Opportunity Zone Magazine Opportunity Zone Magazine Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 65
TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE INVESTING IN OPPORTUNITY ZONES
A triple bottom line Opportunity Fund investment strategy
builds on the double bottom line metrics but invests in
businesses and projects that have a positive social impact on
the community by meeting a demonstrated need. To do so,
Opportunity Fund managers must be adept at risk-adjusted
return analysis, measure economic impact and job creation,
and identify community needs, gaps of production for
economic development and determine the best Opportunity
Zone investments to trigger a series of economic and
community development projects.
Effective Opportunity Zone investment projects perform
better when they are part of an ongoing revitalization plan.
To accurately identify the needs of an Opportunity Zone
community requires developing a process for determining the
socioeconomic needs of the Opportunity Zone and whether
the community has a plan for economic development that
meets those needs. Most Opportunity Fund managers have
neither the desire, motivation nor the economic development
expertise to effectively implement a triple bottom line
approach to investing; but investing for positive social impact
and community transformation depends upon it.
AVOIDING THE HERD
To make Opportunity Zone funding work, investors will have
to look beyond the usual suspects and the usual big cities. If
they do that they will be rewarded because there are immense
opportunities in under-invested areas.
As an example, New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the
union, but there are 63 Opportunity Zones scattered across
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