January 2021 Newsletter

Bringing Investment Back to Indiana A New Accelerator for Local Impact Investing

Indiana's community foundations collectively hold $3.9 billion in assets, much of which are sequestered in financial markets outside the state. A 5% commitment of these assets for local investment would see $200 million flow back into the communities these philanthropies serve. To meet this need for catalytic capital, the LOCUS team is partnering with the Indiana Philanthropy Alliance (IPA) to guide four of its member foundations through our Local Impact Investing Accelerator, building their capacity for local investment and a strategy to follow through. Read more about this effort to build Indiana's local impact investing ecosystem here.

LOCUS Focus

Evaluating Impact A CDFI Partnership to Measure CIGP's Impact

LOCUS is pleased to announce the selection of Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) and Jane Reisman Ph.D. to serve as its evaluators for the Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP). The team will conduct a five-year developmental evaluation of CIGP to document findings on the impact of CIGP’s guarantees as well as lessons learned about the effectiveness of a pooled approach to philanthropic guarantees. Their analysis will bring a critical racial equity lens to the data and insights we collect to enhance CIGP’s ability to reduce barriers to investment in low-income communities and communities of color. The team brings extensive impact measurement and management (IMM) and evaluation expertise, practical experience as a CDFI focused on supporting entrepreneurs of color in creating good jobs, and deep knowledge of impact investing and the broader capital markets.  We look forward to sharing our findings and learnings from this partnership, which will help us scale the effective use of guarantees as a financing tool to accelerate community investment. Funding for this work was generously provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A Fond Farewell VCC CEO Jane Henderson to Retire in 2021

Our parent company, Virginia Community Capital (VCC), made a bittersweet announcement this week. VCC President and CEO Jane Henderson has announced her intention to retire this year. Jane has been working in the financial industry for 40 years, with 29 years spent in community development finance. And now, after 15 years at the helm of VCC, she will pass the torch to our next visionary leader. The LOCUS team came together in 2017, and Jane's expert leadership, guidance, and innovative thinking played no small part in making us the organization we are today. Read more about Jane's impactful career and retirement plans in VCC's official press release.

News from the Field LOCUS President Sarah Stremlau discusses the Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) in a new blog article that explores guarantees as a tool for impact and the program's progress to date. A new report from the Global Impact Investing Network explores the increasingly sophisticated, multi-dimensional decision making approaches employed by impact investors. Ceniarth founder Diane Isenberg shares her organization's process of looking at investment strategies through a gender lens and lessons for new funders. The Catalytic Capital Consortium launches a grantmaking program now inviting proposals for research to strengthen the evidence base for catalytic capital, a patient, flexible, risk-tolerant form of investment capital.

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