Stronger Together: Learning from Collaborations between Community Lenders and Impact Investors

Community lenders and impact investors often operate in their own lanes, yet opening up to partnership can yield benefits at the local, national, and global levels — as well as for these funders’ social missions and financial goals.

Community lenders (e.g., CDFIs and MDIs) invest in their communities to spur economic growth and social and environmental impact. Through partnerships with community organizations, local businesses and government, and other capital allocators, they identify small business owners and social entrepreneurs facing barriers to much-needed capital to achieve their vision and goals. Impact investors seek to source high impact changemakers addressing significant social, economic, and environmental challenges.

In this interactive panel session, participants will learn how Business Consortium Fund (BCF) and Justice Climate Fund (JCF) developed an impact measurement and management (IMM) framework to demonstrate their economic, social, and environmental impact to forge mission-aligned partnerships with capital allocators. They will be joined by JPMorgan to discuss what capital allocators seeking social, environmental AND financial returns look for to determine financial- and mission-alignment. The session will be moderated by the Sorenson Impact Institute who collaborated with both BCF and JCF to develop IMM frameworks to measure and communicate their social and environmental impacts and serve as a useful tool to attract mission-aligned investors and partners.