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.

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?

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.