Locavesting
Lake Street in Minneapolis, MN | Photo credit: Sam Wagner
Catalytic Capital | May 6, 2021
Helping communities acquire assets and rebuild small businesses in Minnesota
ImpactAlpha, May 6 – The conviction of former officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd sent a signal to residents of Minneapolis …
Source: Higher Purpose Co.
Catalytic Capital | May 6, 2021
RSF Social Finance deploys capital from the Racial Justice Collaborative
ImpactAlpha, May 6 — RSF Social Finance has launched the Racial Justice Collaborative, a vehicle that aims to provide debt, equity and grant …
Community Finance | May 5, 2021
Boston’s Ujima Fund demonstrates the (investment) power of neighborhood democracy
Every Wednesday evening for the past few years—at least, before the pandemic—a group of Boston residents from the working class neighborhoods of Dorchester, …
Mason Music, a community-based music program at the newly renovated Woodlawn Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama | Photo credit: Mason Music
Catalytic Capital | April 29, 2021
Opportunity Alabama is combining community and capital to fulfill the potential of Opportunity Zones
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 29 – A senior-care facility in Heflin, Alabama, population 5,000. A restored hotel in Selma. Workforce housing and an historic theatre in …
Photo credit: AdvancedAg, an Indigenous-owned water and agtech company in Alberta
Canada | April 20, 2021
Indigenous Growth Fund raises $150 million to back Native lenders in Canada
ImpactAlpha, April 20 – A new fund in Canada is aiming to impact marginalized Indigenous communities by channelling capital to Indigenous-owned financial institutions. The …
Community Finance | April 20, 2021
Reviving a Black cultural corridor in West Oakland – as a community-led cooperative
In another era, Esther’s Orbit Room helped make West Oakland the “Harlem of the West,” hosting the likes of B.B. King, James Brown …
Figs on the tree
Clean Energy | April 16, 2021
Banks up their green finance ambitions
ImpactAlpha, April 16 – JPMorgan Chase and Citi – the biggest bankrollers of fossil fuels – unveiled new trillion-plus targets for sustainable financing …
Community Finance | April 13, 2021
Founders First’s Kitty Fund makes micro-investments in “mompreneurs”
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 13 – The pandemic has been challenging for many small business owners, but mothers have faced particular burdens as childcare routines have …
Image by Claudio Schwarz / Pulled from Community Credit Lab website
Community Finance | April 1, 2021
Sacrificing returns? These community investors ask if they’re sacrificing impact.
The time is now for the impact investing sector to reflect on how it does business, how it frames success, and begin to …
Ellis Carr, Capital Impact Partners | Photo Capital Impact Partners
Community Finance | March 31, 2021
Alliance of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance creates community investing powerhouse
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – Capital Impact Partners, a community development finance institution, has deep community roots. CDC, a nonprofit Small Business Administration lender, …
Community Finance | March 30, 2021
Five ways that lenders can interrupt racism and provide restorative-justice capital in our communities
Can community development financial institutions be anti-racist? Don’t answer too quickly. For those familiar with the history of CDFIs, specifically created to align …
Community Finance | March 30, 2021
An emergency loan fund for Miami’s small businesses provides a model for collaboration beyond COVID
Miami Re-Investing in the Small-Business Economy, or RISE, is en route to disburse $18 million in low-interest loans to nearly 1,000 truly small …
Community Finance | March 29, 2021
Georgia is throttling voters. The South’s financial system is doing the same to its entrepreneurs.
The ban on offering snacks and water to people waiting in line to vote that was just passed into law in Georgia really …
Oakland, Calif. | Photo: trekandshoot
Community Finance | March 25, 2021
Spurred by stimulus checks, guaranteed income gains steam as an anti-poverty policy
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 25 – Dozens of mayors across the U.S. have committed to piloting guaranteed income programs that put regular, no-strings-attached cash payments into …
Olneyville | Photo credit: Providence Preservation Society
Community Finance | March 23, 2021
How neighborhood trusts interrupt gentrification and shift ownership to communities
The thought that the poor might achieve the same control over their destiny that the wealthy expect as their birthright is a radical …