Investor Stories: Individuals
Investing towards economic fairness
TRF investor David Rudovsky.
David Rudovsky has been a TRF investor since 1990. A partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Kairys, Rudovsky, Epstein and Messing, Rudovsky is widely acknowledged as the city’s leading expert on issues of civil rights and civil liberties. Also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Rudovsky is a past recipient of the MacArthur “genius” award for his work in criminal justice and civil liberties.
So what made Rudovsky, the man Philadelphia Magazine named in 2002 as one of the city’s top “Revolutionary Minds”, invest in TRF?
“I am attracted to TRF’s philosophy of investing in the Philadelphia community,” he explains, “I have always thought it best to invest in the local community and TRF has done that through its low-income housing, small business and economic development projects.”
Rudovsky first learned about TRF through Jeremy Nowak, its President and CEO and was piqued by TRF’s “unusual and unique operation.” Since his initial investment of $10,000, Rudovsky has continued to build his investment in TRF. Most recently, he designated a portion of his total investment as a bequest to TRF.
“I like the way TRF has used my money and when the opportunity has arisen I have continued to reinvest in the fund,” he explains, adding, “In creating a bequest, I felt that it is certainly worthwhile to let TRF have as a grant, the money that they have thus far used only as a loan.”
As he continues to support TRF and its work, he hopes that others in the region will also invest in organizations such as TRF. As he sees it, “We in this region have an obligation to create opportunities for our local communities. It speaks to issues of economic fairness.”
For one Philadelphia couple investing in TRF was “the right thing to do”
TRF investor Carolyn McCoy.
Of TRF’s over 600 individual investors, Carolyn McCoy and her husband William Sanderson have the distinction of being the very first. Their investment, which Carolyn started in 1985, actually bears the number 1.
Carolyn remembers that her interest in community investing had begun years before. Later, through her contacts with the Bread and Roses Community Fund, she discovered TRF, which was housed by Bread and Roses in its early years. “I was glad to make an investment in TRF since it operates in my local area.”
Jeremy Nowak recalls with astonishment how gratified he was when Carolyn came forward with her funds for the embryonic TRF. “She was willing to take a chance on us; it was really extraordinary. Of course, we have never let her down, but she couldn’t know that then.”
Carolyn notes that TRF has negligible defaults by customers because the lending staff provides technical assistance and support. As TRF has grown, she sees a “multiplier” effect at work: “TRF impacts on so many institutions.”
So why invest in TRF? Carolyn puts it in a way that many other TRF investors would affirm: “I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Young investors target savings through TRF
Jack Cavanaugh is a TRF investor with a bona fide Promissory Note and Loan Agreement – and he’s still a pre-schooler! An increasing number of children and young people are becoming TRF investors when parents open investments for them.
Kevin Cavanaugh, TRF’s former Chief Operating Officer, left the company in 2002, after six years, to devote himself to raising sons Jack and Pete, while his wife, Beth returned to work.
“As a parent,” he says, “I think about college educations for my two boys. I chose to view an investment in TRF as part of my college savings for my kids. I purchased two investments, one for each son, to mature when they graduate from high school. In addition to this practical reason, I also view these investments as a way to instill in them (when they are older) the concept of social investing, and one way to help them see that not everyone in this community has the opportunities they will have and that Beth and I have had.”