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Shari Berenbach, president and CEO of Calvert Foundation, is leaving the foundation to lead microenterprise development efforts at USAID. In her thirteen years of service, Shari played a significant role in the social investment movement while growing the Foundation from a staff of two with $5 million in assets to a staff of 42 managing assets over $500 million. Shari was also a founding member of the PRI Makers Network. Executive vice president and chief lending officer Lisa Hall will serve as the Foundation's interim president and CEO.
Twelve foundations have committed $500 million in funds to leverage the U.S. Department of Education's $650 million "Investing in Innovation" (i3) Fund. Among many things, the foundations' investments will go toward training for teachers and administrators, improvements to STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) education programs, and support for low-performing schools and alternative school designs. In addition, the foundations are launching the "Foundation Registry i3," an application platform intended to simplify the process of applying for private funding. Click here to see the press release from the Gates Foundation.
New York City-based Clark Foundation allocated $2 million to the Nonprofit Finance Fund to establish a working capital loan fund for nonprofit organizations that are struggling financially. The PRI, made from the Foundation's endowment fund, will allow NFF to make an additional $4 million available to Clark grantees. This fund aims to help alleviate the operational strain that many nonprofits experience due to gaps in cash flow.
Investing in sustainable food systems is key to strengthening local economies and improving the health of our communities. To help accomplish this, RSF Social Finance has launched a Food & Agriculture PRI Fund that allows foundations to make PRI investments in a range of food enterprises, including a nonprofit that has created a replicable model for distributing local organic food to institutions, including hospitals, universities, and schools. RSF Social Finance's new fund offers foundations an efficient way to "recycle" grant dollars through PRI investment while supporting innovative models for large scale change.
June 2010
The Meadows Foundation awarded the Texas State Affordable Housing Coporation (TSAHC) a $500,000 PRI in support of acquiring foreclosed homes and lots for development and rehabilitation via 16 nonprofit housing providers.
May 2010
Foundations such as the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York, The John R. Oishei Foundation and The Wendt Foundation are using PRIs to support housing, social services and economic development projects.
June 2010
The Iacocca Family Foundation is investing in Kineta , a Seattle-based biotech company working on the development of a new drug for type 1 diabetes.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation announced their support to help secure $93 million in a tax-exempt bond issuance that will help Aspire Public Schools, a leading California nonprofit public charter school management organization, offer high-quality, permanent facilities to more students.
May 6, 2010
How do foundation leaders decide when to deploy mission investments and when to utilize grants in addressing social challenges? How can mission investments be integrated into a foundation's program strategy to achieve maximum social impact?
As mission investments, also known as impact investments (investments that advance a foundation's social mission and also earn financial returns) become more prevalent, funders are increasingly looking for ways to align their investments with their grantmaking activities. Yet, very few funders have developed a comprehensive approach that links mission investing and grantmaking into a single integrated strategy, notes a new report by FSG Social Impact Advisors.
In Maximizing Impact: An Integrated Strategy For Grantmaking and Mission Investing in Climate Change, the authors provide a framework for foundations to identify the different ways social challenges, particularly climate change, may be addressed through a combined approach of mission investments and grants. Funded by the Surdna Foundation, and developed from interviews with more than 50 practitioners and experts from the field, the report highlights several examples of foundations working to address climate change through this integrated approach.
"Funders who adopt investing to help drive their program work will find many amazing entrepreneurs, ideas and portfolio asset classes today," comments Gregory Miller, who built and led Google.org's philanthropic investments and grants teams through last year, and is a member of the report's advisory board. "Complementing a grants program and the experiences funders bring, mission-advancing investments can help programs become more sustainable, paving the way for long-term philanthropic impact."
Mark Kramer, co-author and Managing Director at FSG adds, "Mission investments can serve a powerful role in leveraging commercial capital using the world's relatively limited philanthropic resources. We hope that this report helps more foundations utilize this tool to create greater social impact than what grants or investments can achieve alone."
May 5, 2010
Three CDFI industry leaders have created the $200MM Communities at Work Fund. The Fund will provide flexible capital to Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) loan funds that lend to nonprofit and for profit small businesses, charter schools and other community service organizations in low-income and low-wealth communities.
The Communities at Work Fund will invest in opportunities to spur job creation and economic recovery in those communities that need it most. It is a partnership of Citi, Calvert Foundation, and Opportunity Finance Network.
The Fund will offer unsecured, interest-only loans at 4.30% for up to five years to CDFI loan funds, as well as to New Market Tax Credit affiliates of CDFIs.
Calvert Foundation and Opportunity Finance Network will co-manage the Fund. Citi is investing $199 million and Calvert Foundation and OFN are each investing $500,000 to capitalize the Fund.