not seek investors and we do not accept unsolicited proposals for potential investments. However, we are interested in co-investing with others, when mission and values align. Our larger mission is to help in small and direct ways to build towards a regenerative economy, based on responsible and appropriate initiatives, that respect both natural ecosystems and local communities. We take an integrated capital approach to investments utilizing equity, loans, and convertible debt, and occasionally grants. We are particularly interested in social enterprises that work with and empower Native American, Indigenous, Black, Immigrant, and other marginalized communities when they see themselves as stewards for the land in reciprocal relationship with the natural world and with future generations.
Sectors We Invest In
Highlands SRI is a socially responsible private investor based in California. We invest toward a green economy, in non-extractive sectors. Across all sectors, we invest with a preference for organizations led and/or owned by Indigenous, Black, and People of Color.
Related Organizations
Highlands SRI manages direct investments for our own portfolio as well as assisting some of these associated partnerships and charitable entities in adding impact investments to their portfolios.
Tamalpais Trust supports the development and strengthening of Indigenous-led initiatives, organizations, and global networks that promote and serve Indigenous cultures, economies, and lifeways, values and knowledge, human rights, ceremonial practices, and the protection of sacred waters and lands.
- Private Trust
- International Grantmaker
- Investment Portfolio is Primarily US-Based
- Investments are Focused on Increasing Access to Capital
Kalliopeia Foundation is responding to a global need that is emerging across cultures: to take spiritual as well as physical responsibility for our common home.
Our programs and those we support are rooted in the understanding that ecological, cultural, and spiritual renewal are interdependent. We partner with individuals and organizations who create and hold a space where pressing, contemporary issues can be engaged through this holistic lens. In doing so, we envision a future that is built upon compassion, respect, dignity, reverence for nature, and care for each other and the Earth.
- Private Foundation
- Domestic Grantmaker
- Primarily US-Based Investment Portfolio
Learn more about Kalliopeia at Emergence Magazine and Global Oneness Project
The Seeds, Soil & Culture Fund supports the transformation of local and regional food systems through the power of biodiversity and biocultural heritage, aiming to shine light on the knowledge, values and leadership that inspire the practice of agroecology worldwide.
Seeds, Soil, and Culture grants support farmers who bring their culture to the forefront, who illustrate how their beliefs, values, language, ethics, art, music, cuisine, ways of learning, and traditional farming practices embody agroecology at its best, who recognize that the spiritual unseen can fruitfully bridge living soils with living seeds on the farm.
- Donor Advised Fund
- International and Domestic Grantmaker
common humanity – respect – dignity – agency
Global Whole Being Fund supports courageous, compassionate, heart-led local, national and international programs and initiatives serving forcibly displaced and receiving communities.
- Private Grantmaking Fund
- International and Domestic
The Highlands 3:23 Fund, Highlands’ own Donor Advised Fund housed at Impact Assets in Baltimore, was opened in 2018 specifically to provide integrated capital for businesses and non-profits run by African American, Indigenous, and other People of Color including Latinex and Asian/Pacific Islanders.
- DAF for Grants, Low-Cost Loans and Equity Investments
Delsar, LLC
Delsar makes investments to re-envision and create new equitable and regenerative systems in the drive towards planetary health, with a focus on economic, racial, and environmental justice.
- Private Impact Investor
Meeting the Moment
COVID-19
Highlands and some of our affiliated organizations recognize that flexibility is needed by our investees now more than ever.
Cavallo Point Disaster Relief Fund
As an investor during the development of Cavallo Point Lodge, Highlands worked with the Lodge and with Turning Green non-profit in San Rafael, to develop and fund a grant fund for employees who are laid off or underemployed due to COVID-19.
BIPOC Investments Initiative
Increasing Access to Capital for People of Color
During this important time of transformation, Highlands has stepped up its ongoing efforts to partner with organizations led and/or owned by Native American, Black, and other People of Color.
We’re providing low-cost, patient capital, often paired with small grants, to support operations, development, expansion, or capacity building, with the intent of contributing to economic and racial equity for those who’ve been denied access to asset-building financial systems in America.