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2012 RSF Social Finance Annual Report
We have just published our 2012 Annual Report. It has been a great experience to reflect on all that has been accomplished in the past year. Catch up on highlights from the incredible organizations that we support through our lending and giving activity. Also, learn more about exactly how we’re transforming the way the world works with money with the results from our social impact assessment project.
Click here to download the report
Inside RSF Webinar
Please join us on Wednesday, July 24th at 1:00pm PDT for the Inside RSF Social Finance webinar. The purpose of this webinar is to provide an orientation to RSF and all that we offer. Our hope from the introduction is that you understand the benefits of being part of the RSF community and the ways in which you may participate. Even if you’ve been with RSF for several years, we think you’ll learn something new, and we hope you’ll leave the webinar inspired and excited about being part of a community committed to transforming the way the world works with money.
Seven Tips for Social Enterprises Looking to Raise Capital
by Don Shaffer
Raising growth capital is a challenge for most businesses, but social enterprises face an extra hurdle–they have to show how they’re going to maximize their positive impact and demonstrate the qualities investors generally look for, including a strong management team, a unique approach to the market or problem, and growth potential. What does it take to succeed? Based on my experience as an entrepreneur and now a social enterprise funder, these seven strategies–a mix of fundamental business building and savvy approaches to fundraising–will put your enterprise in the best position to get the capital it needs to realize its vision. Read more on The Huffington Post
New Loan to Seattle Waldorf School
RSF Social Finance (RSF) is pleased to announce a new loan to the Seattle Waldorf School (SWS). RSF financing will help Seattle Waldorf School renovate and expand its facilities to better accommodate the school’s growth and support its educational mission in a newer, more fitting space. Read more in the RSF Newsroom
Shared Gifting, Skagit County, WA
RSF is excited to announce the participants of the next Shared Gifting circle focused on sustainable food and agriculture organizations in Skagit County. The participants, listed below, were nominated by RSF’s community of investors, donors, borrowers, and grantees. In addition, we worked with RSF borrower Viva Farms, to identify key non-profit organizations working the Skagit region.
Shared Gifting is a new model of grantmaking that allows grantees to determine how grant funds should be distributed. This model shifts the power dynamic inherent in traditional philanthropy by giving the grantees the decision making authority of the funds. The process creates opportunities for grantees to collaborate as well as leverages their knowledge of the needs in the community.
Representatives from these groups will gather together in Skagit County in the second half of 2013 to share proposals with each other and determine how to distribute grant funds for support of each other’s work.
This process has already fostered collaborations in the region as two of the non-profits teamed up to create a collaborative project supporting all of the Farmer’s Markets in Skagit. This collaboration is an example of how the grantmaking process can build collaboration, rather than competition, amongst grantee organizations.
The participants are:
Catholic Housing Services
Community Action of Skagit County
Community to Community Development
Latino Business Retention and Expansion Program
Skagit Valley Farmers Market Coalition
Northwest Agriculture Business Center
kagitonians to Preserve Farmland
Viva Farms
Impact Investing: The Challenge of Job Creation
by Morgan Simon
One of the primary impact investment activities pursued has been job creation to address worldwide poverty. The World Bank estimates we will need 600 million jobs by 2020 to keep up with population growth globally—and 200 million of these jobs will be needed in developing economies. Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) , the preferred instrument of impact investors to encourage job creation after microfinance, have been shown to be critically linked to GDP growth and overall poverty reduction in developing countries.Read more on the Reimagine Money blog
RSF Pricing Meeting: Resetting Rates, Recognizing Interdependence
In 2012, RSF Prime decreased by 0.25% to 4.75%. This was the first decrease since RSF Prime was first established. Since 2012, the rate has dropped an additional 0.25%. The driver behind the decrease was to ease some of the financial burden of existing borrowers and increase RSF’s ability to attract new borrowers.
Perhaps not surprisingly, at our most recent pricing meeting in San Francisco, there were requests from the investor community to increase the rate. However, over the course of the evening, their understanding of the impact of the interest rate shifted from their natural self-interest to an understanding of the whole system. Read more on the Reimagine Money blog
