Three years after Hurricane Sandy laid waste to several counties in New Jersey, the size of the investment needed seemed insurmountable. The destroyed communities still hadn’t recovered. A coalition spearheaded by UBS Private Wealth Management, built around a place-based investment strategy, and convened by the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, wanted to rebuild the Jersey Shore from the ground up. The model, if successful, could offer a long-term strategy for devastated and disaffected communities. The strategy had to combat donor fatigue and the loss of public attention. UBS and JBJ Soul tasked Amplifier with telling the story of this ambitious effort to raise $100 million in social impact investment.
Amplifier’s interest in innovative new approaches to deploy capital attracted us to the collaborative effort of UBS and the JBJ Soul Foundation. This effort is compelling as a significant place-based investing model with the potential to scale. We knew attracting a wide audience of investors required us to tap into the power of Hurricane Sandy and the dogged commitment of local philanthropist Jon Bon Jovi. We produced a white paper that explained how Bon Jovi’s passion for the Jersey Shore inspired a model that could answer the question of how communities come back to life.
Our white paper, along with a coalition’s impact investment strategy focused on a new ending for Hurricane Sandy victims, inspired stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times on place-based investment. UBS distributed the paper to its vast network of client managers, individual investors and foundations to spur interest. UBS has entered the funding cycle focused on meetings its $100 million goal, which will pour badly needed funding into communities that remain devasted from the storm. Funds will be invested in home reconstruction, small businesses and other key factors to bring a community all the way back.
“I look forward to seeing families back in their homes, kids playing in their yards, businesses thriving, jobs returning, all the simple things that we take for granted until we no longer have them."
Founder, JBJ Soul Foundation