After becoming disillusioned with the financial model and ineffectiveness of so many of the nonprofits around him, Peter Brill stumbled upon an investment alternative that is now beginning to make its way into the mainstream. Brill, a retired psychiatrist, UPenn professor, and business owner, is bringing impact investing out into the Santa Barbara sunshine.
Part of the same larger philosophy of “conscious capitalism,” social entrepreneurship, and “social return on investment,” impact investing places money in initiatives, organizations, companies, and funds meant to produce an appreciable and beneficial social impact — along with a financial return.
Brill, who became interested in impact investing after retiring to Santa Barbara and getting involved in the nonprofit scene, wanted to bring the financial practice to the forefront of area investors’ and philanthropists’ attention. “Nonprofits are wonderful, wonderful organizations; they do a lot of good,” he told me. “The philanthropy that underlies them is very important. … But as change agents, they don’t work very well. And by and large, they tend to sometimes stabilize a problem, but not necessarily resolve it.”