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For the fourth year in a row, Mission Driven Finance is selected for the ImpactAssets IA 50 list, the impact investing industry’s first publicly available, searchable resource of fund managers zeroes in on some of the industry’s most impactful managers.
During times of crisis, it’s even more critical to uphold our values and stand up for those who are denied the right to stand up for themselves. Join our fight for immigrant rights by joining the Freedom100 Circle, a one-year commitment where members engage with Freedom for Immigrants and Mission Driven Finance to launch and grow our Freedom100 Bond Fund, while educating the public about the U.S. immigration detention system and community-based alternatives to detention.
WES Mariam Assefa Fund, one of the visionary supporters of the Community Finance Fellowship, spotlights Mission Driven Finance.
The San Diego County COVID-19 Small Business & Nonprofit Loan Program (SBNLP) is designed to help the small businesses and nonprofits at the heart of our community get back on track.
While sheltering-in-place during a pandemic, we welcomed five Community Finance Fellows to our team in March to begin learning in a virtual environment: Louise Jordan, a renewed San Diegan with a legal background who moved back from Virginia to join us; Andrew Moncada, a financial analyst from Florida who wants to run his own impact investment firm one day; Benson Ochira, a refugee from Uganda with a degree in business management; Essence Rodriguez, an undergrad research fellow with the U.S. Immigration Policy Center; and Crystal Sevilla, an executive assistant from San Diego with a deep interest in economics and finance. See how they are learning during a pandemic.
The COVID-19 crisis has forced small businesses and nonprofits around the world, including our Advance borrowers, to forget business as usual and respond in creative ways to best serve their community and survive—quickly. From delivering essential household goods and locally sourced food to staying connected with families by livestreaming nature walks, these businesses and organizations demonstrate the flexibility, resilience, and heart that make small businesses critical for communities to thrive.
The Way Back uses trauma-informed care in its client activities—clinical groups, education groups, mindfulness meditation, relapse prevention groups, codependency groups, anger management, emotional regulation, and individual psychotherapy. “We are training men to be better fathers, better husbands, better employees, to stay out of prison, to work, to communicate,” says The Way Back Executive Director Chris Thomas, a licensed therapist who has been sober for 25 years. “Men are an important part of family structure, and addiction is a family disease.”
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.
In our quest to increase economic opportunity for underestimated groups, we knew we’d want to emphasize supporting women and girls. With a diverse and largely female team, empowering more women has always felt natural to us. We’ve long wanted to connect the resources and needs of our community in new intentional ways that make a real impact on gender inequality.
Mission Driven Finance has been named as an Emerging Impact Manager in ImpactAssets’ IA50 2020, a publicly available, online database for impact investors, family offices, financial advisors and institutional investors that features a diversified listing of private capital fund managers that deliver social and environmental impact as well as financial returns.
The best way to celebrate Black History Month this year? Shop at local Black-owned small businesses.
With 2019 officially behind us, our team took a second to celebrate our favorite wins, which helps us to also look forward and set goals for 2020.
Impact investing can unlock urgently needed finance quickly by using a catalytic model. The Freedom100 Fund combines the power of impact investing with Freedom for Immigrants’ proven national bond model to give immigrants a fighting chance at freedom by paying their bond and reconnecting them with loved ones and legal services, at no cost to the family.
The following handpicked businesses are sure to satisfy everyone on your list while supporting local business owners who care about our community.
By focusing on underinvested communities, the Community Finance Fellowship is an accessible on-ramp for a traditionally inaccessible sector.
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.
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.
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!
Cutting Edge Capital spoke with Mission Driven Finance Co-founders Lauren Grattan and David Lynn to talk about our mission, and how our community-first perspective guides us to find investment opportunities.
