Summer has wound down, and we continue to activate a bevy of intentional impact capital vehicles, including closing 5 homes for child care.
Letters from Lauren: September 2023
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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: 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.
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.
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.
Letters from Lauren: December 2022
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.
Letters from Lauren: October/November 2022
October saw a good chunk of our team traveling for conferences and connecting with our community in person.
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.
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!
Letters from Lauren: July 2022
No summer slowdown here, we are seeing tons of activity across our various funds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
