INVESTMENT
OPPORTUNITIES IN
COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT …
This listing should not be considered a
recommendation of the financial or socially responsible attractiveness as an
investment of any of the funds mentioned. Please
obtain a prospectus, which contains more complete information on fees, risks and
expenses by contacting the organization directly using the web site link
provided with the name of the organization.
ACCION International gives people the tools they need to work their way out of
poverty. By providing "micro" loans and business training to poor
women and men who start their own businesses, ACCION's partner lending
organizations help people work their own way up the economic ladder, with
dignity and pride. With capital, people can grow their own businesses. They can
earn enough to afford basics like running water, better food and schooling for
their children.
City
First Bank of DC.
Washington D.C.’s only community development bank, helps individuals,
businesses and other local institutions fulfill their growth potential.
Community
Capital Management (formerly 'CRAFund Advisors". An
institutional investment manager that focuses exclusively on bonds issued to
promote community development activities (affordable rental housing, healthcare,
homeownership, job creation, environmental restoration, childcare, etc.)
Typically, investments benefit low-to-moderate (LMI) families and communities
and/or designated disaster areas.
The
Community Investment Center is a project of the Social Investment Forum,
a national nonprofit membership organization that promotes socially responsible
investing, and Co-op America. A search engine helps find community investment
opportunities by state and/or by social sector impact.
Cornerstone Corporation for
Shared Equity is involved in Cincinnati through community building,
housing development, property management, renter equity and has a community
development loan fund. Individuals and organizations can help Cornerstone
by making low-interest loans for investment in nonprofit housing. The
principal is paid back to the lender at the end of their term.
Costal
Enterprises Inc. (CEI)
provides financing and support in the development of job-creating small
businesses, natural resources industries, community facilities, and affordable
housing. CEI's primary market is Maine, but, in recent years, has expanded
several of its financing programs to northern New England, upstate New York
and beyond.
DEVCAP
operates a socially screened mutual fund and encourages investors to share a
portion of profits with people from developing nations, who are establishing
small businesses.
Note: If the URL
associated with the name does not work, try cutting and pasting http://www.devcap.org/
directly into your browser.
Developing World Markets
structures transactions that open doors to the international capital markets for
micro-finance institutions and other socially motivated organizations.
DWM is at the forefront of a global effort to
create investable solutions to meet social and economic needs of the developing
world.
The
Domini Social Bond Fund
provides investors with an opportunity to make a real difference in people’s
lives by devoting up to 10% of its assets to community development investments.
EcoLogic Enterprise Ventures, Inc.
Together with our local partners, EcoLogic has helped strengthen the
conservation of more than five million acres of threatened habitat and helped
improve living conditions for more than 500,000 rural and poor people.
Enterprise Development International
demonstrates God’s love by enabling the poor to free themselves from poverty.
Through the provision of basic business training, encouragement, small loans and
access to other financial services, people living in poverty are helped to start
or expand their own very small businesses called “micro-enterprises.”
By their own efforts, the poor are able to support their families, emerge
from the cycle of poverty and contribute in many positive ways to the long-term
development of their communities.
Equal
Exchange
is the largest fair trade coffee company in the United States and a worker-owned
cooperative. The company sells
coffee from 18 farmer cooperatives in 10 countries.
FINCA
International, Inc. As FINCA enters its
22nd year of operations, we are providing over 500,000 low-income families in 20 countries—from Afghanistan
to Zambia, from El Salvador to Tajikistan—with life-changing loans,
savings accounts, insurance and other financial services, to help
them build their businesses so they can better feed, house and educate
their families.
First
National Bank of Phillips County,
part of Southern Development Bancorporation, provides core financial services
necessary to maintain healthy rural communities in Arkansas.
The Flax Trust
is one of the largest and longest established development trusts in Ireland. It
is a registered charity formed in Belfast in 1977. For over 25 years it has been
committed to the “reconciliation of a divided community through economic and
social development, bringing peace to both communities, one person and one job
at a time”.
NEW!
Global Partnerships was founded in 1994 with the mission of expanding
opportunity for people living in poverty. Our work begins and ends with
the people we serve - mothers and fathers who want to earn a living and provide
a better life for their families. Our partners in Latin America now serve
465,000 borrowers. With their profits, borrowers are able to make
improvements in their homes, send their children to school, provide healthcare
for their families, and employ others in their communities.
IMMEDS
(International Modular Medical Educational Delivery Systems)
develops durable modular medical clinics to provide direct medical services to
the needy in Haiti and sub-Saharan Africa.
The Integra Venture
provides training and loans for aspiring entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern
Europe and Russia. More than 70 staff work in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria,
Serbia, and Russia, providing business training seminars, one-on-one mentoring,
and counsel on marketing, sales, inventory management, and finance.
InterAmerican Development Bank’s
programs and tools became the model on which other regional and subregional
multilateral development banks were created. The IDB is the main source of
multilateral financing for economic, social and institutional development
projects and trade and regional integration programs in Latin America and the
Caribbean. It is the oldest and largest regional development bank.
Interfaith Disaster Redevelopment Finance
Fund (IDRFF) A low-cost loan-fund housed and operated by MMA CDI,
an established community investment organization with deep investor and
investment management services capabilities (via the Calvert Foundation).
Contact: Mark Regier, MMA Commuity Development Investments - mark.regier@mma-online.org,
574-903-6108.
Interfaith Disaster Redevelopment Grants
Fund (IDRGF) A fund established through the efforts of the Interfaith Center
on Corporate Responsibility will make grants that supplement IDRFF's loans
to rebuild low and moderate wealth communities and increase their capital assets.
The IDRFF will be administered by Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ).
Contact: Jeffrey Dekro - jdekro@jewishjustice.org,
215-483-4004.
Interfaith
Housing Alliance
has built a network of volunteers and partners who have helped us better
understand and respond to the housing needs in Western Maryland and South
Central Pennsylvania. With their guidance, we are strengthening communities by
building the place that people call home.
NEW! Jewish
Funds for Justice, combining The Shefa Fund and Jewish Fund for Justice,
marshals the full array of Jewish resources - human, financial and institutional
capital - to be a powerful and unifying Jewish voice for justice. It
does so in the belief that we have a responsibility and opportunity to manifest
the traditional Jewish value to heal and repair the world. by moblilizing
the resources of American Jews, JFSJ combats the root causes of economic and
social injustice in the United States.
Leviticus
25:23 Alternative Fund
provides loans for affordable housing, not-for-profit facilities and child day
care.
Louisville Community Development Investment
Bank seeks to revitalize 12 inner city
neighborhoods on Louisville, Kentucky by stimulating economic through specific
loans.
Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit
Union provides loans in the community,
contributing to the overall development of New York City’s Lower East Side.
National
Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) seeks
to increase fair and equal access to credit, capital, and banking services to
underserved communities through information and advocacy. About one-third of
their 600 members are faith-based groups.
National
Federation of Community Development Credit Unions About 35 to 40 percent of its 225 members are faith-based credit
unions. It can provide lists of federally insured community development credit
unions.
New
Hampshire Community Loan Fund
is the first statewide community loan fund in the U.S. They lend money for affordable housing, community
facilities, such as child care and self-employment and job creation.
Nonprofit
Finance Fund
is a leading national community development financial institution that serves
nonprofit organizations by providing capital and advice, including loans,
asset-building financial products, and credit enhancement.
Oikocredit
believes that poor people can build themselves a better life, if only given the
chance, if only given credit. As a socially
responsible investment opportunity, we promote global justice by
converting investments into credits. We aim for high social impact and sustainable
development.
Opportunity Finance Network
Opportunity Finance
Network, is a network of private financial intermediaries with a
proven expertise in lending prudently and productively in unconventional markets
often overlooked by conventional financial institutions. Working in urban,
rural, and reservation-based markets we deliver sound financial returns and real
changes for people and communities.
Partners
for the Common Good
is a community development loan fund that promotes economic justice and social
change.
Prisma MicroFinance
is registered as a U.S. based international holding company offering financial
services in Latin America. Currently, we operate Nicaraguan and Honduran
subsidiaries.
Pro
Mujer
empowers Latin American women to raise themselves and their families out of
poverty by providing small loans, microenterprise training and social and health
services.
Self-Help
Credit Union
provides financing to homebuyers, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations
in North Carolina, with offices in Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro,
Greenville, and Wilmington.
Shared
Interest
is a social investment fund tht raises and utilizes grant and loan capital for
democratic and sustainable South African community economic development
projects.
SosteNica,
Inc.,
the Sustainable Development Fund of Nicaragua, promotes sustainable economic and
community development in Nicaragua.
TransFair
USA
is a non-profit organization that provides third party certification of Fair
Trade practices in the U.S. The
Fair Trade model develops mutually-beneficial relationships between
disadvantages producers and international buyers, guaranteeing a fair price for
small farmers and farm workers and improved access to capital.
UNITUS
envisions a world where microfinance is available to every individual. We work
toward this vision by accelerating the growth of the world's highest-potential
emerging microfinance institutions. We provide capital investments and
capacity-building consulting, thus empowering these organizations to scale and
provide life-changing financial services to dramatically more of the world's
working poor.
Vermont
Development Credit Union,
the bank of over 8,000 Vermonters in 205 towns, promotes grass-roots community
development through homeownership, small business development, financial
stability, and economic literacy.
General Resources
United
Nations Capital Development Fund contributes to
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Least Developed Countries
through a variety of innovative approaches in both local development and
microfinance.
Note:
If the URL associated with the name doesn't work, cut and paste http://www.uncdf.org/english/index.php
into your browser.
