Mission Driven Finance is entering a new era—we are at an exciting inflection point on the path to mobilizing $1 billion of assets into community and cannot wait to fill you in with more details in the new year.
Launching an investment fund is expensive and time-consuming; especially for first-time fund managers who don’t come from communities where wealth has historically been concentrated. Inspired by our experiences bringing new funds to market and supporting aspiring managers, we devised a solution called MDF Capital Partners, designed to alleviate common fundraising challenges that impact funds and projects face, particularly gaps in proof, size, and timing.
Our team has had the privilege of presenting at roughly 20 convenings this year on topics as varied as public-private investment, access to capital for small businesses, investing in Indigenous economic development, innovative legal structures to activate philanthropic capital, financing community climate infrastructure, and the future of the care economy. This is what co-creating an inclusive economy looks like!
Across recent projects, our goal remains the same: Getting capital into the hands of social impact-minded businesses, nonprofits, and initiatives that don’t usually qualify for conventional capital. In other words—flowing capital where it doesn’t, but should.
We’re planning to reach ONE BILLION DOLLARS over the next few years, after having crossed $100 million in AIC at the end of 2023.
This fall, we reached a landmark moment, flowing over $100 million in assets into the community since our founding.
We’re leaning into radical imagination: ideating how to help route the flood of once-in-a-generation federal resources so that Indigenous and overlooked communities can flourish for years to come.
Summer has wound down, and we continue to activate a bevy of intentional impact capital vehicles, including closing 5 homes for child care.
We wrote this North Star into the company theory of change: “Financial systems that perpetuate poverty are flipped to systems that eradicate it.” Systems change sounds really cool, but admittedly can be hard to picture. It is thrilling to see it coming into clearer focus, hopefully for you too.
It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work reconnecting capital and community. We’re thrilled to have new teammates that are up for doing both. Please help me welcome newcomers from the last few months of busy recruiting.
This year has started off with strange weather (certainly here in California) and many disheartening reports of violence and discord, but we still believe that centering community in finance can help change those trajectories.
As we approach the end of the year, the Mission Driven Finance team is thrilled for how far we’ve come and where we’re going in 2023.
October saw a good chunk of our team traveling for conferences and connecting with our community in person.
In the last few months, four strategies with client-partners made the first investments into the community, we welcomed new partnerships and portfolio companies, and the second cohort of community finance fellows graduated.
This quarter marks a huge milestone in Mission Driven Finance’s history—we have now flowed over $50 million in “assets into community” (AIC) across more than 100 loan transactions!
No summer slowdown here, we are seeing tons of activity across our various funds.
We’re welcoming summer, (safe) gathering, and new fund launches with our partners—and still mourning that the long battles against COVID-19 and systemic bias continue.
Reflecting on Memorial Day and the second anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, it’s easy to feel like we’re treading water as a society. But we believe in the power of freedom dreams and radical imagination to continue building a future that works for all.
