Debbie Sit is always thinking about return on investment (ROI). As senior vice president and senior portfolio manager in the fixed-income group at Sit Investment Associates, Debbie focuses on achieving maximum ROI for her clients —and her focus is the same when it comes to her own philanthropy. She’s a committed investor of both time and money in CommonBond Communities, and is convinced that the ROI for the community at large is tremendous.

Debbie first heard about CommonBond through a college friend who worked on staff at CommonBond. She lived in Edina at the time and remembers being surprised that the Yorkdale Family Townhomes and South Haven senior community she could see from her condominium window were affordable housing. “They fit right into the neighborhood,” she says, “and I was so impressed by the fact that I could see kids from the Yorkdale Advantage Center walking over to South Haven to plant flowers and spend time with the senior residents. There was a real feeling of community evident there.”

CommonBond’s effectiveness hit home for Debbie after she toured a Minneapolis homeless shelter and heard how much government funding was devoted to temporary housing with no stability and no services like those offered by CommonBond. “It was clear to me that we could do better — and I really believe that CommonBond does,” she says. “CommonBond does so much more with its dollars, and makes them go further by leveraging corporate and community partnerships.”

Debbie recently finished a six-year term on the CommonBond board of directors, where part of her contribution involved strengthening those partnerships. A longtime member of the Minneapolis Junior League, Debbie got that organization involved in collecting books to donate to CommonBond Advantage Centers, and also helped recruit fellow Junior Leaguers to help build a playground at Seward Towers and host a Valentine’s Day party at Winnetka West.

“My Junior League friends who volunteered had a great time learning about CommonBond and meeting the residents and staff,” Debbie says. “I’m a big advocate of spreading the word— giving that little ‘elevator speech’ that talks about the great work CommonBond does. I want to tell everybody: Take the time to get to know CommonBond, because when you find out a little more, you’ll fall in love.”