Volume 102: The Investment Vehicle Follows the Vision (Not the Other Way Around)
ImpactPHL Perspectives explores the many facets of the impact economy in Greater Philadelphia from the perspectives of its doers, movers, shakers, and agents of change. Each volume shares best practices and lessons learned while challenging our assumptions about financial and impact returns. For more perspectives, check out the full catalog of ImpactPHL Perspectives.
For too long, people have treated the “giving” side of their balance sheet and the “growing” side as if they belonged to two different value systems, according to philanthropy advisor Teresa Araco Rodgers.
“As though your investment portfolio is where you make money and your checkbook is where you do good,” says Teresa, who works with individuals, families, and companies to gift to and invest in issues that matter to them.
With more than 15 years of experience in the philanthropy space — and two decades before that in investment management — Teresa knows first-hand that this siloed way of thinking simply doesn’t work.
Here’s why: when you separate giving money and growing money, you're only being intentional with a fraction of your resources — and oftentimes, she says, the money you’re giving turns out to be the smaller fraction.
This mindset has allowed Teresa to build a business helping clients find a better way to add meaning, manage gifting, and align investing with their personal, family, corporate, and financial goals. Her company, harp-weaver, serves as personal philanthropic staff, supporting a client’s interests professionally, ethically, and cost-effectively, helping connect them with causes and organizations that have meaning to them.
“Thinking of philanthropy and investing as one continuum means asking the same question of all your capital: what impact is this having, and is it the impact I want?”
“Thinking of philanthropy and investing as one continuum means asking the same question of all your capital: what impact is this having, and is it the impact I want?” Teresa explains. “That's a much more powerful lens than treating impact as something you only address once a year at grant time.”
Carving out a philanthropic niche where one didn’t exist
Teresa began her career at SEI Investments Company where she moved around different roles, focused on expanding private wealth management services outside of North America.
As a twenty-something, new to the investment management space, Teresa was given a “side project” at SEI to help develop the company’s corporate philanthropy strategy. She loved the work, and during a company reorganization, Teresa threw her hat in the ring for a new role focused on developing a corporate-wide solution group focused on philanthropy.
“We were incubating a family office solution, so [working directly] with families and individuals, and any time any one of those entities articulated some interest in philanthropy beyond asset management, I was brought in to figure out what that meant,” she explains. “That's the work I really loved with families and individuals at that point of discovery.”
Teresa enjoyed this type of work so much she returned to school to earn a master’s degree in Governmental Administration (an MGA) with a certificate in nonprofit administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government.
When SEI eventually sunsetted the program Teresa led, she accepted a role back in private wealth management. She worked and lived abroad, but when she returned to the U.S., she felt the itch to get back into philanthropy. With their enthusiastic support, Teresa left SEI and took the leap to start harp-weaver.
She incorporated harp-weaver in 2010, and set out to help individuals and families with their ongoing philanthropy efforts full-time, including advising, grantmaking and foundation management and more.
When you invest in your own community, you can watch the impact unfold
Around the same time she started harp-weaver, Teresa was introduced to the world of impact investing.
Returning to Philadelphia after living abroad, Teresa and her husband wanted to make it a priority to reconnect with the city they love. They both grew up in the region and later planted roots in Chestnut Hill, so it was important to them to find a meaningful way to give back. They decided to take a portion of their own portfolio (which they manage together — her husband works in financial services) and invest it locally.
Teresa learned about Investors Circle, a national angel network of socially responsible investors, and immediately got involved.
“Tapping into a network like Investors Circle to source opportunities and learn alongside like-minded people [has been] tremendous,” Teresa says.
“It also means your capital is doing double duty: building wealth and building your own backyard at the same time.”
Her involvement with the organization helped her learn and engage in a different type of investing — and shined a light on the kinds of companies and entrepreneurs Teresa wanted to support.
“I look at every investment decision through both a financial and a values lens — not instead of returns, but alongside them,” Teresa explains. “I want to know who's behind a company, what problem they're solving, and who benefits when it succeeds.”
For Teresa, proximity changes what you can see and verify.
“When you invest in your own community, you can watch the impact unfold,” she says. “You know the entrepreneur, you can visit the business, you can talk to the people it employs or serves.”
This closeness makes the “impact” part of impact investing tangible rather than theoretical.
“It also means your capital is doing double duty: building wealth and building your own backyard at the same time,” she says.
Two of Teresa’s personal investments she’s most proud of absolutely fit the bill for being both local and meaningful.
Founded in Philadelphia, AnaOno makes post-surgery bras and breast forms designed by a cancer survivor. This was a need Teresa says was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream apparel industry until AnaOno’s founder Dana Donofree decided to solve it.
“Investing in AnaOno felt right because it combined a founder with deep authentic knowledge of her customer, a real unmet need, and a product that restores dignity and comfort at an incredibly vulnerable time in someone's life,” Teresa says.
WashCycle Laundry is a Philadelphia-based business that provides laundry services for hotels and businesses. Sounds simple, but here’s the differentiator: the company prioritizes creating work opportunities for people overcoming incarceration, homelessness, and other employment barriers.
“What made it the right investment for me wasn't just the business model, it was watching how seriously the founder, Gabriel Mandujano, took his responsibility to employees,” Teresa says.
“It's women who feel like themselves again, and it's people with steady paychecks and a sense of purpose in their work. Those are the returns that stay with me.”
The common denominator for both of these investments? Teresa fell in love with the entrepreneur and the people being served before the financials.
Plus, the impact of Teresa’s dollars isn’t some abstract concept — she can see the difference in real life, in her community.
“It's women who feel like themselves again, and it's people with steady paychecks and a sense of purpose in their work,” she says. “Those are the returns that stay with me.”
Finding your own personal definition of ‘impact’
Through Investors’ Circle, Teresa met John Moore, who served as managing partner of the organization at the time.
“He had this idea of creating ImpactPHL to really be that bridge and promoter of impact investing in Philly,” she says.
Teresa loved the concept, and through her involvement with both Investors’ Circle and ImpactPHL, she was inspired to eventually add mission-aligned investing to the roster of services harp-weaver provides.
She started off with two clients, helping to source, conduct due diligence and administer direct mission-aligned investments on behalf of clients. Today, advising clients on mission-aligned investments is a core part of several services the company offers.
“I always start with listening, not recommending,” Teresa shares. “Before we talk about vehicles or strategies, I want to understand what [a client] actually cares about — what experiences, causes, or communities have shaped them, and what impact even means to them personally, because that word means something different to everyone.”
Then, Teresa and her team consider the full picture: their current giving, investment portfolio, business interests, time, and networks.
“Impact isn't limited to the philanthropy line item,” Teresa says. “Only once we have that fuller picture do we start talking about structure — donor-advised funds, private foundations, impact investing, mission-related investments — because the vehicle should follow the vision, not the other way around.”
Written by Jessica Lawlor.