Finance & Investing

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Finance & Investing

March 2016 |

Sarah Mahlab, Canopy | As an organization focused on place, it seemed natural for Canopy to build a map for the benefit of regional communities. Over the past six months, we have collected data on regional stakeholders and capital flows to build an investment map for the Pacific Northwest. "The Map" is unique in that it allows users to overlay three distinct layers — stakeholders, capital flows and demographics — and adjust transparency on these layers to better understand how they relate to one another.

March 2016 |

Judith Olsen, Impact Capital | Whenever I introduce myself as the president of a CDFI, a community development financial institution, I'm often asked, “Just what is a CDFI?” I would put it like this, “As a CDFI, we provide loans to nonprofits, small businesses and individuals who can't access the capital they need to create safe, equitable, vibrant communities; communities filled with affordable housing, lively commercial corridors, schools, parks, healthcare and fresh food.” In other words, CDFIs leverage impact investments from place-based foundations, banks and government leaders to assess, understand and respond to community needs. I am proud to be part of this work, and I look forward to many more exciting projects in communities across the Northwest.

March 2016 |

Ken Ristine, Ben B. Cheney Foundation | We've known about impact investing for a long time, but most of the groups the Ben B. Cheney Foundation works with need equity, not debt. As a result, it took a special situation to create our first program-related investment (PRI) last year: a loan to a Habitat for Humanity Store in Lakewood, Washington. As we look for other impact investing opportunities, we are reviewing the five parts of this story: what prompted this investment, what's been easy, what's been challenging, what have we learned — and what's next?

March 2016 | Philanthropy Northwest

Rosalie Sheehy Cates, one of Philanthropy Northwest's Catalyst Fellows, recently advised community foundations on how impact investing can be used as a disaster recovery tool.

March 2016 | Philanthropy Northwest

Jeff Clarke, CEO | Poet William Blake wrote, "The true method of knowledge is experiment." Here at Philanthropy Northwest, we honor Blake and the countless others who have offered similar encouragement by taking initiative to conduct learning experiments. Our latest? The Catalyst Fellows, a place-based experiment in thought partnership and network learning. We’ve designed this program to begin and steward ongoing conversations about the important role that different types of capital, each integral to philanthropic strategy, play in creating and sustaining vibrant, equitable and inclusive communities. While there are many important forms of capital, we’ve chosen to begin this work by focusing on influence (advocacy), financial (impact investing) and natural (sustainability) capital.

February 2016 |

Here in the Pacific Northwest — Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming — our sense of place results from an incredibly rich, diverse and unique set of characteristics rooted in our cultures, experiences and learning over time. In the foreword to Canopy's new white paper, Committed to Investing in Our Region, Philanthropy Northwest CEO Jeff Clarke frames this place-based impact investing collaborative's mission through our region's culture of innovation, entrepreneurship, generosity and stewardship.

January 2016 |

Seth Benziger, Impact Capital | As a community development financial institutition, Impact Capital has focused on providing financing for affordable housing projects in Oregon and Washington. In the past year, however, we branched out by making a bridge loan to the University District Food Bank, so the Seattle nonprofit could move into a bigger space and serve more clients. As we turn the page on this impact investment, we can review five parts of the story: what prompted this investment, what's been easy, what's been challenging, what have we learned — and what's next?

Picture of food bank building under construction