(858) 880-0252 [email protected]
Hearing about impact from Najla Ibrahim, director of health & wellness at Somali Family Service of San Diego

Inclusive Entrepreneurship & Community Development

Investing in people and place

Why We Invest

Inclusive entrepreneurship & community development

Small businesses and nonprofits are the lifeblood of local economies. But too many are either ignored or preyed upon by the current financial system. Unfortunately, these are often the organizations that are delivering critical services, creating paths to quality jobs, and leading inclusive economic development.

Mission Driven Finance works with partners around the country to design and deploy funds that deliver accessible capital and put their community first.

Abdikadir and Crystal at Minnehaha Food Market

Small businesses and nonprofits

Our flagship people- and place-based fund, Advance is an evergreen revolving private credit portfolio in San Diego and across California. Advance provides debt financing up to $1.5 million to tenacious small businesses, social enterprises, and nonprofits committed to advancing local economic opportunity.

A stock photo of a woman from the Washoe tribe

Indigenous Futures Fund

Announced at The White House in February 2024, the Indigenous Futures Fund is designed to speed up the flow of capital to Indigenous entrepreneurs and Tribal enterprises. The fund also intends to boost the capacity of Native Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and other Native financial intermediaries.

Habitat for Humanity

Affordable homeownership in San Diego

In partnership with San Diego Habitat for Humanity, our first Homebuilding Investment Fund mobilized over $2 million of impact investments and grants to build more homes more quickly, providing affordable homeownership to an anticipated 37 families.

Starbucks Community Resilience Fund

Starbucks Community Resilience Fund

In early 2021, Starbucks announced its commitment to invest $100 million through the new Starbucks Community Resilience Fund. The fund focuses on advancing racial equity and environmental resilience by supporting small business growth and community development projects in neighborhoods with historically limited access to capital.

Mission Driven Finance is honored to be working with our friends at Next Street, a New York-based small business consulting firm and fellow Certified B Corporation, to support Starbucks in activating its Community Resilience Fund.

WEPOWER St. Louis

St. Louis Black & Latinx accelerator fund

The Elevate/Elevar Accelerator bridges the racial wealth gap by elevating Black and Latinx founders in North St. Louis, who are too often overlooked and underestimated.

In partnership with WEPOWER St. Louis, we are building their first $1.5M revenue-based investment fund Elevate/Elevar Capital to support Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.

Somali Family Service

San Diego nonprofit COVID-19 response

The San Diego County COVID-19 Small Business & Nonprofit Loan Program (SBNLP) provided low-to-no-interest loans to small businesses and nonprofit organizations and aid in the region’s economic recovery from the coronavirus.

With seed funding from San Diego Foundation and Alliance Healthcare Foundation, we deployed $5.2 million in 0% interest loans to 26 local nonprofits.

Downtown Akron, photo by Shane Wynn

Akron small business COVID-19 relief

In summer 2020, we supported the City of Akron, Community Reinvestment Fund, and local CDFI partners in designing a revolving loan fund for small businesses to bounce back from pandemic-related economic effects.

READ MORE

See related press and stories