News

Partnership results in first deal for Indigenous Futures Fund and Cheyenne and Arapaho CDC

Partnership results in first deal for Indigenous Futures Fund and Cheyenne and Arapaho CDC

Jan 31, 2025

The Indigenous Futures Fund—part of the Initiative for Inclusive Entrepreneurship (IIE)—and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Community Development Corporation (CACDC)—a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) serving Native entrepreneurs—partnered on a first deal for both. Both entities, launched in 2024, disbursed capital to Commercial Furniture Refinishers, a small business owned by Cheyenne and Arapaho citizen Marshall Franklin.

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Why we updated our logo

Why we updated our logo

Mar 29, 2021

Reaching a five-year milestone was not only an accomplishment we can be proud of, but also a good time to evaluate how we present ourselves to the world. We wanted to refresh the colors of our logo to better reflect our bold and optimistic approach to finance.

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Why invest with a racial or gender equity lens?

Why invest with a racial or gender equity lens?

Mar 24, 2021

We need more individuals thinking and acting in ways that take into account the dynamics of intersectionality—a framework that civil rights activist and lawyer Kimberlé Crenshaw coined—to provide a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.

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Mission Driven Finance selected as an ImpactAssets 50 2021 Emerging Impact Manager

Mission Driven Finance selected as an ImpactAssets 50 2021 Emerging Impact Manager

Feb 23, 2021

Mission Driven Finance has been named as an Emerging Impact Manager in ImpactAssets’ IA 50 2021, the first publicly available database that provides a gateway into the world of impact investing for investors and their financial advisors, offering an easy way to identify experienced impact investment firms and explore the landscape of potential investment options.

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How Lauren Grattan thinks about risk

How Lauren Grattan thinks about risk

Dec 28, 2020

Shoutout Socal recently checked in with our Co-founder and Chief Community Officer Lauren Grattan in its local stories series and asked her how she thinks about risk.

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Community Finance Fellowship showcase

Community Finance Fellowship showcase

Dec 18, 2020

Hear directly from the 2020 cohort fellows— Andrew Moncada, Essence Rodriguez, Louise Jordan, Crystal Sevilla, and Benson Ochira—about their career goals and their experiences thus far changing the face and flow of finance.

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First $1.5M deployed to San Diego County nonprofits hit by COVID-19

First $1.5M deployed to San Diego County nonprofits hit by COVID-19

Oct 5, 2020

San Diego-based impact investment fund manager Mission Driven Finance has deployed $1.5M in loans to San Diego County nonprofits that have been impacted by COVID-19, thanks to $5M in seed funding from The San Diego Foundation as part of the San Diego County COVID-19 Small Business & Nonprofit Loan Program.

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Real estate for early care & education: A promising venture

Real estate for early care & education: A promising venture

Sep 29, 2020

We’re honored to share that David—along with early care and education expert Laura Kohn and community finance fellow Essence Rodriguez—has joined the 2020 cohort of the Promising Ventures Fellowship to explore using real estate and finance to improve access to quality early child care.

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Blended capital for immigration bonds: Introducing the Freedom100 Fund

Blended capital for immigration bonds: Introducing the Freedom100 Fund

Aug 6, 2020

Recently, our Co-founder and Chief Community Officer Lauren Grattan, and Freedom for Immigrants Co-founder and Co-executive Director Christina Mansfield spoke with Morgan Simon of Candide Group in Forbes.com to discuss why they launched the Freedom100 Fund—and how it’s a vital tool for investors and activists to join the fight for immigrant freedom.

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I am a White man. I must do more to fight systemic racism.

I am a White man. I must do more to fight systemic racism.

Jul 13, 2020

The best anti-racism advice I’ve gotten so far is from my teammate Louise Jordan: Whatever we do, we have to stop recreating the same narrative. Unfortunately, many of the actions we White people take end up reinforcing existing power dynamics and telling the same, false story—that Black people and people of color have inherent risk and problems and that White people must “save” them from themselves. 

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Community Finance Fellowship: Learning to use finance as a tool for change in a time of action

Community Finance Fellowship: Learning to use finance as a tool for change in a time of action

Jun 30, 2020

The inaugural cohort of Community Finance Fellows—Louise Jordan, Andrew Moncada, Benson Ochira, Essence Rodriguez, Crystal Sevilla— impress and inspire us every day and it’s not fair to keep their wisdom to ourselves. So we invited them to share their thoughts on how finance can invoke true racial and economic justice. The fellows’ perspectives and lived experiences give us invaluable insight into how we can use finance as a tool for real impact.

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