{"id":41591,"date":"2024-09-25T16:17:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T20:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=41591"},"modified":"2024-09-28T17:49:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T21:49:44","slug":"30-years-of-impact-bonds-qa-with-benjamin-bailey-of-praxis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/30-years-of-impact-bonds-qa-with-benjamin-bailey-of-praxis\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years of Impact Bonds: Q&A with Benjamin Bailey of Praxis and Cliff Feigenbaum"},"content":{"rendered":"
> Back to October 2024 Issue<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>An Interview with Benjamin Bailey of Praxis and Cliff Feigenbaum, GreenMoney\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

This year marks the 30th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of\u00a0<\/em>the Praxis Impact Bond Fund<\/em><\/a>, which gives faith-based and other investors access to a broadly diversified core bond portfolio with a focus on green, social and other types of impact bonds.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the years, the fund\u2019s appeal has broadened from faith-based investors to include sustainability and social-impact focused investors. Its assets have grown from $11 million in 1994 at the fund\u2019s inception to nearly $1 billion today.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Over time, as more impact-oriented bonds have come to market, Praxis has increased their allocation to 36% in the Praxis Impact Bond Fund.<\/em><\/p>\n

GreenMoney Journal founder Cliff Feigenbaum recently spoke with Benjamin Bailey, CFA, Vice President of Investments and Senior Fixed Income Investment Manager for Praxis Mutual Funds, on a variety of topics. Here\u2019s the interview \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n

Cliff: <\/span>What\u2019s the History of the Fund?<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Benjamin:<\/strong>\u00a0Originally called the Praxis Intermediate Income Fund, the Praxis Impact Bond Fund launched in 1994 to give Mennonite and Anabaptist investors a way to invest in bonds consistent with their values. Praxis brought retail investors an approach to fixed income investing that religious institutions in these faith traditions had utilized for decades.<\/p>\n

I joined the fund\u2019s portfolio management team in the early 2000s at the start of my investing career. In those years, we screened out issuers that didn\u2019t meet our specific values criteria\u2014so we were avoiding \u201cthe bad\u201d\u2014but we hadn\u2019t yet envisioned a way in which we could really make a deep, positive impact in the world.<\/p>\n

A watershed moment came in 2006 when we invested in the International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm). Learning about this opportunity in vaccine bonds opened my eyes to the specific impact that investing in positive impact bonds can have in a fixed income portfolio.<\/p>\n

The introduction of green bonds in the U.S. in 2009 and subsequent growth of the impact bond market have allowed Praxis to ramp up the percentage of the portfolio that is dedicated to positive impact bonds. By 2016, that percentage had grown to nearly a quarter. That\u2019s when we changed the name to the Praxis Impact Bond Fund, wanting to make clear that our focus was on making a positive impact through this fund, to the degree the market made it possible. Today, the percentage of impact bonds is even higher \u2013 about 36%. And we look forward to growing this percentage even further.<\/p>\n

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