CIGP Commits $500,000 Guarantee to Support Foodshed Capital
CIGP COMMITS $500,000 GUARANTEE TO SUPPORT FOODSHED CAPITAL
CIGP’s first regenerative agriculture climate guarantee will unlock capital and technical assistance for farmers and food system entrepreneurs who have historically lacked access to capital, including low-income, BIPOC, female, immigrant, or indigenous entrepreneurs.
Richmond, VA – Today, Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) announced a $500,000 guarantee to Foodshed Capital (FoodCap), an emerging nonprofit CDFI serving primarily the mid-Atlantic region. The guarantee will enable increased capital access and technical assistance for farmers and food system entrepreneurs who have historically lacked access to capital for agriculture enterprises, particularly low-income, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), female, and immigrant entrepreneurs. FoodCap prioritizes farms that use regenerative practices, foster soil health and biodiversity, and produce nutrient-dense, culturally appropriate food for their foodsheds. Their unique products include 0% interest loans available to Black farmers without the requirement of a personal guarantee.
“As a regenerative agricultural lender, Foodshed Capital plays an essential role in the multi-pronged solution to climate change mitigation,” said Jim Baek, CIGP Executive Director. “Moreover, FoodCap specifically focuses its lending and business support services on those farmers and food system entrepreneurs who have historically had difficulty accessing capital for agriculture enterprises. FoodCap is a community lender that believes in equitable access to capital, and CIGP is proud to partner with them as they work to expand their agricultural lending across diverse communities.”
Launched in 2019, CIGP is a first-of-its-kind platform that compiles guarantee commitments from a wide-reaching coalition of mission-minded investors and pools those commitments into one entity to support projects that help communities flourish and strengthen economies. This is CIGP’s first climate guarantee that focuses on land use and carbon sequestration as a climate change mitigant. FoodCap is transitioning from a micro-lender to a larger small business agricultural lender, as it more than doubles its maximum loan size with the support of this CIGP guarantee.
There are approximately 967,000 crop farms in the United States, roughly 98% of which are family-owned. The average crop farm has two employees and generates about $190,000 in annual revenue, and over 45% of employees are family members. Currently, in the U.S., less than 1% of all regenerative, organic, and/or sustainable farms are BIPOC and/or women-owned. Additionally, the number of farms in the country has been trending downward while farm size has been trending upward for decades. The low per-acre value of crops, coupled with more rapidly rising expenses, is forcing small farms out of business.
“There is a crucial need for affordable capital in the small-scale farming world,” said Michael Reilly, Executive Director and Co-Founder at FoodCap. “Small farmers—particularly farmers of color—do not have equitable access to the capital and business resources they need to survive and thrive. We’re enormously proud of the impact we’ve made in just five years, but many barriers to success remain for regenerative farmers and food entrepreneurs. This guarantee will enable us to expand our agricultural lending and customized business support, with the goal of building genuine equity into our regional foodsheds.”
About CIGP
The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP), managed by Locus Impact Fund, aggregates unfunded philanthropic financial guarantees to accelerate equitable lending and investing in affordable housing, small business, and climate. By helping philanthropic organizations leverage their balance sheets for impact, CIGP makes more and new types of community development transactions feasible. The guarantors that make CIGP possible include The Kresge Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, California Community Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, California Wellness Foundation, CommonSpirit (formerly Dignity Health), Gary Community Investments, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Phillips Foundation, Laura & John Arnold Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Sierra Club Foundation, Locus, Weingart Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
About Foodshed Capital (FoodCap)
Foodshed Capital removes the biggest barriers to success for regenerative farmers and food entrepreneurs. Through accessible, affordable financing, customized business support, and a priority focus on business owners of color, we are building regional foodsheds that are more equitable, more regenerative, and ultimately more resilient. To learn more, visit https://www.foodcap.org.
CIGP Receives Historic $12M Grant from Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott
COMMUNITY INVESTMENT GUARANTEE POOL (CIGP) RECEIVES HISTORIC $12M GRANT FROM PHILANTHROPIST MACKENZIE SCOTT FOR INNOVATION IN IMPACT INVESTING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Scott grant acknowledges innovative tool for unlocking capital to strengthen community solutions for affordable housing, small business development, and climate change through a racial equity lens
Richmond, VA – Today, the Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) announced it is the recipient of a $12 million gift from novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The grant, part of Scott’s multi-billion-dollar investments in equity-oriented organizations, will fuel CIGP’s efforts to accelerate community investments and address America’s most pressing community-identified issues, including affordable housing and climate change.
“CIGP is honored and humbled to receive this grant from MacKenzie Scott. We are proud to be recognized for our innovative efforts to unlock capital and resources to the organizations leading the way to make our country an equitable, more just place,” said Jim Baek, CIGP Executive Director.
Launched in 2019, CIGP is a first-of-its-kind platform that compiles guarantee commitments from a wide-reaching coalition of mission-minded investors. It pools those commitments into one entity to support projects that help communities flourish and strengthen local economies.
As of August 2023, CIGP has issued guarantees totaling $26M across three sectors: climate, affordable housing, and small business financing. CIGP guarantees have enabled more than $70 million of direct investments and are anticipated to activate $230 million in total capital for community development nonprofits and other beneficiaries. The pool has secured $58M of guaranteed commitments and has directly or indirectly supported more than 300 organizations.
CIGP, managed by Locus (formerly VCC Social Enterprises), started with investments from some of the nation’s leading philanthropic organizations and health systems. Guarantors include: The Kresge Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, CommonSpirit Health, Gary Community Ventures, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Phillips Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Locus, Weingart Foundation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Sierra Club Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, and California Community Foundation. Their pooled guarantee commitments provided the capital needed to accelerate community investments in affordable housing, climate solutions, and small businesses that otherwise would not be possible.
“As an early guarantor, we’re proud that CIGP has succeeded in providing a powerful new tool to support community investments and access to capital,” said Kimberlee Cornett, Director of Impact Investments at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The grant from MacKenzie Scott underscores the importance of investors coming together to increase the flow of capital to communities.”
“Rarely do philanthropic organizations collaborate together at the scale CIGP has achieved so quickly,” said Rip Rapson, President & CEO of The Kresge Foundation, which incubated CIGP before its launch. “That alone is remarkable and worthy of celebration. But Scott’s generous support also speaks to CIGP’s positive impact on community development and the innovative model it provided to the field. Private foundations must consider ways to unlock their balance sheets and multiply their efforts to solve the country’s most insidious and entrenched generational economic problems. CIGP is the vehicle allowing more philanthropies to do just that.”
“I’m glad the Community Investment Guarantee Pool continues to gain momentum among funders who see the value in combining resources to make a real impact in communities while meeting critical needs such as affordable housing,” said Tracy Kartye, Director of Social Investments at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Guarantees are an important tool that complements our grantmaking and impact investments to support strategies that foster entrepreneurship and resilient communities.”
“With this grant, CIGP aims to further push philanthropy and mission-driven investors to use the strength of their balance sheets to deploy essential capital to rebuild our economies,” said Amir Kirkwood, CEO of Locus. “This grant comes at a moment of growth and transition for our team as we unify our resources under one streamlined structure that will allow us to create greater impact.”
As part of its continued evolution and growth, VCC Social Enterprises has unified under one streamlined organization named Locus. This new name captures the multipronged nature of the organization’s mission by evoking the importance of place, the commitment to local communities, and its bold and innovative approach to investing and community development that brings people together to do the most good. Founded in 2006, Locus creates equitable access to capital by developing community partnerships and innovative tools that tackle systemic challenges and advance promising opportunities.
About CIGP
The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) is a financing tool launched in December 2019 by impact investing organizations to create a pooled commitment of financial guarantees for intermediaries in affordable housing, small business and climate finance. CIGP accelerates community investments by more fully leveraging philanthropic balance sheets for mission. The guarantors that help make CIGP possible are The Kresge Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Common Spirit Health, Gary Community Ventures, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Phillips Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Locus, Weingart Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, The Sierra Club Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, and California Community Foundation. Learn more about CIGP by watching this short video produced by The Kresge Foundation.
About Locus
Locus (formerly Virginia Community Capital) is a $335 million nonprofit and parent organization for a family of social enterprises, which includes Locus Bank, Locus Impact Fund, Locus Capital, and the Community Investment Guarantee Pool, or CIGP. The mission of Locus is to create equitable access to capital by developing community partnerships and innovative tools that tackle systemic challenges and advance opportunities. Locus employs solutions to address inequities, including lending, banking, impact-driven programs, place-based investments, and strategic consulting and work with each community to build investment strategies that lift their assets and meet their unique needs. To learn more, visit locusimpact.org.
CIGP Closes a $3.2 Million Guarantee for Everytable’s Social Equity Franchise Program
CIGP Closes a $3.2 Million Guarantee to Reinvestment Fund for
Everytable’s Social Equity Franchise Program to Advance Minority Business Ownership and Wealth Creation
These investments over eight years will support business ownership and wealth creation in historically divested communities while increasing access to affordable, nutritious food.
April 14, 2023 – The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) closed an eight-year guarantee of up to $3.2 million for Reinvestment Fund in support of Everytable's Social Equity Franchise Program (The Program), managed by impact investing firm Mission Driven Finance. The Program supports business ownership and wealth creation in marginalized communities while increasing access to affordable, nutritious food.
Reinvestment Fund is leading an initial $8 million syndicate of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) lenders in a debt financing for Everytable. Everytable, a public benefit corporation, has a core mission of ensuring everyone everywhere has access to nutritious, fresh food at affordable prices. One approach to pursuing this mission while advancing its social equity objectives is the Everytable Social Equity Franchise Program (SEFP). SEFP involves training and mentorship for entrepreneurs from BIPOC and other underserved communities seeking to own and operate an Everytable franchise. SEFP also helps entrepreneurs secure 100% financing through the Everytable Social Equity Franchise Fund. Mission Driven Finance serves as the Fund Manager.
"Reinvestment Fund is proud to offer additional financing support," said Christina Szczepanski, Reinvestment Fund's Managing Director of Lending and Investments. "We echo Everytable's commitment to creating access to nutritious food for all and are excited for this partnership that furthers our vision of social and racial equity in the food system."
Everytable is committed to providing affordable, fresh, nutritious food in all communities by preparing meals at a central kitchen and distributing them through retail stores, subscription deliveries, contracts with institutions (e.g., hospitals, corporate offices), and SmartFridge vending machines. Currently, there are 52 retail locations in Southern California, eight retail locations in New York City, and one retail location in the Bay Area. To expand access, Everytable plans to open nearly 300 franchises across metropolitan markets in the next four years.
To further its social benefits, Everytable is committed to creating opportunities for these franchises to be owned and operated by entrepreneurs as a way to build wealth for individuals, communities, and families. To do this, Everytable will provide one year of training through Everytable University. Entrepreneurs will work full-time as store managers at a current Everytable location while receiving leadership and entrepreneurial education, mentoring, and coaching regarding relevant business topics. Upon completion, Everytable will match an entrepreneur with a franchise location and provide funding opportunities for entrepreneurs with limited access to personal wealth or capital through the Social Equity Franchise Fund.
"We simply can't fulfill our mission to make nutritious meals affordable and accessible without passionate people supporting our growth and running our stores," said Sam Polk, CEO of Everytable. "This investment will allow us to expand our Social Equity Franchise program and ensure that exceptional leaders graduating from our Everytable University have the capital to become owners and positively fuel our expansion."
"We're thrilled to be supporting Everytable's mission with this Fund. Supporting franchisees who wouldn't normally get a chance at business ownership is directly aligned with our thesis of closing capital gaps in order to close opportunity gaps," said Mission Driven Finance CEO David Lynn.
The Social Equity Franchise Fund will provide franchise financing loans covering 100% of franchise start-up costs to qualified Everytable University graduates. Secured against the franchise, loans require no financial equity from entrepreneurs and have five-year terms. This program is available to successful graduates of Everytable University and allows franchisees to focus on successfully building their business while opening doors to additional entrepreneurial activities that could create intergenerational, familial wealth.
CIGP guarantees a portion of the Reinvestment Fund-led debt facility into the Social Equity Franchise Fund. The Fund is expected to fully deploy loans to entrepreneurs by the end of 2025.
About CIGP
The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) is a financing tool launched in December 2019 by impact investing organizations to create a pooled commitment of financial guarantees for intermediaries in affordable housing, small business and climate finance. CIGP accelerates community investments by more fully leveraging philanthropic balance sheets for mission. The initial guarantors that helped make CIGP possible are The Kresge Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Common Spirit Health, Gary Community Investments, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Phillips Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Virginia Community Capital, and Weingart Foundation. Since launch, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation and the Sierra Club Foundation have also joined as guarantors. Learn more about CIGP by watching this short video produced by The Kresge Foundation.
About LOCUS Impact Investing
LOCUS serves as program manager for the Community Investment Guarantee Pool. LOCUS is a national non-profit consulting organization and registered investment advisor that works with foundations and mission-driven investors wherever they are on their local impact investing journey to help them create lasting, meaningful change in their communities. LOCUS partners with mission-driven institutions to unlock more of their assets and deploy dollars to catalyze equitable economic development and make community-informed investments guided by innovative, effective and equitable practices. LOCUS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the non-profit, VCC Social Enterprises. For more information about LOCUS visit: https://locusimpactinvesting.org/.
About Everytable
Founded in 2016, Everytable is a mission-driven food company based in Los Angeles that fights for food justice and equality by providing healthy and nutritious food that is both accessible and affordable for everyone. Everytable is a multi-channel, fresh-prepared food business blending stores, subscriptions, delivery and SmartFridges supplied by a central kitchen, with meals priced according to the neighborhood. Everytable serves Southern California, the SF Bay Area, and New York, with more stores and regional meal delivery soon to come.
In 2021 Everytable launched a trailblazing Social Equity Franchise program that sets social entrepreneurs from marginalized communities on an expedited pathway to potentially owning and operating an Everytable store. Everytable further seeks to support local communities with its Pay It Forward program which allows guests to purchase meals for those in need. In 2022, Inc.’s Best in Business list recognized Everytable for positively impacting food insecurity across communities, along with other accolades such as being named one of Fast Company’s top 10 most innovative dining companies. To date, Everytable has sold more than 15 million meals! For more information, please visit www.everytable.com or follow @foreverytable on Instagram.
About Mission Driven Finance
Mission Driven Finance is an impact investment firm dedicated to building a financial system that ensures good businesses have access to sufficient, affordable capital. Built from the ground up with a single purpose—to make it easy to invest in your community—all of their funds and structured products are designed to close financial gaps that will close opportunity gaps. They work with local and national investors to help them create the impact they want and work with businesses and community partners to help them get the capital they need. Mission Driven Finance was launched in 2016 in San Diego, CA, and is a Certified B Corporation. In 2022, Mission Driven Finance was selected for ImpactAssets’ IA 50 Fund Manager list, a category for experienced impact fund managers with a minimum three-year track record. Learn more about Mission Driven Finance at missiondrivenfinance.com.
About Reinvestment Fund
Reinvestment Fund is a mission-driven financial institution committed to making communities work for all people. We bring financial and analytical tools to partnerships that work to ensure that everyone has access to essential opportunities: affordable places to live, access to nutritious food and health care, schools where their children can flourish, and strong, local businesses that support jobs. We use data to understand markets, communities, and impediments to opportunity—and how investment and policy decisions can have the most powerful impact. Since our inception in 1985, Reinvestment Fund has provided over $2.4 billion in financing to strengthen neighborhoods, scale social enterprises, and build resilient communities. Learn more at www.reinvestment.com
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CIGP Closes Multimillion Dollar Guarantee to Inclusive Prosperity Capital
CIGP Closes Multimillion Dollar Guarantee to Inclusive Prosperity Capital (“IPC”) to Expand Residential Green Lending to Low/Moderate-Income and BIPOC Homeowners
The $2.5 million, 12+ year guarantee will expand IPC’s Smart-E Residential Green Lending Program
January 23, 2023 – In late December 2022, Community Investment Guarantee Pool (“CIGP”) announced the issuance of a $2.5 million, 12+ year guarantee to expand Inclusive Prosperity Capital Inc.’s (“IPC”) Smart-E Residential Green Lending Program (“Smart-E Program” or “Program”) and to demonstrate that unsecured residential green lending to predominantly low/moderate-income and/or Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) homeowners can be a successful business line for credit unions and other community lenders. CIGP’s guarantee will start at $1 million and expand to $2.5 million as the Smart-E program ramps up. IPC projects that CIGP’s guarantee will ultimately credit enhance nearly 2,000 Smart-E loans over the next four years, totaling about $24 million.
The Smart-E Program creates greater access to the residential clean energy and energy efficiency marketplace for community-based lenders, local contractors, and low- and moderate-income (LMI) homeowners through a comprehensive program that includes:
• Loan product and process standardization
• Online project management tool (called NGEN)
• Contractor screening and oversight.
“We are thrilled to be able to leverage CIGP’s guarantee to bring our Smart-E Program to more communities of color and low and moderate-income homeowners,” said Kerry O’Neill, IPC’s CEO. “CIGP’s support has allowed us to launch our Smart-E national expansion and reflects IPC’s belief that everyone should have access to the benefits of clean energy and resilience, especially those who have been most impacted by climate change and historically have not been well served by traditional lending.”
“Partnering with IPC and community development credit unions to enable low-income and BIPOC homeowners to make green upgrades demonstrates the catalytic value of CIGP’s guarantees for climate equity,” said Jim Baek, CIGP’s Executive Director. He added, “As investments in sustainability accelerate with the enactment of new federal programs, we’re hopeful that initiatives like Smart-E provide the road map and market insights needed to facilitate a just green transition.”
“Inclusiv is proud to connect high-impact credit union lenders with the Smart-E program that will dramatically expand clean energy and energy efficiency lending to low- and moderate-income people and households,” said Cathie Mahon, President/CEO, Inclusiv.
The model for the Smart-E Program operates in three states (Connecticut, Michigan, and Colorado) with 18 active lenders participating. Approved contractors offer 40 different green upgrades, including solar, energy efficiency, HVAC, and more. To date, $500 million in these unsecured loans have been originated, helping over 35,000 homeowners, 45% of whom are LMI.
IPC is now partnering with Inclusiv, the largest membership organization for Community Development Credit Unions (CDCU), and the University of New Hampshire (UNH), as a data and training resource, to expand the Smart-E platform nationally. This expansion is starting in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas where Inclusiv has 40 CDCU members and another 55 credit unions that are part of its Center for Resiliency and Clean Energy network. These 95 credit unions serve 5.6 million members in the three states with the CDCUs primarily serving LMI and/or BIPOC communities. Nationally, Inclusiv’s network of credit unions serves over 18 million members in various LMI urban, rural, and reservation-based communities and represents over $261 billion of community-controlled assets.
The Smart-E Loans are unsecured, and CIGP will only backstop loans to borrowers with FICO credit scores below 720. If successful, CIGP’s guarantee will demonstrate the degree to which unsecured consumer green lending can be made to a broader set of homeowners beyond the current market focus on higher income borrowers.
While green lending in the US is still primarily focused on upper- and upper-middle-income, largely white, borrowers, IPC’s national expansion of the Smart-E Program, starting in the Southwest, is designed to “democratize” access to green loans; at least 50% of CIGP backed Smart-E loans are expected to be to LMI and BIPOC households. In addition to yielding climate benefits from the reduced use of fossil fuels, successful Smart-E installations will lower energy bills, increasing housing stability and property values for homeowners.
About CIGP
The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) is a financing tool launched in December 2019 by impact investing organizations to create a pooled commitment of financial guarantees for intermediaries in affordable housing, small business and climate finance. CIGP accelerates community investments by more fully leveraging philanthropic balance sheets for mission. The initial guarantors that helped make CIGP possible are The Kresge Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Common Spirit Health, Gary Community Investments, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Phillips Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Virginia Community Capital, and Weingart Foundation. Since launch, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation and the Sierra Club Foundation have also joined as guarantors. Learn more about CIGP by watching this short video produced by The Kresge Foundation.
About LOCUS Impact Investing
LOCUS serves as program manager for the Community Investment Guarantee Pool. LOCUS is a national non-profit consulting organization and registered investment advisor that works with foundations and mission-driven investors wherever they are on their local impact investing journey to help them create lasting, meaningful change in their communities. LOCUS partners with mission-driven institutions to unlock more of their assets and deploy dollars to catalyze equitable economic development and make community-informed investments guided by innovative, effective and equitable practices. LOCUS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the non-profit, VCC Social Enterprises. For more information about LOCUS visit: https://locusimpactinvesting.org/.
About Inclusive Prosperity Capital (IPC)
Inclusive Prosperity Capital, Inc. (“IPC”) is a not-for-profit investment fund scaling clean energy financing solutions that channels investment capital to program partners in communities that need it most. As a spin-out and strategic partner of the Connecticut Green Bank, IPC is focused on scaling and expanding its successful model nationwide by accessing mission-driven capital and partnerships. IPC operates at the intersection of community development, clean energy finance, and climate impact. For more information about Inclusive Prosperity Capital, please visit https://www.inclusiveprosperitycapital.org.
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New Investments Help Fuel Change
The California Wellness Foundation and The Sierra Club Foundation Join
the Community Investment Guarantee Pool with Million Dollar Commitments
New investments will help fuel change in the fight against climate change, and for environmental justice and health equity
October 4, 2022 – Today, the Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) welcomed two new guarantors: the California Wellness Foundation and the Sierra Club Foundation. The CIGP is a first-of-its-kind platform that allows foundations and other impact investors to combine resources and expertise by establishing a one-stop-shop for intermediaries and other market participants in the climate, affordable housing and small business sectors to access highly flexible guarantees. The addition of the California Wellness Foundation and the Sierra Club Foundation will increase the Pool’s capacity to backstop innovative affordable housing, small business and climate change finance solutions.
The California Wellness Foundation has joined the CIGP with a $5 million guarantee commitment.
“Through both our grantmaking and our mission-aligned investment strategy, the California Wellness Foundation is committed to advancing health equity by promoting affordable housing and entrepreneurship opportunities,” said California Wellness Director of Investments, Anabel Giron. “Our $5 million investment in CIGP will help us advance our goals in these areas and bring much needed capital to under-resourced communities. We appreciate CIGP’s expertise and capacity to execute on its mission.”
The Sierra Club Foundation has joined the CIGP with a $1 million guarantee commitment.
“The Sierra Club Foundation is deeply committed to finding all tools of impact and finance to address climate change and environmental justice, and our $1 million investment in CIGP is one of the ways we are doing that,” said Sierra Club Foundation Executive Director, Dan Chu. “This is an emerging area of impact investing and we’re excited about the ways our early investment will act as a catalyst to attract other investors to support climate justice."
“Whether we’re talking about accessing capital for small businesses or being able to transition to cleaner sources of energy, we know that opportunities have been distributed in ways that reflect the inequities embedded in our society, and that addressing these challenges will require bringing to bear all of the resources and tools at our disposal,” said CIGP Executive Director, Jim Baek. “Together, this group of guarantors is making more and new types of community development transactions possible by putting more of their balance sheet strength to work in service of impact and equity. We are thrilled to have the California Wellness Foundation and the Sierra Club Foundation join us on our mission and look forward to working together.”
About CIGP
The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) is a financing tool launched in December 2019 by impact investing organizations to create a pooled commitment of financial guarantees for intermediaries in affordable housing, small business and climate finance. CIGP accelerates community investments by more fully leveraging philanthropic balance sheets for mission. The initial guarantors that helped make CIGP possible are The Kresge Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Common Spirit Health, Gary Community Investments, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Phillips Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Virginia Community Capital, and Weingart Foundation. Since launch, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation have also joined as guarantors. Learn more about CIGP by watching this short video produced by The Kresge Foundation.
About LOCUS Impact Investing
LOCUS serves as program manager for the Community Investment Guarantee Pool. LOCUS is a national non-profit consulting organization and registered investment advisor that works with foundations and mission-driven investors wherever they are on their local impact investing journey to help them create lasting, meaningful change in their communities. LOCUS partners with mission-driven institutions to unlock more of their assets and deploy dollars to catalyze equitable economic development and make community-informed investments guided by innovative, effective and equitable practices. LOCUS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the non-profit, VCC Social Enterprises. For more information about LOCUS visit: https://locusimpactinvesting.org/.
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