The latest issue of the Community Development Investment Review is out, and it’s an excellent and feature-packed issue. The Review is published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (and SF is also where SoCap09 will be held), and brings together experts to write about various community development investment topics such as new financial tools and approaches, collaborations, best practices, and public policy.

From the foreword by David Erickson, Manager of the Center for Community Development Investments, here’s what you’ll find in the current issue:

We may be on  the edge of another period when we  reintroduce community values  to the commodities of  land,  labor, and capital.    In  this  issue of  the Review, we explore how both business enterprises and investment decisions can be infused with community goals-providing for those who are less capable of providing for themselves, promoting better health and stronger community fabric, and respecting the environment. Community development fnance is already playing a supporting role in this evolution.

Kathy Brozek kicks off this issue and gives an overview of social enterprise, providing a context and tools for understanding the entire spectrum of business enterprises-from purely profit-motivated on one end, to purely charity on the other.  Kevin Jones also explores social enterprises, particularly in terms of how their social missions can survive all stages of growth, even an initial public offering.

Antony Bugg-Levine and John Goldstein provide an overview for what they term “impact investing,” with an eye to how public policy, CRA-motivated banks, and individuals might promote  this  category of  investment.   Lisa Hagerman  and  Janneke Ratcliffe explore how we might  better measure  progress  on  community  values  in  a  given  investment;  sophisticated fnancial  tools help measure proft, but  these authors explore how  to measure,  in a meaningful  and  standardized  way,  the  social  and  environmental  good  that  comes  from the  investment.

Saurabh Narain is also  interested  in measuring social and environmental outcomes  and  specifically  shows  how  intermediaries-community  banks  and  community development financial institutions-can provide the bridge from the world of global capital to the neighborhoods of need.  Bruce Cahan also explores how a mission-oriented bank can be  a useful  intermediary between  socially motivated  savers  and  consumers  and  the  larger economy.

Finally, our commentary section features a lively debate among leading thinkers in the feld of social enterprise and impact investing, including Jed Emerson, Dan Pallota, Michael Shuman, Don Shaffer, Penelope Douglas, and Carla Javitz.

After  the near  collapse of  the world fnancial  system,  it  is  time  to  refect on whether social enterprise and investing might not offer some lessons for creating a more sustainable economy.

Download the entire publication (PDF) or browse each article at the source. Previous editions of the Review are also accessible online.

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