Our RootsA 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? — Sr. Carol Coston, OP
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.
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 is 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 evolve this tradition in the shared spirit of the charisms that gave it life.
1975
1970s-80s
1995
1990s-2000s
2024
2025
2026
A Brief TimelineFifty years of faithful capital
A short chronology of the tradition we stand within — and the moments that shaped what Charism Capital is becoming.
Portfolio Advisory Board established
The Adrian Dominican Sisters establish their Portfolio Advisory Board. Early shareholder advocacy work begins — the first generation of religious investors asking corporations to answer for their conduct on apartheid, weapons, and labor.
The first institutional impact investors
Sisters of Mercy begin mission-aligned community investing. Women religious are among the first institutional impact investors in the United States — lending their congregational savings to credit unions, community loan funds, and minority-owned banks.
Mercy Investment Services formed
Multiple Mercy communities pool resources, formalizing what becomes Mercy Investment Services — one of the early models for collective Catholic institutional investing.
The CDFI field takes shape
Sisters drive growth of the CDFI movement. Faith-based investors help establish the field of impact investing — providing patient capital that allowed an entire infrastructure to come into being.
Documenting the gap
A landscape assessment by the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative and Francesco Collaborative documents what congregations have been saying for years: dozens want to deepen their impact investing but face real barriers of access, expertise, and administrative capacity.
The Chicago convening
Thirty leaders from eleven religious congregations gather in Chicago to co-design a new investment vehicle — by and for the community. This becomes the basis for Charism Capital.
Charism Capital Fund I launches
Carrying the legacy forward — and inviting a wider community of investors into the question that has shaped this tradition for fifty years.
The Chicago ConveningThirty leaders.
Eleven congregations.
One question.
In 2025, leaders from eleven religious congregations gathered in Chicago over several days to ask a shared question: what would it look like to build an investment vehicle by the community, for the community?
The Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative and the Francesco Collaborative had spent the previous year documenting a clear gap. Many congregations wanted to deepen their impact investing — but they faced real barriers: access to vetted opportunities, expertise on increasingly complex instruments, and the administrative capacity to manage a portfolio of small, specialized investments.
What emerged from those Chicago conversations was not a product. It was a posture: that the answer had to be relational, communal, and grounded in the spirituality these communities had carried for centuries.
Charism Capital is what came next.
“Quote placeholder — from a sister, theologian, or Catholic Social Teaching figure on the moral dimensions of finance.”
Voices from the traditionStanding on these shoulders
“Quote placeholder — perhaps from a papal encyclical such as Laudato Si’ or Fratelli Tutti, on the integrity of creation or universal solidarity.”
“Quote placeholder — from a founding LP, board member, or congregational leader whose witness shapes our work.”
"Charism Capital is not a new idea. It is a long tradition, given new infrastructure."
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