Month: May 2017

True High Speed East-West Rail for Mass

I applaud Massachusetts State Senator Eric Lesser on his efforts to promote high speed east-west to connect Boston and Springfield.

See MassLive article: http://s.masslive.com/yxeRcZV

The legislature has repeatedly approved funding for a study and it is consistently vetoed in order to protect lucrative bus routes. I feel strongly that it is short sighted to reject the high speed rail project. The need to connect Springfield and Boston is compelling, not just for Springfield, but for Boston, and the long term viability of the entire state as an economic engine.

There are some important caveats however to the viability of east-west rail. First of all, it must be truly high speed. A route that takes more than ninety minutes is indeed a needless competition to existing bus routes. Ninety minutes is too long a travel time to compile Boston workers to live in Western Mass rather than the closer in communities. Ideally, we would see sixty minute or less times from the new Springfield station to South Station in Boston.…

Impact Investing

These are dark days for many non-profits with the threats and realities of extensive cuts in government funding. As a foundation, we are prohibited from influencing elections or lobbying. Our board has a diverse range of political views. We all agree there is a need for continued support for non-profits working in areas such as environmental stewardship, mental health treatment, aid for the disabled, the arts, and more. We provide funding in these areas, and more, focused on Hampden and Hampshire counties in Western Massachusetts. We are limited in how much funding we can provide and can’t come close to matching the scale of the cuts being proposed and implemented at the federal level. We’ve seen this before. The political pendulum swings back and forth. The impact on the organizations we support is unfortunate. Given the uncertainty of their funding and their limited ability to influence it, they have difficulty budgeting and planning.…

President’s Report – Spring 2017

Welcome to the second edition of the President’s Report. It’s been a busy six months since the last report of the Beveridge Family Foundation. In the following pages, I hope to share our progress.

Descendants of Frank Stanley Beveridge should be sure to read the “Bev Bucks” section near the end.

IMPACT INVESTING

As of April 30, 2017, the investment value of the Foundation was $55,710,723, up 3.6% since the previous report at the end of August 2016. The assets remain prudently invested among common sectors under the guidance of UBS.

The Beveridge Family Foundation seeks to expand the role of impact investing to help fulfill its mission. Different forms of investment solve some problems, but the need for scale, and operational funding point towards Social Impact Bonds (SIB). We hope to remove the barriers to expanding SIB’s. To find out how we’d like to achieve this, please visit the post on Impact Investing.…