Making An Impact Through WealthCommunity and Personal Enrichment Go Hand in Hand
There are many different ways for women to harness the power of their wealth and create a legacy, continuing to pursue personal passions while making a positive meaningful impact on their community. Baird convened a panel of women who successfully struck this balance to talk about the keys to maximizing philanthropic efforts without compromising other priorities.
Time is a valuable commodity, and panel Moderator Melanie Schmieding, Director of Baird Family Wealth, kicked off the discussion with the concept of board service – specifically paid service, which is often a highly coveted role for top-tier professionals – as a way to make an impact while being compensated for the commitment.
Assia Grazioli, co-founder of Muse Capital, serves on the board of Juventus Football Club and advised that people should “be really selective” about what kind of company or organization you want to advise.
Look at your board positions as a portfolio. Like personal investing, you want to choose the right companies. Sometimes it is the least obvious one.
Assia Grazioli
“Look at your board positions as a portfolio. Like personal investing, you want to choose the right companies. Sometimes it is the least obvious one.” She continued, “When I joined the [Juventus] board, I knew nothing about sports, but I knew a lot about media, technology, ticketing. And I knew that I could contribute to the business with that knowledge.”
Kim Fleming, Vice Chair of Baird, talked about her background and strong reputation as a finance professional as being attractive to boards. She also noted that all of her board positions came about due to the networking that happened while out in the community, interacting with different people.
“The perspective and expertise you bring are definitely important, but it helps to show you are passionate about your community through your actions as well.”
Fueling Your Passions
Understanding the relationship between the size of one’s wealth and the ability to affect meaningful change, discussion pivoted to ways to create additional wealth without incurring significant additional effort.
“Investing in real estate is attractive to busy people,” said Valerie Mitchener, Founder/owner of Corcoran HM Properties. “I often suggest building a portfolio of single-family rental income properties. While values vary, in the long haul you do well.”
Valerie noted that some recent trends in real estate investing, like the COVID-fueled phenomenon of purchasing resort properties, aren’t necessarily good long-term strategies. The largest value plays, she said, are often in areas on the cusp of redevelopment. “You want to look for single family homes, near where it is zoned for commercial.” She also warned against a common mistake she believes people make when it comes to real estate – placing too much weight on valuations listed by online property sites like Zillow or Redfin.
Retired CFO and business owner Lucinda Mahoney shared how she and her husband have been drawn to opportunity zones – an economic development tool that provides tax incentives for private investment in distressed areas within the U.S. “What I really like about these investments is not only do the folks who live in that area benefit, but the whole community does too. It makes me feel good about where I put my money.”
Assia encouraged the audience to consider how to make angel investing more accessible and actionable, saying: “Consider where you give with charity. Maybe there is a business that addresses the causes where you give as well. We should always give to charity, but I would encourage us to consider early-stage opportunities, especially ones with women founders.”
Monitoring Investments & Assessing Risk
While passion-driven investments would ideally be a rewarding win-win tactic for those seeking to make an impact, like other investments they are only as effective as their underlying fundamentals.
Kim reminded the group that understanding the nature of the investment and the potential risks is critical. “With most alternative investments, the liquidity isn’t there. Once you’ve made the commitment, you are in for its life cycle. So you have to make sure you do all of the due diligence at the outset.”
Valerie shared her view around risk as well, noting how an over concentration in a certain market or area can be a bad thing. Keeping things in check, according to Valerie, means: “Watch the market.”
Lucinda reminded the audience to consider the mission associated with the investment:
Ensure that you invest in areas where you have a passion. Look at their financials and their performance benchmarks. And remember you can give your time as well as your money.
Lucinda Mahoney
Thrive
The insights from this panel discussion were originally shared at Thrive – a first-of-it’s kind event, hosted by Baird, for successful women to intersect and inspire each other.
