Our Impact
Impact Investing
The Local Capital Pool allows donors to use their philanthropic dollars to make loans and equity investments that expand small business and affordable housing, allowing funds to be re-invested in the community.
Beyond Grantmaking - Putting Capital to Work
Providing grants to nonprofits is not the only way we offer support. Impact investing—lending donor dollars for a particular project—is a growing aspect of philanthropy, and one that opens new doors for our community.
Lending funds allows us to ‘recycle’ charitable capital, so that these dollars can fuel future endeavors.
Our Focus: Affordable Housing & Economic Opportunity
We invest in nonprofit organizations and for-profit social enterprises that measurably improve access to affordable housing, and equitably expand economic opportunity for marginalized residents of Northeast Florida.
Through the Local Capital Pool, we look to address and surmount the existing gaps and inadequacies faced by under-served communities when they try to obtain financing. Measurable local impact is our primary emphasis when we make loans and equity investments.
For Donors: How You Can Invest
- The Local Capital Pool is a portfolio of investments, designed to prioritize impact, preserve capital through high-quality investments, and generate treasury-like returns.
For Borrowers: How to Receive a Loan
- The Local Capital Pool lends to entities meeting several organizational and financial criteria, with a focus on affordable housing and small business.
“For 60 years, The Community Foundation has partnered with people who want to give back to their community. Impact investing is an exciting way to give forward, helping address our affordable housing crisis through access to capital.”
– Isaiah M. Oliver, president of The Community Foundation
Bringing the Concept Home
Impact investing dollars are already hard at work. By the end of 2024, The Community Foundation has committed more than $5.6 million to expand affordable housing and small business in Northeast Florida.
Our first investment was a $1 million loan to LISC Jacksonville, to be re-loaned to local Community Development Corporations (CDC’s) to advance affordable housing through home ownership, filling a critical gap in the area as rents have risen 31 percent in one year. Metro North CDC was able to build a new home for homeownership through this financing, with more to come.
Metro North CDC was able to build a new home for home ownership through financing from LISC and the Local Capital Pool in 2023.
