In yesterday’s article, I recommended that pro-life investors create a balanced portfolio.
On the “supply side,” you can invest in pro-life organizations that seek to limit, or eliminate altogether, access to abortion services.
Supply side investments in pro-life have the potential of very high ROI, meaning that if successful, those investments lead to the passing of laws that significantly restrict access to abortion for a large number of women.
IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Laws that restrict access to abortion save many lives from abortion.
Do Not Grow Weary
However, because politics is the primary driver of success, or failure, of such laws initially being passed, and then also being maintained over the long term, supply side investments in pro-life are highly speculative.
Although the potential ROI (lives saved from abortion) of those investments is very high, there is also a significant probability that the ROI will end up being zero.
I have spoken with many former pro-life philanthropists who invested exclusively in pro-life supply side investments for years, and in some cases decades.
They eventually stopped investing because they did not see significant progress being made in laws being passed that restricted abortion, especially the overturning of Roe versus Wade.
In other words, from their perspective, the ROI on their investments was zero.
Seek Balance
I believe that if those philanthropists had also made “demand side” investments in pro-life, they might have stuck with their supply side investment for longer.
Here’s why.
Going “all in” on the highly speculative supply side investment in pro-life can appear to yield no ROI year after year, eventually frustrating and wearing down an investor, who then gives up and throws in the towel.
However, remember from yesterday’s article that demand side investments in pro-life are not only practically guaranteed to achieve the desired ROI – a life saved from abortion – they also achieve that ROI very quickly, sometimes in only days following the investment.
Verified ROI from demand side investments in pro-life can provide both the emotional satisfaction, and the logical justification, for a philanthropist to not grow weary with their long-term speculative pro-life supply side investments.
That’s why I’m a proponent of a balanced portfolio of both demand side investments and supply side investments in pro-life.
Be On Guard
I’m sure you’re curious how much is invested annually in the demand side of pro-life, represented by the Pro-Life Business Industry.
The amount of philanthropic investment capital given to the Pro-Life Business Industry every year is substantial.
There are no official figures available for the actual amount invested, but I can give you a rough estimate.
There are approximately 3,000 pro-life Pregnancy Help Centers (PHCs) in the United States.
From the work I do directly with many PHCs, I would estimate that the average annual operating budget of each PHC is about $350,000 annually.
3,000 PHCs times $350,000 per PHC is about $1 billion annually for the industry.
Not bad.
But as with most investments, caveat emptor – Let the buyer beware – applies.
We’ll discuss why tomorrow.
Regards,
Brett
