Many of our team will be on the fall conference circuit again. If you see us, be sure to say hi!
Where to find the MDF team this 2024 conference season
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News & insights
Check out the latest
Making funding accessible in the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community
ABASD and Mission Driven Finance are excited to launch the AdvanceAPI Fund and provide flexible capital for San Diego small businesses and nonprofits with an API heartbeat.
Introducing the Community Finance Fellowship
Diversity is a strength, a great reducer of blindspots, and our industry has been woefully not diverse. This lack of diversity in finance perpetuates unequal access to capital and opportunity.
B Corp: Best for the World honoree
A year ago, we were certified as a B Corporation. This month we were named as one of the Best For The World for our incredible customers—the changemaking companies we support. We rank in the top 10% of all 3,000+ B Corps around the world for the positive impact we make together with our customers!
Insights From Innovators—interview with Cutting Edge Capital
Cutting Edge Capital spoke with Mission Driven Finance Co-founders Lauren Grattan and David Lynn to talk about our mission, and how our community-first perspective guides us to find investment opportunities.
Why I invest: Kara Ballester
As lead investors in our Homebuilding Investment Fund, Kara Ballester and her husband Andy were instrumental in jumpstarting our efforts to accelerate affordable housing with San Diego Habitat for Humanity. We wanted to know—what motivated Kara to invest in affordable homeownership, and what has her experience with impact investing been like?
Closing education gaps with creative capital
Our flexible, personalized financing approach allowed us to provide Friends of Willow Tree a $100,000 bridge loan that they used for expenses at the start of the school year, keeping the program affordable and accessible for their majority low-income students.
How can we make investing in our community a great investment? Flip the conventional finance model on its head.
The idea for Advance came from speaking with people who wanted to invest in their communities and the issues that they cared about but didn’t know how.
Developing community with creative capital
When we first met Kris Schlesser, founder of LuckyBolt, he was six years into a quest to make the perfect breakfast burrito easily accessible to professionals on the go, and had been financing the business with high-interest credit cards and microloans.
SPECTRUM reflections on expanding the impact economy
Mission Driven Finance Co-founder Lauren Grattan reflects on building an inclusive, expansive economy after attending SOCAP’s SPECTRUM conference.
Storytelling for Change: Going beyond diversity to create belonging at work
We expected to learn strategies to better communicate with the public, but we walked away with so much more than that.
Thoughts from the road: Small business drives strong communities across the country
David and Lauren spent National Small Business Week on the road in New York; Columbus, Ohio; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They spoke with stakeholders from different walks of life who all recognize the transformative power of small business from varied angles.
Women build the future of affordable homeownership
We had the honor of hanging out with inspiring women leading change during our Women Build the Future breakfast with San Diego Habitat for Humanity.
Supporting African artisans at work and beyond
“I have managed to invest…but one of the proudest things I have been able to do is pay for all of the school fees for my 7 children.”
—Seraphine, artisan
New financing model unlocks millions to build affordable homes
Charitable & private investors have contributed more than $1 million to a revolutionary fund supporting affordable housing for low-income families.
MAAC creates pathways to healthier San Diego families
Our COO and resident social determinants of health nerd Shreya Sasaki discussed her work with local nonprofit MAAC to create pathways for healthier San Diego families.
NPR: Breaking the cycle of disinvestment In lower-income communities
Our conversation with NPR about discrepancies in access to capital for lower-income communities and how we can level the playing field.
Milken Institute Opportunity Zone takeaways
Here are David’s generalized takeaways from the Milken Institute convenings in Oakland, centering around affordable housing, Opportunity Zones, and how local and statewide policies in California can be structured to influence positive outcomes.
Optimistic about Opportunity Zones in San Diego
While Opportunity Zones have the potential for the biggest wave of gentrification and displacement we’ve ever seen, we’re optimistic about San Diego.
