At the Corner of December and January: Social Justice Update

Written on: January 5, 2026

By Sister Diane Bardol, GNSH

Happy New Year! The greeting that marks the end of one year (but not really) and the beginning of the next! The huge lesson that the work of social justice teaches is that nothing really ends, it simply changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. So, we continue to discern what is ours to do as Grey Nuns to build a more compassionate world.

This month, I’d like to highlight how we do justice through impact investing. We don’t talk much about it, but it’s very important and a great gift that we have the where-with-all to make small impact investments. It’s true that on our part we must budget responsibly, but that’s not enough. Without the generosity of our benefactors there would be precious little to invest. So here we gratefully acknowledge that all our benefactors and gracious supporters are our essential partners in impact investing.

According to Wikipedia, impact investing refers to investments “made into companies, organizations, and funds through investing with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return”.

In our world, that means putting our money where our heart is.

Currently we have eight impact investments:

Fonkoze, USA is an organization that empowers Haitians, primarily women, with financial and development services to lift their families out of poverty. The Grey Nuns have been invested in Fonkoze since 2006. For more on Fonkoze, visit fonkoze.org     

New Hampshire Community Loan Fund provides people and communities with loans, coaching, and guidance that enable them to become economically secure. The Grey Nuns have been invested in New Hampshire Community Loan Fund since February 2006.

Learn more at https://communityloanfund.org/   

Mercy Community Capital: The Mercy Housing Story begins in the early 1980s, when founder Sister Timothy Marie O’Roark, RSM of Omaha, served as a legal aid attorney in Omaha, Nebraska, working with families facing eviction from their homes. She witnessed the horrible conditions in which they lived and saw that many had little to no help accessing affordable housing. She vowed,“We can do better.” And they did, and the rest is history in which we have had the blessing to be part of since 2006.

You can access their full story at https://www.mercyhousing.org/about/history/   

Iroquois Valley Farms LLC began in 2007 when two former roommates from Loyola University Chicago reunited to offer a solution to the negative ecological and economic impacts that conventional agriculture has on public health. Looking for a more sustainable answer to a broken food system and extractive economic policies, Dr. Stephen Rivard and David Miller, an investment banker, formed Iroquois Valley Farms LLC to begin the healing process for the next generation of farmers and responsible investors. Their goal – “to convert enough farmland to organic to literally change the paradigm of our healthcare system by offering organic food as a matter of fact rather than a choice.”

The company is committed to scaling organic, regenerative agriculture in the US by getting more organic, regenerative farmers on the land, funded by socially responsible investors. Iroquois Valley has built a portfolio of more than 128 farmland investments, impacting over 36,600 acres across 20 states. In 2017, we made our initial investment in this company and in 2024, the Grey Nuns added to their original investment in Iroquois Valley’s Rooted in Regeneration initiative. They offered this option in response to a deep need within the organic, regenerative farming community: supporting socially disadvantaged farmers—primarily Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC)—who have historically faced steep barriers to land ownership and financing, despite their long-standing commitment to organic and regenerative practices.

For more information about Iroquois Valley Farms, visit: https://iroquoisvalley.com/

Religious Community Impact Fund (RCIF) is a collaborative ministry of Catholic congregations of women religious that provides portfolio management services for community investments. The Fund is a portfolio of debt and equity investments in projects consistent with the Gospel mission of economic justice for all. The investments benefit the economically poor; especially women and children, concentrating on those who are unserved or poorly served through traditional financial sources. The funding recipients, usually intermediary agencies, are those seeking ways to give beneficiaries an effective voice in the planning and implementation of the given projects, as well as those who address the multi-cultural reality of our society. Investment returns are expected to slightly outpace inflation. Beginning in 2020, the Grey Nuns have been investing interest-free, qualifying us as one of RCIF’s sponsors.

For more information visit: https://rcif.org/

Working Capital for Community Needs (WCCN) is a nonprofit organization that, since 1984 has created opportunities for access to microfinance and services to support low-income entrepreneurs in Latin America. As one of the first social impact funds in the United States, they have invested more than $170 million, reaching an average of 20,000 borrowers annually for the past 10 years. WCCN also fosters greater understanding, goodwill, and peace through people-to-people exchanges and educational activities which include U.S./Latin American speaker exchanges, study tours to Latin America, and a quarterly newsletter. The Grey Nuns have invested with WCCN since August 2020, interest free.

For more information about WCCN, visit https://www.wccn.org/

The Philaimpact Fund is a place-based impact investment opportunity, targeted to the Greater Philadelphia region. The fund invests in local community projects that serve the critical needs of people across the region — promoting housing stability for low-income families, better health outcomes, higher education attainment possibilities, greater access to fresh healthy food, and more. In 2004, the Grey Nuns begin investing in this fund.

For more information, please visit: https://www.philafound.org

I think you’ll find it quite easy to see why we chose these investments and you can be sure that there will be others to follow!

May the New Year bless us abundant opportunities to act justly, to love tenderly, and walk humbly with God and each other.

Sister Diane

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged: Fonkoze, impact investing, Iroquois Valley Farms LLC, Mercy Community Capital, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Religious Community Impact Fund (RCIF), Sister Diane Bardol, Working Capital for Community Needs (WCCN)