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Report: O-Zone Investors Willing to Sacrifice Profits for “Doing Good”
Opportunity Zones were established as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to pump much-needed capital into lower-income and economically distressed regions in the United States. And, much of the media has focused on the fact that perhaps the program isn’t doing as much as it could.
However, a study commissioned by Opportunity Zone investment platform Lighthouse.one shows a different side of the O-Zone program. Namely, two-thirds of investors surveyed were willing to make less of a profit with their Opportunity Zone investment, as long as it had a definite benefit to American communities.
In obtaining the data, Lighthouse.one used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to collect answers from those interested investing. Based on the survey of 1,000 respondents, Lighthouse.one results showed that:
- 90% of those asked indicated they would prefer to invest on a society-benefits project, so long as the amount of return was the same.
- 74% would be interested in O-Zone investments, if they had the means.
- 45% believed the primary benefit to investment wasn’t knowing how to find the projects.
- With the legislation entering its third year, more than three-quarters of respondents had never heard of Opportunity Zones. Furthermore, of those familiar with the program, 27% had invested in Qualified Opportunity Funds.
- 29% of Generation Z and 28% of Millennials worried that the program would accelerate gentrification, as opposed to Generation X (13%) and Baby Boomers (13%).
- Finally, 76% of those surveyed indicated “we as a nation are not acting strongly enough to uplift underserved and low-income communities.”
According to Lighthouse.one Co-Founder and President Marcia Kadanoff, the survey demonstrated that respondents felt the Opportunity Zone program would be an ideal tool to help reshape workforces, industry and infrastructure. “The results of our survey show that uplifting communities is a priority when it comes to choosing ventures in which to invest,” she added. “There is a clear barrier in the market for a mechanism to connect untapped capital with the most promising Opportunity Zone projects.”
Connect Opportunity Zones will be presented for the first time on Oct. 23 in New York. For more information, or to register, click here.
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Amy Sorter
