Our Impact
Impact Investing
The Local Capital Pool allows donors to use their philanthropic dollars to make loans and equity investments in small businesses 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.
By lending funds to organizations with the expectation that the loan will be repaid over time allows us to ‘recycle’ funds, so that we and our donors 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.
Using the framework of a 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 will be 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
Paul Tutwiler, executive director of Northwest Jacksonville Community Development Corporation (NWJCDC), welcomes new tenants to a home secured with a Community Foundation loan.
Impact investing dollars are already hard at work. By the end of 2023, The Community Foundation has deployed more than $1.9 million to expand the supply of affordable housing 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.
We also made a $125,000 loan directly to the Northwest Jacksonville CDC to ensure an affordable rental house stayed affordable to local families. This was a timely opportunity that surfaced when the Foundation was approached by a donor interested in gifting a portfolio of local real estate. The couple donated the first house as a tax-deductible gift to The Community Foundation, which then made a low-cost loan to Northwest Jacksonville CDC to purchase the house. As the new owner, the CDC is able to rent the home and earn revenue to support its mission.
Metro North CDC was able to build a new home for home ownership through financing from LISC and the Local Capital Pool in 2023.
