These days both sides of the local investment equation are hurting. If you are a small business, nonprofit, or local government, money has dried up and you're scrambling to find ways to provide your basic services.

At the same time, if you are just an average citizen with a 401(k) or a little bit of savings to invest, your only real choices are:

1) give your money to Wall Street and hope they don’t gamble it away again through casino capitalism or,
2) put it in a CD at your local bank for an excruciatingly low interest rate like .05%.

When financial entities which are entrusted to manage and invest our pension funds invest our money with companies that outsource our jobs and shut down out factories, you can see why pressure is growing for ways to “repatriate our money,” that is, to get local money circulating locally again. A variety of promising projects are already underway, including Slow Money, microloans, socially-responsible investing, and community-serving banks such as the State Bank of North Dakota.

Sustainable Prosperity, Inc., a registered 501(c)3, believes that a self-sustaining flow of money from small-scale local investors into Good Cause/Good Return investments in local projects such as affordable housing, green energy or an eco-industrial park, is the way to build our communities.

To be successful, Sustainable Prosperity believes this local investment system is going to require:

• Local investors receive a reasonably good return on their money;
• Their investment has a high probability of success and is secured with some kind of collateral;
• The project aligns with both the investor’s values and the long-term health of the whole local economy and community.

Sustainable Prosperity can provide the conceptual framework and the project expertise to allow people to participate in Good Cause/Good Return investments in their own locale or region, where they can see what’s happening and know who’s doing the work.

For more information, contact Randy Voller