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All posts by Lauren Grattan

Lauren co-founded Mission Driven Finance and is our chief community officer. She loves strategy, inclusive opportunity, co-creating, maps, hiking, and cheese. Learn more about Lauren here.
Letters from Lauren: November 2023

Letters from Lauren: November 2023

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.

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Letters from Lauren: May 2023

Letters from Lauren: May 2023

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.

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Letters from Lauren: March 2023

Letters from Lauren: March 2023

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.

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Letters from Lauren: January/February 2023

Letters from Lauren: January/February 2023

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.

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Letters from Lauren: September/October 2022

Letters from Lauren: September/October 2022

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.

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Letters from Lauren: August 2022

Letters from Lauren: August 2022

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!

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Letters from Lauren: June/July 2022

Letters from Lauren: June/July 2022

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.

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Letters from Lauren: May/June 2022

Letters from Lauren: May/June 2022

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.

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Letters from Lauren: April/May 2022

Letters from Lauren: April/May 2022

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.

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Letters from Lauren: March/April 2022

Letters from Lauren: March/April 2022

After two years of being selected for the ImpactAssets IA 50 Emerging Impact Manager list (in 2020 and 2021—an honor in itself!), this year we moved to the big kids’ table on the IA 50 Fund Manager list as we surpassed three years of track record and $25M in assets under management.

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Letters from Lauren: February/March 2022

Letters from Lauren: February/March 2022

I was honored to join The Brookings Institution for a panel discussion on the state of Black businesses in America in partnership with the Path to 15|55 initiative. The panel amplified a new Brookings report taking a regional lens on Black business ecosystems.

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COVID-19 letter to borrowers

COVID-19 letter to borrowers

We’re sharing with you—our community—the same message for small businesses and nonprofits that we provided to our active borrowers. During this challenging time, stay true to your values and support each other. None of us will come out of this unchanged. See our COVID-19 resources for small businesses and nonprofits.

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