Aligning values and investments to honor a legacy

Dick Fallow

When Quad Cities–area nonprofit Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) decided to honor the legacy of community activist Dick Fallow after his death in 2013, opening a memorial fund at the Quad Cities Community Foundation was a natural choice. Not only would PACG be able to set up a designated endowment fund to distribute yearly grants to local progressive causes, but it could also invest those assets in the Community Foundation’s Socially Responsive Pool.

“It’s what Dick would have wanted,” said Alta Price, one of PACG’s co-founders and a member of the nonprofit’s board. On top of a long and successful career fighting for workers’ rights, Fallow was an ardent advocate for democracy, peace, and the environment. In his later years, he served on PACG’s board, helping to further the organization’s mission of driving awareness and advocacy around healthcare reform, climate change, civil rights, and other issues its members are passionate about.

Complementing traditional financial analysis with a consideration of how investments score on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) metrics like carbon emissions, diversity, and sustainable development goals, the Socially Responsive Pool allows the Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice to extend its positive impact beyond grants and to align its investments with PACG’s—and Fallow’s—values.

For Anne Calder, vice president of development at the Community Foundation, the Socially Responsive Pool offers one more tool for thoughtfully stewarding donors’ gifts. “Investing a charitable fund in the Socially Responsive Pool is a wonderful way for individual donors or organizations like Progressive Action for the Common Good to ensure that their generosity goes as far as possible—through both charitable grants to the community and the positive impact made through the investment fund itself.”

“There are different ways you can influence your community,” said Price. “You can speak out, you can educate, you can lobby for legislation, you can vote. You can effect change with how you use your money when you’re shopping. But you can also invest in ways that support things you support and don’t support things you’re against. It just makes sense.”

It also makes good financial sense, as returns on socially responsive investing now rival and even exceed traditional investing models. In 2020, the Socially Responsive Pool earned a 15.6 percent return, outperforming all other funds at the Community Foundation.

Built on this solid foundation, the Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice issues grants to local organizations. Last year, it supported Quad City Food Forest, which partners with municipal and private landowners to cultivate food-bearing trees and plants to feed the community. Previous grant recipients include Project Renewal, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities, the Teamsters Community Action Network, and Guardians of the Prairie and Forest, among others.

“We try to spread the grants out over various different issues that Dick cared about,” said Price.

In fact, the flexibility to address a wide range of social issues has been key to the organization’s ongoing health. “We’ve always been a multi-issue group,” she said. “It’s given us a fluidity—if one issue isn’t as urgent anymore, other issues are.”

That adaptable philosophy allowed it to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In lieu of an in-person party to celebrate its 15th anniversary, PACG held a special fundraising drive. “We identified groups and organizations that helped people who were directly impacted by COVID,” said Alison Ambrose, PACG board president. “We ended up being able to put $20,000 back into the community. That was pretty good for a little grassroots organization like us.”  

Experienced in hosting and co-hosting events, PACG also bought nine Zoom licenses, which it shared with local organizations to help them stay connected. “Getting people together is important to us,” Ambrose said. “We are much more powerful when we work together,” Price added.

To learn more about establishing an endowment fund to conduct your philanthropy in the best possible way, contact Anne Calder, vice president of development, at 563/326-2840 or AnneCalder@QCCommunityFoundation.org.