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Community engagement

San Diego local & impactful shopping guide

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On December 17, 2019
Shop these eight impactful San Diego businesses for all your gift-giving needs Are you still finishing your holiday shopping list? Don’t worry, we waited until the last minute, too. Luckily, these local San Diego businesses are here to save the day. The following handpicked businesses are sure to satisfy everyone on your list while supporting…
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Community engagement, Community Finance Fellowship, News

Changing the face of finance through the Community Finance Fellowship

  • Posted by Wilda Wong
  • On December 17, 2019
To build an inclusive economy, we must transform the world of finance. Communities need good businesses, and good businesses need access to affordable capital. But our financial systems, structures, and policies have restricted access to capital and opportunity—whether intentionally or not. We believe the lack of diversity in finance perpetuates unequal access to capital and…
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Advancing economic opportunity, Community engagement, Investors, News, Racial equity

Making Funding Accessible in the Asian Pacific Islander (API) Community

  • Posted by Lauren Grattan
  • On November 22, 2019
AdvanceAPI: A Partnership with the Asian Business Association of San Diego Doing your taxes. Buying a house. Raising a family. Some things are, by nature, challenging. Entrepreneurs in underestimated communities would also add finding investors and accessing startup capital to this list. As an entrepreneur, sourcing start-up capital can be time-consuming. Add in the factor of…
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News, Team

B Corp: Best For the World Honoree

  • Posted by Lauren Grattan
  • On September 22, 2019
A year ago, nonprofit B Lab certified Mission Driven Finance as a B Corporation—akin to organic or fair trade certification but for our whole company. We were delighted to join the B Corp movement with other folks using business as a force for good. Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of…
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Affordable housing, Investors, Why I invest

Why I invest in community: Kara Ballester, impact investor and philanthropist

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On August 28, 2019
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? We like to kick…
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Investors, Resources, Team, Why I invest

How Can We Make Investing in Our Community a Great Investment? Flip the Traditional Finance Model on Its Head.

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On July 22, 2019
When we first launched Mission Driven Finance, we developed the Advance Fund with one primary question in mind: how can we make investing in our community a great investment?  The answer we found is to reimagine and reinvent finance to put the community’s needs first. We discovered incredible businesses and nonprofits committed to their communities…
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Advancing economic opportunity, Borrowers, Community engagement, News, Why I invest

Developing Community with Creative Capital

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On July 18, 2019
How Advance borrower Kris Schlesser Uses Creative Capital to strengthen community 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. He had been financing the business with high-interest credit cards and microloans. Though he had…
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