The Prep Institute

What they do

The Prep Institute, LLC, founded by Natache Muschette in 2012, is a social solutions company offering customizable solutions, expert advice, and tools to help turn community visions into reality.

(Natache previously worked with Mission Driven Finance to prepare the Community Finance Fellows for the next stage of their careers.)

The Prep Institute consults with and teaches social investors and nonprofit organizations to design and implement simple, disruptive, and preventive solutions to eliminate or lessen social issues.​ One of their programs is the Social Solutions Incubator to help small nonprofits and small businesses grow.

Natache quickly realized it is futile to teach an organization how to grow in a workshop or two; she believed organizations need to participate in incubators for three to five years to grow an idea into reality.

“How do you architect a social solution and how do you distribute it?” are the questions Natache sets out to answer with the incubator.

One nonprofit from the incubator is Our Genetic Legacy (OGL), led by Shellie Baxter, which sets out to offer a fuller genealogical picture than is shared by mainstream DNA and ancestry companies. OGL’s mission is to “publish lost family legacies of BIPOC Americans to diversify, correct, and expand the current history of America to include ALL Americans.”

One of OGL’s projects involves documenting the transatlantic slave trade to understand its impact on U.S. history. The nonprofit brought 13 young women and girls from San Diego—seven of whom are FAA-certified drone pilots—to train and work with 16 young women and girls in Ghana to become licensed drone pilots and to research, map, and document sites of significance, like cemeteries. The group has continued their research in the UK and Portugal, all of which contribute to exhibits for their virtual We The People Museum.

Shellie shares, “Thanks to Natache and her team at The Prep Institute, Our Genetic Legacy is becoming a sustainable organization that can positively influence the community for generations. While words may not fully capture it, the joy evident on the faces of our beneficiaries speaks volumes about the profound impact of our collaborative partnership.”

Why we invested

Place-based investment fund Advance California provided capital The Prep Institute needed to implement a $1 million contract with the County of San Diego, the first time that The Prep Institute is acting as the prime contractor rather than a supportive subcontractor.

Natache shares, “The Mission Driven Finance loan is a blessing. It allows me to build a financial base and pursue this huge growth opportunity. The funding can help me grow the incubator.”