What's Happening

October 22, 2024, Chicago – During a panel discussion held during the Catholic Social Teaching Investment Summit held in Chicago last month, Sister Corinne Florek, OP, encouraged investors to “redefine risk” and to take a chance on investing in nonprofit community organizations. 

“I’ve given a lot of talks about not defining risk the way Wall Street does,” Sister Corinne said in an interview. “Wall Street doesn’t invest in local communities. You have to redefine risk and realize that these groups are not risky.”

Sister Corinne speaks from experience. She served on the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board, which was started in 1975 and made its first community investment in 1978. In 2008 she was one of the founders the Religious Communities Investment Fund (RCIF), and organization that offers communities of women religious the opportunity to pool their money to invest in community organizations. She also started Mercy Partnership Fund for the same purpose. After various congregations of the Sisters of Mercy in the United States merged, they started a successor program, Mercy Investment Services, which also gives low-interest loans to community organizations. 

Sister Corinne spoke to the success of all three organizations, which increased the size of their investment funds, enabling them to offer low-interest loans to more community organizations. The loss of investment is less than 1%. 

Sister Corinne has worked with many grassroots organizations, helping them to create financial statements and get on solid financial ground so that they can receive loans from other organizations. These grassroots organizations are “committed to their work, and they’re so grateful for the loan that they make sure to pay it back.”

The Francesco Collaborative – which co-sponsored the Summit with the Catholic Impact Investors Collaborative – is encouraging professional investment managers to invest in grassroots community organizations, Sister Corinne said. Many of the smaller communities of women religious are also investigating the idea of starting a community impact investment fund with other communities. 

Read an article on the Summit by Michelle Martin in the Chicago Catholic.

November 11, 2021, Notre Dame, Indiana – Sister Corinne Florek, OP, was recently profiled in the Alumni section of the University of Notre Dame’s website as one who invested not for profits, but for economic justice and the common good. 

A 1980 graduate of Notre Dame’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) Program, Sister Corinne spent the next 40 years involved in community investment. She founded the Religious Communities Investment Fund (RCIF) and is a consultant for the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board. Both organizations give low-interest loans to nonprofit organizations that serve communities of people in need. 

“This is not venture capital; this is common good capital,” Sister Corinne told Maura Sullivan Hill, author of the article, “Investing for the Common Good.” Read the entire article on Sister Corinne’s work for economic justice and the common good.