Investors, Resources

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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Borrowers

LuckyBolt Uses Creative Capital to Develop Community

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On July 18, 2019
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 met some venture capital firms interested in last-mile food delivery, they […]
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Community Engagement, News

SPECTRUM reflections on expanding the impact economy

  • Posted by Lauren Grattan
  • On June 18, 2019
Building an inclusive, expansive economy is a daily practice. This work happens through big commitments and small actions as well. Prompted by Spectrum‘s conference moderator, Nadia Brigham, to find a partner for a listening exercise, a Black woman of a similar age to me a few rows up turned to scan the area and made […]
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Resources

Storytelling for Change: Going Beyond Diversity to Create Belonging at Work

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On June 13, 2019
Recently, our communications team completed the Storytelling for Change course, a free eight-week online course led by global changemakers +Acumen. We expected to learn strategies to better communicate with the public, but we walked away with so much more than that. We ended up with a stronger understanding of our own personal stories and how […]
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Community Engagement, Events

Women Build the Future

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On May 17, 2019
This month, we had the honor of hanging out with inspiring women leading change in our community during our Women Build the Future breakfast, co-hosted with San Diego Habitat for Humanity. It was an uncharacteristically cold and rainy morning for sunny San Diego, but that didn’t temper the enthusiasm of the women who turned out. […]
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Borrowers

Supporting African Artisans at Work and Beyond

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On May 16, 2019
In honor of the one-year anniversary of our official launch party, we’re catching up with one of our very first borrowers, All Across Africa. Since our investment in late 2017, All Across Africa has: Employed 400 new artisans. Provided solar lights to their artisans in Rwanda on a lease-to-own model, 37% below market price. This […]
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Borrowers, Investors, News

New Financing Model Unlocks Millions to Build Affordable Homes

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On May 16, 2019
Investors in non-traditional fund address San Diego’s housing crisis (San Diego)—May 16, 2019—Today, Mission Driven Finance announces that investors have contributed more than $1 million to a revolutionary fund that will support the construction of affordable homes for low-income families. Investors concerned about the region’s housing crisis contributed to Mission Driven Finance’s Homebuilding Investment Fund […]
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Community Engagement

MAAC Creates Pathways to Healthier San Diego Families

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On April 15, 2019
This month I sat down with Shreya Shah Sasaki, our COO and resident social determinants of health nerd, to discuss her work with local nonprofit MAAC. Shreya has a Masters in Public Health and provides invaluable insight into improving health outcomes through social change. She joined the board of MAAC in November of last year […]
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Community Engagement, News

NPR: Breaking The Cycle Of Disinvestment In Lower-Income Communities

  • Posted by Tyana Smith
  • On April 11, 2019
Recently, our co-founder and Director of Community Engagement Lauren Grattan sat down with NPR to talk about discrepancies in access to capital for lower-income communities and how we can level the playing field. We’re delighted that national media is looking for bright spots of what’s working so we can scale inclusive community growth with sensible […]
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