Our Vision“The original vocation of finance is inclusion.”
Capital has a vocation. We're reclaiming it.
Charism Capital is a global, impact-first investment fund rooted in the wisdom of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and the many charisms, or spiritual gifts, that animate religious communities and life.
We are anchored by a community of Catholic Sisters and are open to all qualified, mission-aligned investors who believe that how we invest is not neutral— it carries moral significance and can express solidarity and care for our earth and one another.
Charism Capital is sponsored and stewarded by Charism, a 501(c)(3) organization focused on enacting global solidarity through integrated and impact-first capital rooted in Catholic Social Teaching.
Our HistoryA Legacy of
Catholic Sisters
The timelessness of our charisms meeting the timeliness of the moment.
“Catholic Sisters have been asking a question for a long time: with whom do we cast our lot?”
The answer has shaped everything. It shaped how Sisters built schools, hospitals, and institutions in communities that society had overlooked. It shaped how they filed many of the first shareholder resolutions challenging corporate conduct on apartheid, labor rights, and environmental destruction. And beginning in the 1970s, it led them to lend their own savings to the communities that conventional finance had walked away from — seeding what would eventually become an established field of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that created loan funds for low-income borrowers, affordable housing developers, and small enterprises in underserved places.
In the face of a culture that measures success primarily in financial returns, Sisters insisted on something different: that how we invest is an expression of our mission, not merely an enabler of it. For those steeped in the demands of solidarity, the dignity of every human person, and the sacredness of our planet, investing is never just a financial act. It’s a moral one.
Charism Capital exists to continue and broaden this legacy. Like the Sisters before us, we ask how we can be faithful with our finances, and we invite a wide community of investors to join us in that question. Together, we seek to continue this legacy in the shared spirit of the charisms that gave it life.
Charism Capital is not a new idea. It’s a long tradition that’s been given new infrastructure.
The Sisters of Mercy were New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s first investor in 1984. The loan helped establish the Meredith Center Cooperative, the first resident-owned manufactured housing cooperative in the U.S.
Sr. Corinne Florek, who has been referred to as a “Godmother of CDFIs”, and residents of Purple House, an affordable housing community in San Francisco.
A Brief TimelineFifty Years of Faithful Capital
Landscape assessment: dozens of congregations want to deepen their impact investing but face barriers of access, expertise, and administrative capacity
1970s-80s
Women religious among the first institutional impact investors in the United States
1990s-2020s
Sisters drive growth of the CDFI movement; faith-based investors help establish the field of impact investing
2024
2025-26
30 leaders from 11 religious congregations gather to co-design a new investment vehicle, by and for the community; Charism Capital launches with a founding group of investors, carrying the legacy forward
Movement Building
Charism Capital is sponsored by Charism, Inc., which catalyzes durable infrastructure for a CST-embodied investment movement.
Charism advances global solidarity by accompanying Catholic Sisters, NGOs, and mission-driven practitioners as they build the financial skills and structures that support economic self-determination. We engage congregations, endowments, and mission-aligned investors in integrated capital practices — helping grants, loans, and investments work together in service of communities.
Through Charism Capital, we incubate financing structures that embed Catholic Social Teaching directly into investment design — generating shared frameworks, research, and the investor formation needed to build a movement that redefines what it means to deploy capital faithfully.
Contact Us
Learn more about our efforts to build a community and culture of investing deeply rooted in Catholic Social Teaching (CST).
“I think the difference between me and some people is that I’m content to do my little bit. Sometimes people think they have to do big things in order to make change. But if each one would light a candle we’d have a tremendous light.”