The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo has teamed up with a group of corporate, private and philanthropic investors in a new venture to do good in the region, while still making money.

The Western New York Impact Investment Fund, a new for-profit entity launched in August but unveiled this week, is designed to bring together motivated investors to pool their capital for both financial and "social" returns. It will focus on opportunities throughout the eight-county region, not just Erie and Niagara counties.

Specifically, officials will target initiatives in education and workforce development, diversity, neighborhood revitalization, health and environment, and job creation in "more economically challenged neighborhoods and communities," according to a news release announcing the project.

Recognizing that impact investing is a rapidly growing segment of the investment market across the country, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo brought together a group of potential investors to create an entity that could attract a broad range of impact investors from within and beyond our region,” said Community Foundation President and CEO Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker.

Read the full article by Jonathan D. Epstein about impact investing on The Buffalo News