According to Morningstar, SHE gained 19.5 percent last year, which trailed the total returns on the S&P 500 Index by more than two full percentage points. The fund is up 6.5 percent year-to-date, or slightly better than the S&P 500 Index.
SHE has been a hit with investors by attracting more than $350 million in assets. Undoubtedly, part of that is due to general interest in its underlying mission. The other key probably lies with its low expense ratio of 0.20 percent, which is significantly less than the fee charged by the newly launched WOMN fund.
But Powell believes his company’s ETFs will appeal to people who like the idea of investing in products aimed at helping causes they believe in, and where the net advisory fees of these products go back to a particular fund’s collaborating nonprofit partner.
Impact Shares has financial backing from The Rockefeller Foundation’s Zero Gap Portfolio. Its goal is to partner with leading nonprofit organizations who want to leverage capital markets to further their missions and increase their social impact.