For decades, faith-based investing has been defined primarily by what it excludes: tobacco, adult entertainment, alcohol. But Steven Libman, founder of Investing With Purpose, argues that this screening approach represents a failure of the industry. “The definition that the industry has been operating under for the last 30 years is a lazy one,” Libman says. “Screening is the floor. Building intentionally would be the ceiling.”
Libman’s firm is a multifamily real estate investment platform built explicitly around faith-driven principles. The distinction between mere screening and intentional alignment matters, he contends, because capital allocation increasingly reflects values, and investors who cannot tell the difference may be outsourcing their conscience to those who do not share their priorities.
The core premise is that every dollar invested is a vote for something. Libman poses a simple but disorienting question: if your grandchildren inherited your portfolio, what would it say about what you believed in? He challenges the conventional wisdom of separating investment returns from values, then deploying returns philanthropically. “Why fund something misaligned with your values in order to generate returns you then donate to causes that reflect them?” he asks.
Libman points to the ESG sector as a cautionary tale. ESG funds marketed themselves on impact but delivered weak returns. “ESG put a dagger in the heart of values-aligned investing,” he says. “They were saying, you are going to get lower returns, but we will make an impact. In fact, they were not making an impact, and they were not making a return either.” For Libman, the lesson is that funds using impact as a marketing hook rather than an operational framework tend to deliver on neither.
Investing With Purpose generates community outcomes through an on-site asset ministry program embedded in its multifamily properties. Free apartments are provided to on-site ministry staff who run tenant engagement programming—movie nights, farmers markets, food truck events, and hospital visits for residents in need. The business logic is clear: tenants with six or seven friends within the same complex are 45 percent less likely to move out. Lower turnover means lower vacancy, lower unit-refresh costs, and more stable cash flow. “Ministry is the moat around the investment,” Libman says. “When people say impact is going to decrease returns, we think the opposite is true. Caring is a durable business advantage, not a disadvantage.”
Transparency is a key measure of genuine alignment. Libman’s firm sends investors not only standard financial KPIs—net operating income, expense ratios, occupancy rates—but also a ministry impact report tracking resident connections with community programming, pastoral support, and on-site acts of care. Investors are invited on-site quarterly for serve days. “Unlike your Wall Street investments, you can drive by it, touch it, feel it, actually see the impact that we are making, and actually be a part of that impact as well,” says Libman.
For investors who have not considered aligning their portfolios with their values, Libman’s framing is non-threatening. The entry point is an appreciation of real estate as an asset class. Most people understand rental property and that housing is a fundamental need. The question becomes what kind of operator and structure best reflects your principles. “Every dollar that you invest is a vote for something,” Libman says. “So when you deploy your capital, it is either going to build something you are aligned with or something that might be in conflict with your own values.”
