dsmWealth September 3, 2020

Anawim Housing has long been a philanthropic focus of Sue Kenny.

Giving So Others May Have A Home

BY STEVE DINNEN

Some people give money to charities. Some volunteer their time. Then there are people like Sue Kenny, who has supported several charities with both cash and personal involvement.

Sue and her husband, Ed Kenny, have long been involved with supporting charitable giving and haven't often strayed outside of town. “Ninety-nine percent of our money would go local,” she said. “We wanted to somehow give back to our community and make people’s lives better.”

One day Kenny found a way to crank that support up a notch. At lunch, a friend told her about Anawim Housing, a Des Moines-based nonprofit that supports housing efforts for people who struggle to find stability in that area. After studying up on Anawim, and meeting with Stella Neill, its founding executive director who died in 2010, she knew she had to do something more than just write a check.

“I did a lot of soul-searching,” Kenny said. “I wanted to make a wise choice [about] who I wanted to spend my time with.”

Des Moines needs safe, affordable housing, said Kenny, and that’s what Anawim, founded in 1987, set out to provide. “Their mission is so basic, so simple, yet profound.”

The board that Kenny found herself on at Anawim was not just ceremonial, but a working group, she said.
“We were there to inspire staff and give our opinion. Every one of us felt the passion of making Anawim successful," she said.

Anawim (it’s a Hebrew word from the Old Testament that describes the “poor ones” who remained faithful to God in times of difficulty) is the largest provider of permanent supportive housing in Iowa. Managing more than 220 housing units, Anawim’s website says it provides stable housing to 386 individuals who have experienced homelessness and live with a mental illness, substance use disorder, physical disability, diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, or are fleeing domestic violence.

Kenny has recently retired from the board at Anawim, as it consolidated two boards into one and as she and Ed Kenny found themselves spending much of their time at their home in Florida. They still are active in supporting nonprofit ventures. Social services fall in that category, as do cultural activities and community projects, like the skate park.

“Our mission is all local,” she said.

Chocolate Sales Up During the Pandemic

BY STEVE DINNEN

Des Moines philanthropist Trudy Hurd says she never likes a day or two to pass without nibbling on some chocolate. That’s music to the ears of chocolatiers Ton Stam and Meg Shearer, as they witness a national surge in chocolate sales while people seek out some pleasures during COVID.

Shearer, president of Chocolate Storybook in West Des Moines, said recently that online sales so far in 2020 were already equal to their entire sales of 2019. “We did create specific quarantine gifts, including the Survival Sweets box and the graduate treat box, and sales for both are very strong,” Shearer said. When interviewed, she was in the midst of sending out 500-plus gifts for companies who were thanking their employees for their dedication.

While in-store sales have dropped, Chocolate Storybook is adapting to health mandates by adding a new entrance to accommodate a one-way traffic flow throughout the store. Both she and the 10 Chocolaterie Stam stores owned or licensed by Stam have boosted delivery services.

Stam has long held true to the advice from forefathers in Europe that a few well-considered consumer purchases can help smooth over the rough edges of troubled times. “You can have a nice bottle of wine and some chocolate” and unwind a bit, he said.

How Much Longer Can the Stock Market Go Up?
BY MALLIKA MITRA FOR MONEY.COM

What goes up must come down, right? Not always, when it comes to the stock market. Despite high unemployment and uncertainty around when we’ll see a coronavirus vaccine, the stock market continues to defy gravity. Headlines about the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting record highs and the Dow jumping have been pretty common over the last few weeks.

“All-time high” sounds dramatic, and record-breaking numbers might make you feel like you need to take action. But here’s the thing about the stock market: It’s always breaking records. A record high is a record high only until the next one, says Mike Cocco, financial adviser with Equitable Advisors.

“If you’re a long-term investor, don’t see this as ‘All right, stocks reached an all-time high and that’s it, that’s the highest we can go, that’s the ceiling,’” Cocco says. “No, there is no real ceiling.”
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Investing in Social Good Stocks Paying Off

BY PAUL SULLIVAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Impact investments, which aim to promote a social good or prevent a social ill, have significantly outperformed traditional bets during the coronavirus pandemic. And their returns are enticing hesitant investors to rework their portfolios.

Impact investing typically focuses on three categories: environmental, social and governance, together known as ESG. Returns can be tracked through various exchange-traded funds. For example, the S&P 500 technology ETF, for example, is up 25% this year, while the S&P 500 energy ETF, which includes oil and gas stocks, is down 34%.

Overall, 64% of actively managed ESG funds beat their benchmarks versus 49% of traditional funds through the first week in August, according to research from RBC Capital Markets.
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