Podcasts about capital impact partners

http://www.sherylkline.com/blogIn the latest Fearless Female Leadership interview, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Kim Dorsett, Chief Human Resources Officer for Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance, both part of the Momentus Capital branded family of organizations. Kim and I spoke about what it really means to believe you're good enough to go for greatness. This episode was a powerful reminder that mindset, boundaries, and bold action are the cornerstones of breakthrough leadership.Kim's leadership journey is grounded in the lessons she learned from her mother, who always expected excellence and taught her to strive five times harder. That relentless commitment to personal growth has carried Kim from early career milestones to her current executive seat. With a nod to her children for encouraging her to share her story, Kim spoke openly about how structure, discipline, and saying no have been critical to her success.She highlighted the importance of essentialism—focusing only on what truly matters—and of building a network that reflects a diversity of thought and experience. Perhaps most powerfully, Kim urged women to stop competing with each other and start uplifting one another, reminding us there is more than one seat at the table.This conversation is for anyone who's ever looked at a list of job qualifications and hesitated—Kim's message is clear: You don't have to check every box to go for greatness.Key takeaways from the interview:0:01:18 – Kim credits her mother with instilling a mindset of excellence and perseverance from an early age.0:02:40 – Discipline and essentialism have helped her avoid burnout and stay focused on what truly matters.0:03:52 – Saying no and setting boundaries are crucial leadership skills—especially for women.0:04:31 – You don't have to meet 100% of job requirements to be qualified. Let others be the judge—just try.0:05:26 – Women must stop competing with each other and instead build supportive networks.0:06:07 – Confidence is built through action—even when it feels uncomfortable.0:06:59 – Kim embraces the confidence-competence loop: the more you try, the more you grow.0:07:30 – Failure is just feedback. Every experience, win or setback, teaches something valuable.0:07:48 – Build a diverse network that challenges your thinking—not just people who agree with you.0:08:53 – Lifelong learning is part of leadership. Kim recently completed a certificate at Wharton to continue evolving.If you're interested in being featured on the Fearless Female Leadership podcast, or you're a leader looking to gain clarity on “what's next,” how to build more cohesive and high-performing teams, and lead with greater confidence and influence, let's have a confidential conversation.Cheering you on always! – Sheryl

Tommy Lester, manager of Atlanta Initiatives for Capital Impact Partners and David Greisman, spokesperson for Capital Impact Partners, join host Carol Morgan for this week's Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio episode. In this podcast segment, Lester and Greisman discuss the Equitable Development Initiative. Born and raised in Atlanta, Lester has over 25 years of experience in banking, financing and investing in the area's rich real estate. Greisman joined Capital Impact Partners a few years ago, bringing a fresh perspective to the mission-driven institution. Capital Impact Partners is a community development financial institution that seeks to provide community organizations with the necessary financing to thrive. What does that look like? Capital Impact Partners helps developers combine affordable housing, better access to healthcare and education, healthier food selection and cooperative developments. It works with its sister organization, CDC Small Business Finance, to specifically assist small businesses. The Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) is an excellent way for emerging real estate developers to come together and learn new tips and tricks of the trade. Previously successful in Detroit, Washington D.C., the San Fransico Bay area and Dallas, Texas, this nine-month program encourages developers to continue their education and connect with others in the field. Lester said, “It helps people get their businesses in line to be able to accept funding from major sources and do bigger deals,” said Lester. “At the same time, it exposes them to lenders and funders who are ideal for them, whether it's because of their project type or their social mission.” Throughout the program, Capital Impact Partners works with real estate developers to take their projects to the next level through various aspects like financing, site acquisition and more. Applicants should be established in the real estate industry; this cohort program is not for individuals looking to break into development. This year, 35 applications were turned in, and the list of 15 finalists will be published soon. “We're really strategic about making sure that the people that are part of the program are from this community,” said Lester. “It's not open nationwide, it's open to people specifically from here.” Capital Impact Partners is proud to work with numerous local partners in Atlanta, including House ATL, Reinvestment Fund and the Wells Fargo Foundation's Growing Diverse Housing Developers program. Together, these institutions and organizations serve metro Atlanta in DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Douglasville counties. By targeting areas of growth, Capital Impact and its partners can ensure that the needs of these communities are met. Greisman said, “We've seen people who are committed to affordable housing come in and be able to grow their businesses and do more to help the communities.” How does the EDI program contribute on a larger scale? A pre-course evaluation gives instructors and speakers a starting point for each participant. Individual strengths and weaknesses are noted and then re-evaluated at the end of the nine-month cohort. Participants then present their projects to an audience and are judged on quality and other factors. “Every unit and every building that these developers work on is helping be part of the solution,” said Greisman. “Again, it is a very complex ongoing issue, but being able to help these local developers is going to provide part of that solution and help the people who really are the backbone of these communities.” Tune in to the full interview above to learn more about Capital Impact Partners, or visit www.CapitalImpact.org. A special thank you to Denim Marketing for sponsoring Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio. Known as a trendsetter, Denim Marketing has been blogging since 2006 and podcasting since 2011. It is currently working on strategies for the Google Helpful Content update and ways to incor...

June 6, 2024 Vernon is host an interview with Mary Alex Blanton, Senior VP at National Cooperative Bank (NCB). During the interview Mary Alex discusses the 2024 Co-op Innovation Award. National Cooperative Bank in partnership with Capital Impact Partners, has sponsored the Co-op Innovation Award to empower organizations to increase economic opportunity for the communities they serve, and advance cooperative development in communities of color and or historically disinvested communities. Priority for the grant award will be given to food, worker, and housing co-ops, but all sectors are invited to apply. Mary Alex Blanton is Senior Vice President, Director of Strategic Marketing for National Cooperative Bank. In this role, she manages NCB's marketing, advertising, corporate communications, public relations, and brand for the bank. National Cooperative Bank's mission is to support and be an advocate for America's cooperatives and their members, especially in low-income communities, by providing innovative financial and related services. Interested parties may visit Capital Impact Partners website at https://bit.ly/3iR4CYk to access the application. You may also visit the Co-op Innovation Award FAQ Page for more information.

In this episode, Andrea Longton, a distinguished author and seasoned social justice investor, shares her wealth of knowledge from years of experience at the crossroads of finance and impact. She discusses her work on renewable energy projects in Africa and her strategic shift to community development finance in the U.S. Why Take a Listen: 1. International Development Financing    - Andrea's Career Journey: Explore Andrea's diverse career, from international project development to domestic financing. She provides a detailed look into sustainable energy projects and community-centered financial solutions.    2. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) & Social Justice Investing    - Role of CDFIs: Understand the pivotal role CDFIs play in underserved communities and how social justice investing can drive both social and climate justice outcomes. Andrea highlights key mechanisms such as community loan funds, venture capital, and crowdfunding.    3. Networking & Professional Relationships for Social Impact Careers    - Building Strong Networks: Andrea shares essential advice on cultivating professional networks in social change sectors. She emphasizes aligning authentically with an organization's mission and how effective networking can open doors in social justice finance. 4. Advice for Aligning Finance and Values    - Balancing Financial Returns and Impact: Andrea offers insights on how to balance financial returns with impactful investments that align with your values. Learn strategies to ensure your financial decisions support both personal and societal goals. This episode is filled with practical tips, real-world examples, and inspiring insights. Don't miss out on Andrea Longton's journey and expert advice on merging financial returns with impactful, justice-driven investments.   Check out her website, podcast and Book the Social Justice Investor Bio: Andrea Longton is an award-winning author and professional social justice investor. She has raised over $1 billion for social justice investments in the United States and has advised on another $1.5 billion worldwide. In addition to her professional experience, Andrea manages her family's finances, including their own social justice investment portfolio. Her professional experiences include positions at Opportunity Finance Network, Freddie Mac, Capital Impact Partners (now Momentus Capital), and Delphos International. Andrea holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder designation from the CFA Institute (Charlottesville, VA), a BA from Centre College (Danville, KY), and an MA from The George Washington University (Washington, DC). Andrea is the founder and author-administrator of "The Social Justice Investor" website and cohost of "Renegade Capital: The Activist's Podcast for Finance and Investments." She lives in Maryland with her husband and three children  

Andrea Longton is an award-winning author and professional social justice investor. She has raised over 1 billion dollars for social justice investments in the United States and has advised on another 1.5 billion dollars worldwide. Andrea's new book is titled The Social Justice Investor: Advance Your Values while Building Wealth and will be released this month on April 23rd. Her professional experience includes positions at Opportunity Finance Network, Freddie Mac, Capital Impact Partners, which is now Momentus Capital, and Delphos International. Andrea holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute and has worked in structured finance investments, capital markets and change management.

Jeffrey Mosher welcomes Jennifer Hayes, Senior Vice President, Operations & Policy from Invest Detroit Jennifer and Jeffrey had a discussion about the Michigan CDFI Coalition. Michigan Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Coalition is celebrating its one year of operations. The coalition is committed to providing financial resources to underserved borrowers and supporting economic growth in Michigan. Here are some key talking points to highlight the achievements and goals of the Michigan CDFI Coalition: Jennifer could you tell the Michigan business community about the Mission and Objectives of Michigan CDFI? MICDFI Coalitions' overall mission is to increase awareness of CDFIs, expand programming to support more borrowers, businesses, and projects, and continue to support economic growth throughout Michigan. What's the Role of CDFIs? CDFIs as mission-based lenders, providing flexible and affordable financing to underserved communities, small businesses, and affordable housing projects. CDFIs are particularly integral in reaching borrowers who often cannot access traditional bank financing. What's the Impact in Michigan? To date, Michigan's CDFIs have deployed more than $4 billion in loans throughout the state and have made the following impact: ● Created almost 30,000 permanent jobs ● Developed almost 23 million square feet of real estate ● Over 14,000 total housing units, 72% affordable ● Supported over 7,000 small or micro-businesses ● Created the largest state CDFI fund in the nation with $85 million to date. CDFIs also played a significant role in providing Michigan small businesses and nonprofits access to the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loans and serviced $1.5 billion in loans, preserving 165,000 jobs. In FY 2021, MI CDFIs deployed $1.4 billion in loans. ● Michigan CDFIs support several areas of the economy including: ○ Small and Micro-Businesses. ○ Single, Multi-Family, and Affordable Housing. ○ Real Estate and Mixed-Use Projects. ○ Consumer Loans and Banking Products. ○ Non-Profit Projects, and more. ● MICDFI Coalition has been integral in the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. ● Have supported small businesses and nonprofits statewide through the servicing of $1.5 billion in loans. Tell us about Statewide Support and Advocacy? MICDFI Coalition has had support from the following organizations and individuals: ● State Senator Mary Cavanagh, CEED Lending, Chi Ishobak, Cinnaire, Core Community Partners, Detroit Development Fund, Grow, Invest Detroit, Michigan Community Capital, Michigan Credit Union Foundation, Michigan Women Forward, Northern Shores Community Development, Inc., Northern Initiatives, Opportunity Resource Fund, ProsperUs Detroit, Rende Progress Capital, Venture North, Capital Impact Partners, Community Economic Development Association of Michigan, ELGA Credit Union, IFF, Michigan Assistive Technology Loan Fund. And if the listeners care to learn more About Michigan CDFI Coalition how might they do so? The Michigan CDFI Coalition was founded in 2022 with a mission of bringing Michigan CDFIs together to collaborate on the development of inclusive policies, deliver vital programs, and bolster their efforts in community investment across the state of Michigan. Prospective Michigan CDFI partners, communities, and individuals can learn more about the Michigan CDFI Coalition by visiting www.micdfi.org. » Visit MBN website: www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/ » Subscribe to MBN's YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNX… » Like MBN: www.facebook.com/mibiznetwork » Follow MBN: twitter.com/MIBizNetwork/ » MBN Instagram: www.instagram.com/mibiznetwork/

Did you know that you can get 100% financing for your development deals. The process is called tax credit development. The government and private sources can provide you with capital to become a real estate developer. The process is complicated, however, it is an extremely lucrative investment strategy to grow your net worth. In this episode, Buwa Binitie shares his marathon journey in the tax credit space to closing over $2.2B+ in deals. Buwa is the CEO of the Dumas Collective and directs vision and oversight of the acquisition, development, property management, and financial activities of the conglomerate—from Washington, DC to New York. He has an extensive tax credit financing experience (LIHTC, NMTC and HTC) and has closed on financing from nearly every public capital source available. To date Dumas Collective closed over $2.2B in financing resulting in over 7,600 workforce and affordable units. He maintains a narrow focus on the creation and preservation of affordable housing for people of modest means. Buwa has over sixteen years of experience in financing complex real estate transactions. By narrowly focusing on efficiently financing community development transactions, Buwa has been successful in adding value beyond the numbers. Buwa speaks regularly at industry focused events and serves as a teaching mentor for the Equitable Development Program and Housing Equity Accelerator Fellowship in partnership with Capital Impact Partners and Amazon, Baker Tilly's Equitable Development Initiative Network, Real Estate Executive Council (REEC), LISC and Howard University. In this episode, we discussed… Why LIHTC tax credit development way is a practical way to get started in real estate development Dispelling the myths of affordable housing Buwa's focus on luxury affordable housing Why your net worth and liquidity is extremely important to scale your real estate portfolio and more! Buwa Binitie's Instagram Profile link: https://www.instagram.com/dantespartners/?hl=en Buwa Binitie's LinkedIn Profile link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/buwa-binitie-3483b320/ Buwa Binitie's Company Website link: dantespartners.com Interested in investing in commercial real estate opportunities? Join our investor group here Check out our FREE multifamily due diligence checklist to avoid costly mistakes. Click here to download the checklist. Check out our FREE Syndication Guide For Passive Investors to learn everything you know need to know BEFORE you passively invest in real estate. Click here to download the guide.

Capital Impact Partners has awarded $415,000 in grants to 16 real estate projects led by developers of color in the Detroit area. Plus, the Detroit Public Library Special Collections is reopening after a historic flooding, and more.

July 14, 2022 Everything Co-op kicks-off its recognition of the 2022 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees with Paul Hazen, executive director of the Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC). Vernon and Paul discuss his experiences in the cooperative movement throughout his career, and the role he feels cooperatives have played in helping cities to rebound from the economic collapses of the past. Paul Hazen became executive director of the Overseas Cooperative Development Council in February 2012. Throughout his career, Hazen has championed the U.S. cooperative system. He has helped establish federal legislation promoting rural co-op development, formed a national network of co-op development centers and initiated national research into the impact of co-ops on the U.S. economy. Prior to joining OCDC, Hazen was CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based National Cooperative Business Association, (NCBA). Under Hazen's leadership, NCBA's cooperative development portfolio grew from $8 million to over $30 million annually. During his 25-year tenure with the organization, he held key positions, including chief operating officer, vice president of public policy, vice president of member services and director of consumer cooperatives. Active in cooperative matters at many levels, Hazen is the one of the founders of Dot Coop, the top-level domain for cooperatives around the world. He also shares his cooperative expertise and leadership as a member of various boards, including Rochdale Capital Corporation, and the Community Purchasing Alliance Cooperative. Past board service includes the International Co-operative Alliance, the National Cooperative Bank, Capital Impact Partners, Consumer Federation of America, Cooperative Development Foundation and Cooperative Business International.

Ann Fedorchak and Mary Alex Blanton, of National Cooperative Bank (NCB); and Alison Powers, of Capital Impact Partners discuss the history, purpose and impact of the Cooperative Innovation Award. National Cooperative Bank in partnership with Capital Impact Partners, launched the 2022 Co-op Innovation Award to empower organizations to increase economic opportunity for the communities they serve, and advance cooperative development in communities of color and/or historically disinvested communities. Priority will be given to food, worker, and housing co-ops, but all sectors are invited to apply. Interested parties may visit Capital Impact Partners website https://bit.ly/3iR4CYk to access the application and register for an informational webinar on April 27th. Organizations must submit letters of intent by May 3rd, to apply for a grant award of up to $50,000. Ann Fedorchak is a Senior Vice President at National Cooperative Bank. She directs NCB's cooperative and community development initiatives and strategy; and leads the Specialty Finance line of business, covering a range of mission-focused sectors including healthcare, affordable housing, not for profit organizations and Community Development Financial Institutions. Mary Alex Blanton is Senior Vice President, Director of Strategic Marketing for National Cooperative Bank. In this role, she manages NCB's marketing, advertising, corporate communications, public relations, and brand for the bank. Alison Powers is the Director of Economic Opportunities at Capital Impact Partners. Alison works to amplify the potential of the co-op model for all people through technical assistance, grant funding, and financing for capital projects. National Cooperative Bank's mission is to support and be an advocate for America's cooperatives and their members, especially in low-income communities, by providing innovative financial and related services. Capital Impact Partners is a national Community Development Financial Institution that invests capital and commitment to help people build communities of opportunity that break barriers to success.

John Holdsclaw IV, President and CEO of Rochdale Capital, a new loan development fund that aims to support community-based organizations and co-ops, discusses the launch of Rochdale Capital, and the Importance of Community Loan Programs. John Holdsclaw IV recently launched Rochdale Capital. The recently formed loan fund was formed to advance the development of community ownership and asset building in rural and urban distressed communities. "We look forward to working with National Cooperative Bank (NCB), and other Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the country on achieving this mission,” stated John Holdsclaw IV. Prior to Rochdale Capital, John served as Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at NCB. In addition, John worked as director of policy and development at Capital Impact Partners, a national certified CDFI, where he developed and implemented the organization's public policy strategy. John worked at the National Head Start Association, the only national organization dedicated solely to the Head Start program and community as grassroots coordinator and associate director of its government affairs division. Mr. Holdsclaw currently serves on the board of trustees of Global Communities, board of directors of Groundswell, Partner for Common Good (CDFI), and American Bankers Association (ABA) Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Most recently, John was appointed to the Cooperative Development Foundation's Board of Directors. Rochdale Capital is a national non-profit community development loan fund that will provide financing and technical assistance to cooperative enterprises and other community-based organizations. The organization hopes to be certified as a CDFI by the US Treasury later this year, thus joining the more than 1,200 private-sector organizations across the country that attract capital from private and public sources. National Cooperative Bank (NCB) serves as the founding strategic partner of Rochdale Capital. NCB's mission is to support and be an advocate for America's cooperatives and their members, especially in low-income communities, by providing innovative financial and related services.

Casey Fannon, Acting Chief Executive Officer at National Cooperative Bank (NCB) discusses the role of NCB in cooperative development, and future strategic plans for NCB, Since joining NCB in 1996, Mr. Fannon has dedicated his entire career to National Cooperative Bank and has served as its President since March 2020. In that role, Mr. Fannon has worked on new product and market development, commercial real estate, capital markets and has managed NCB's loan and deposit production across all NCB's customer segments. He is known within the cooperative community as an advocate for affordable housing and for supporting new cooperative development. Mr. Fannon has worked closely with NCBA CLUSA in advancing the Principle Six Initiative, which brings cross-sector co-ops together to accelerate cooperative growth. In addition to serving on NCB's Board, Mr. Fannon currently serves on the Board of Directors of Capital Impact Partners, a national Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Mr. Fannon received a BS in Finance from Bentley University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder. About National Cooperative Bank: National Cooperative Bank is dedicated to strengthening communities nationwide through the delivery of banking and financial services, complemented by a special focus on cooperative expansion and economic development. NCB provides financial products and services for the nation's cooperatives, their members, and socially responsible organizations.

This episode features a discussion about Access to Capital across the region. Host JB Holston is joined by Peter Scher (Vice Chairman, JP Morgan Chase & Co.) founder and the Chairman of the Greater Washington Partnership, in conversation with Ellis Carr (President and CEO, Capital Impact Partners & CDC Small Business Finance).Hosted by JB Holston. Produced by Maribeth Romslo and Nina Sharma. Edited by Christian Rodriguez. Engineered by Micah Johnson. With support from Jenna Klym, Justin Matheson-Turner, and Christian Rodriguez.SPEAKER BIOSPETER SCHERPeter L. Scher is Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a member of the firm's Operating Committee. Scher is the firm's senior business executive for the Mid-Atlantic Region and oversees the firm's global Corporate Responsibility department, including its public policy efforts, the J.P. Morgan International Council and Morgan Health, a new business unit focused on improving the quality of healthcare for the firm's employees and creating new models for employer-based healthcare.Scher led the firm's $200 million investment in the revitalization of Detroit, which has been featured on 60 Minutes, profiled by Fortune Magazine in ranking JPMorgan Chase number one on its list of companies “Changing the World” and chronicled by Harvard Business School as a case study for inclusive capitalism.Business Insider named Scher as one of 10 people “transforming how we think about capitalism” and Washington Life Magazine called him one of the most influential people in the U.S. Capitol. The Washington Business Journal recognized him as one of the top business executives in the Washington, D.C. region.Scher spent nearly a decade in public service. He was confirmed by the United States Senate as U.S. Special Trade Ambassador and served as one of the lead U.S. negotiators on China's entry into the World Trade Organization. He served as the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Staff Director for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and Chief of Staff to former U.S. Senator Max Baucus.Scher is a founder and the Chairman of the Greater Washington Partnership and serves on the Board of Trustees of American University and a member of the Board of Directors of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., the Council on Foreign Relations and the Policy Advisory Board of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware School of Public Policy.  Scher received his B.A. from American University and his J.D. from American's Washington College of Law.ELLIS CARRCarr has served as Capital Impact Partners' President and Chief Executive Officer since 2016. He became President and Chief Executive Officer of CDC Small Business Finance in 2021.Carr originally joined Capital Impact in 2012 as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Prior to joining Capital Impact, he held various positions in the investments, capital markets, strategy, and corporate finance areas within Freddie Mac, and in fixed-income fund management both domestically and abroad at Deutsche Bank.Carr is an Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow; serves on Morgan Stanley's Community Development Advisory Board; is the Board Chair for Martha's Table, Board Treasurer for HPN (the Housing Partnership Network), and a board member for the Marguerite Casey Foundation. In 2018, he was recognized on Washington Business Journal's list of “Top Minority Business Leaders,” as well as being named among their “Top 40 under 40” business executives in 2015. Carr graduated from Towson University with a bachelor's degree in Accounting, and from Georgetown University with a master's degree in Real Estate with a concentration in Finance.

This interview features Ellis Carr, President & CEO of Capital Impact Partners. JB and Ellis discuss inclusive growth, CDFIs, and economic empowerment in underserved communities.Hosted by JB Holston. Produced by  Jenna Klym, Francesca Ioffreda, Ian Lutz, Nina Sharma, and  Justin Matheson-Turner.Learn from leaders doing the work across the Capital Region and beyond. These conversations will showcase innovation, as well as history and culture across our region, to bridge the gap between how we got here and where we are going.About our guest:Ellis Carr has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services and mortgage industries. Mr. Carr served as Capital Impact's Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer from July, 2012 until his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer in May, 2016.Prior to joining Capital Impact, he held various positions in the investments, capital markets, strategy and corporate finance areas within Freddie Mac and in fixed income fund management both domestically and abroad at Deutsche Bank.Mr. Carr is a trustee of the NHP Foundation; the Treasurer and Board member of Martha's Table; a Board member of Housing Partnership Network (HPN); and a Board member of the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN). In 2015, he was recognized as one of the “Top 40 under 40” business executives by the Washington Business Journal. Mr. Carr graduated from Towson University with an undergraduate degree in accounting, and from Georgetown University with a master's degree in real estate with a concentration in finance.

On this episode of the Impact Real Estate Podcast, we welcome the CEO and President of Impact Community Capital, Jeff Brenner. Jeff tells the story of how an initial two-year plan turned in a career in affordable housing that now spans 30 years! He also takes us through the ins and outs of being a CEO and the importance of diversity in the workplace and in sourcing new investors. It's double the IMPACT this week on the Impact Real Estate Podcast. Episode notes:01:20 - What is Impact Community Capital? 03:00 - The secret sauce 04:!6 - Community experts 06:03 - Trying to do something positive 09:28 - Investments backed by real estate 11:25 - The evolution of Impact 13:22 - An investment thesis 17:02 - Motivated from the very beginning 19:16 - Keep the organization focused on the big picture 20:50 - Calculating social impact 24:26 - Building a diverse team; Focus on broad range of experiences 27:28 - The Hot Seat presented by KK Reset Jeff joined IMPACT in 2012 as Chief Investment Officer. In 2016 he was named interim President following retirement of the company’s founding CEO and became President & CEO in 2017. He leads the senior management team in developing and implementing the strategic direction of the company and is responsible for creating and communicating the organization’s mission, vision, values and brand. Jeff has 30 years of experience in financial services and capital markets, including 23 years in impact investing. Prior to joining IMPACT, Jeff served as Chief Financial Officer for Capital Impact Partners, one of the nation’s largest Community Development Financial Institutions.

On this episode of the Impact Real Estate podcast, we visit with Ian Wiesner, the Director of Business Development at Capital Impact Partners. Find out what innovative tool CIP has for raising captital, what class at the University of Michigan inspired Ian’s career path and what Ian recommends if you wish to follow his career trajectory. It’s another can’t-miss episode of the most impactful real estate podcast out there. EPISODE NOTES02:05 - What is Capital Impact Partners?04:42 - Innovated tool for raising capital 05:49 - People on the ground and a knowledge of the market 08:01 - “Coapetition”09:30 - Sourcing transactions 10:35 - Micro finance; From Michigan to Yale15:45 - Additional exposure17:49 - Point of entry; The career trajectory 21:34 - Created by an act of congress 24:14 - The next step 27:12 - Projections are not predictions 28:42 - The Hot Seat presented by KK Reset

Dan Varner is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, whose mission is to co-create independence and dignity through the power of personal and workforce development across the 5-county metro Detroit region. The $35-45MM/year organization not only provides personal and workforce development programs for over 15,000 people annually, but also serves as the umbrella over four social enterprises: the iconic thrift stores, a tier-1 kitting and assembly supplier to the automotive and other industries, an industrial recycling and asset recovery operation, and a contract labor workforce. Those social enterprises provide training opportunities for vulnerable populations served by the organization, as well as financial resources for the organization's major programs, including workforce training and personal development programs for people who are justice-involved, unemployed or underemployed, and people living with physical, intellectual, or developmental disabilities. Prior to joining Goodwill, Dan served as the CEO at Excellent Schools Detroit, a coalition of Detroit's leading organizations working to improve Detroit's public education systems; worked as a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation where he co-led the foundation's redevelopment of a local investment strategy for Detroit; and he is also the cofounder and former CEO of a nationally-recognized, award-winning youth development organization that Dan helped grow into one of the largest youth development organizations in Detroit, now serving over 14,000 young people annually. Dan has received numerous awards, and his work has been recognized by two Presidential administrations. He is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and has served on numerous boards of directors, including the ACLU of Michigan, Capital Impact Partners, ConnectEd, and Detroit PAL, and served on Michigan's State Board of Education for four years. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School. Learn more about Dan at... LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-varner-356b495 Twitter: https://twitter.com/varnerdan Company Website: https://www.goodwilldetroit.org/ Phoenix Performance Partners Website: https://www.phoenixperform.com/ Culture Eats Everything Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-eats-everything/id1526731051 Culture Eats Everything Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1utf9dZh2PRQKxe6qg5I5M Tom Willis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasawillis Checkout our book: https://www.phoenixperform.com/book #CultureEatsEverything ______________________ Download & Share!

BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE Eve Picker: [00:00:11] Hi there. Thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing. My guest today is Annie Donovan, COO at LISC, an organization deeply rooted in the community. Annie has built a truly remarkable career in community investment by embracing a pursuit of fairness in economics and finance. She found her way to this mission through her roots in Pittsburgh, growing up in a working-class family where she was exposed to ideas of social justice early in life. In no particular order, she has served as a senior policy adviser in the Obama administration's Office of Social Innovation, as the CEO of the social enterprise, Core Metrics, heading the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and she spent two decades at Capital Impact Partners, all before taking over as COO at LISC. Be sure to go to EvePicker.com to find out more about Annie on the show notes page for this episode, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform, Small Change.   Eve: [00:01:39] Hello, Annie, I'm really honored to have you on my show and pretty excited to talk to a fellow Pittsburgher.   Annie Donovan: [00:01:46] Well, thank you, Eve. I'm very happy to be here and I'm always thrilled and delighted to talk to Pittsburghers.   Eve: [00:01:55] Good. So, the first question I have is actually about Pittsburgh. So, you grew up in Pittsburgh, and I'm wondering how that shaped the way you see the world.   Annie: [00:02:04] Thank you for that question. It very much did shape the way I see the world. Well, first of all, let me just tell you a little bit about my context. I grew up on the North Side of Pittsburgh. From an Irish Catholic family, I am the 10th of 11 children.   Eve: [00:02:19] Wow.   Annie: [00:02:19] My father's family, so he was first generation American. His parents both came from Ireland. They actually bought a house on the North Side. So, the way that my, my parents were actually able to afford to raise a family that big was because my grandparents passed their home on to my parents. And so they never had to pay a mortgage. So, yeah. So, that's how we sort of made ends meet economically, and, you know, were able to create some mobility in our family.   Eve: [00:02:58] What neighborhood was that?   Annie: [00:03:00] Brighton Heights.   Eve: [00:03:01] Brighton Heights. Ok.   Annie: [00:03:03] But the things about Pittsburgh, you know, when you're from there or when you've lived a long time there, you know, Pittsburgh can take a hit for, you know, being provincial. And that's certainly the case. I mean, in my parents' generation, my parents had an ethnically mixed marriage because, you know, my father was Irish, and my mother was part German. But in their generation, people even went to church based on ethnicity. So, you know, so there's a lot of that sort of ethnic pride and it can feel a little provincial. But Pittsburghers are also very unpretentious and very warm and open hearted, I think, and just possess a lot of resilience and, you know, grit. Those are qualities that I'm very proud to have had instilled in me growing up that I've relied on throughout my career.   Eve: [00:03:58] So, you know, I think also what I noticed in Pittsburgh and I heard stories about the steel mills actually purposefully separating neighborhoods into ethnicities.   Annie: [00:04:09] Yes.   Eve: [00:04:10] And that sort of prolonged that here.   Annie: [00:04:13] Yes.   Eve: [00:04:13] And it's made the city architecturally interesting ...   Annie: [00:04:15] Yes.   Eve: [00:04:15] ... because the neighborhoods are really distinctive and unique ...   Annie: [00:04:20] Yes, yeah, very much so.   Eve: [00:04:21] ... and look very different. It's fascinating. And then, of course, there's the managers neighborhoods and the steelworker neighborhoods, so you know ...   Annie: [00:04:28] Right. And you know, interestingly, what happened in my family, I grew up in a working-class neighborhood and it was very working class. My father actually went to school at night and earned a college degree from Duquesne, and he was the only person in the neighborhood who had a college degree. And he was an accountant. He worked for the Allegheny County. So, we had this interesting blend of, you know, when our country was experiencing sort of white flight. Right, so lots of white folks moving out to the suburbs.   Eve: [00:05:03] Yes.   Annie: [00:05:03] And those white folks moved out and then they went on toward more upward mobility. And we stayed in the working class neighborhood. But we were still, in my family, able to experience upward mobility because we owned our home. And my father had a college degree.   Eve: [00:05:21] A degree, yeah yesh, yeah. What led you into the world of community finance?   Annie: [00:05:25] I had always had, I think, a heart for social justice work. I thought a lot about poverty, and I thought a lot about the kind of injustices that were in my world growing up. Of course, I was born in 1964, Pittsburgh being, you know, not only ethnically divided, but lots of really hard lines around racial division, as well.   Eve: [00:05:54] Yeah.   Annie: [00:05:54] And I have to say, I have to hand it to my mother, because when we were growing up, this is probably the mid-70s and my brothers ... well, so, in my family, there are six girls, and then three boys, me, and a boy. So, it's almost like having two generations, you know. And I grew up with the boys. They wanted to start a street hockey league. And you know so, of course, I was out there playing street hockey with them. I'm a Title IX gal, and they were looking for a coach. And so they put an ad in the newspaper and a guy responded to it. And his name was Curtis. He was from the Hill District. And of course, the Hill District is the historically Black neighborhood. And so they signed him up and he came over to Brighton Heights, which was a very white place, and coached the street hockey team. For me, you know, they just got me thinking about, like, why why do we have these divisions? And I have these ideas of what people from from Black communities were supposed to be like. And he wasn't like that. He wasn't like my image. And my mother, you know, they'd play street hockey and it'd be time for dinner, and of course, whoever was around my mother invited in for dinner. So, often times Curtis would eat dinner with us. When we said Grace before dinner, the way he bowed his head and prayed, you know, it just struck me that everything I'd kind of learned about our Black neighbors I didn't see in him. And so this is what got me thinking, like, what was all that education about? And so I've always been on a quest to understand what these racial lines are, too, and what the class lines are. And so, you know, I studied economics in college. Early on in my journey there was a 101 economics class and we were learning about rational thinking and optimization.   Annie: [00:07:53] And I remember thinking, well, this isn't really a fair way to allocate resources across a society. And so I said that to my professor afterwards, who was, you know, a classically-trained economist who was like, Chicago School. And he said, well, this isn't about fairness, it's about efficiency. And that was like, OK, I've found my mission. And so, you know, and then I joined the Peace Corps, went to the Peace Corps after college. You know, lived in a very poor place. And then, you know, then it really sunk in because the people that I lived around were supremely resourceful and smart and really dirt poor. And so, what was that about? So, that's when I became sort of even more fiercely committed to it. And, you know, that's so, that's been the pursuit of my career since then, is how do we use the tools of economics and finance, and how do we rewrite them in a way that produces a more inclusive prosperity, because we are leaving a lot of talent on the table.   Eve: [00:09:10] Ok, so you've had some really big roles from the White House to the head of the CDFI Fund. And now you're at LISC. And I'm wondering, I'm familiar with LISC, I actually benefited from a loan from LISC years ago ...   Annie: [00:09:23] Good.   Eve: [00:09:23] ... for one of my projects. And I'm wondering what brought you there.   Annie: [00:09:28] Yeah. So, what brought me to LISC was, so after my experience at the CDFI Fund, I knew I wanted to go back into practice, because that's kind of where my heart and soul lies. And so, one of the characteristics about LISC is that it is very committed to local – 'local initiatives' is part of our name. And I wanted to be in a place that was toiling more closely to the ground. You know, we have local offices, we have 35 and growing, local offices that really are programmatically focused and focused on capacity building alongside lending. And so, that's where I saw the ability to more closely connect those pieces and not just be finance oriented. But to get deeper, closer to the community. And then the second thing was I saw in Maurice Jones, a leader in our industry who is boldly ambitious, is ambitious for the sake of impact, and I was attracted to that as well. So, yes, so that's what drew me to LISC.   Eve: [00:10:41] Then like about community capital, what does community development capital look like today versus 20 years ago?   Annie: [00:10:49] Yeah, that's a really good question. So, I think 20 years ago, if you think about, or even 25 years ago, you know, the sort of the history of community development or community capital, community investment ... The community investment world, really, it braids together organizations and institutions that come from different origin stories. So, there's the origin story of the black-owned banks and minority depository institutions that got underway right after emancipation, for Black Americans to build wealth. There is the credit union movement that was tending to people of modest means who wanted to come together and save together and, you know, have access to financial services that were owned and controlled by them. And then you had the nonprofit loan fund world that emerged because community development really took shape in the war on poverty and the commitment of the federal government to funding community development corporations. There was an era there where there's a lot of federal funding, and we can talk about urban policy and how that, you know, CDCs kind of shifted urban policy. But then in the beginning of the Reagan era is when the feds really pulled back. And that's when loan funds really started to emerge to say, well, we have to create new ways to finance the activity of community development. And that's when the loan funds really started taking root. And then when Clinton came into office, he created the CDFI fund. And that has been a really important policy innovation, still as a policy innovation today, that has been investing the kind of equity capital that the industry needs to grow, that you can't really get anywhere else.   Annie: [00:12:46] So, the industry has really blossomed, partly because we had good seed capital and partly because we just have been a bunch of people who have had a faith in the people and the communities that we're investing in and have found a way to work with traditional and non-traditional sources of capital, to blend them in a way that allows investments to work in, you know, places where, you know, my old economics professor would have said you wouldn't invest in because it wasn't efficient, the rate of return wasn't commensurate with risk, and all those sort of traditional measures, you know, that's the reason capital doesn't flow to some of the communities that we care about. And we are becoming more mainstream. And even though we're still a tiny percentage of the financial services sector, I think through, even through the pandemic, you start to see CDFIs emerge, getting more attention in mainstream media. And certainly LISC has gotten a lot of, we've been able to raise a lot of resources through this pandemic because there's a recognition, and we've not only done the investing and gotten the money there where people said it can't go, but we've done it financially in a fiscally responsible way. So, we've proven that the places and the people we're investing in are creditworthy. That has allowed this industry to grow. And I think it's going to continue to grow. I'm optimistic about that.   Eve: [00:14:19] Years ago, I helped found a CDC in Pittsburgh. And what was really fascinating to me, because I was pretty new here and I didn't really understand this lay of the land very well, you know, I sort of dropped in from another country. But, you know, all of the work we did was to get us to the same place as neighborhoods and places that were doing OK. And I've been in, I've been in this work for a long time and we never seem to get there. And so, I'm wondering, you know, because when you take a step forward with CDFIs, and maybe this is, you know, a really naive way to look at it, but you take a step forward with CDFIs, and you take a step back with banks who no longer really want to bank in or lend in communities, or want more equity or want, you know, more traditional products to lend in, and it's just this never ending catch up, so, how does it all get better.   Annie: [00:15:30] Yeah. So, of course, I, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this and I think a lot of, a lot of folks have been soul searching around this, particularly because of the uprisings, demanding more, you know, racial, that we address racial equity. And so, it does often feel like, you know, some days it really just feels like we are just doing the work of bandaid, you know, putting bandaids on things. And that's, that's where I think this the work right now is really important because we can't be satisfied with what we've done because it's clearly not enough. And, but I think we are in a moment that we have to take, make the best use of, because we can't do this on our own, as our, with our little bitty organizations. And even if we're a billion dollars or two billion dollars or 10 billion dollars, we're still to itty bitty to to create change on the scale that needs to be, that needs to happen. But that doesn't mean this stuff shouldn't happen. And it's, and it does have to happen because even over my career, you know, 25 years ago if somebody had said that you'll be working for a CDFI or you will help the, you know, build a CDFI, that will get to be a billion dollars. You know, wow, that would have been, because we, these loan funds were starting at, they just wanted to get to 10 million, you know.   Eve: [00:17:04] Right.   Annie: [00:17:05] And and we we wouldn't be we wouldn't have the opportunities that are in front of us now if we hadn't taken all those baby steps to get to here. So, over the long haul, you know, I hope that we can get there. But, you know, there's the bigger, we have to be able to impact the bigger picture. And, you know, for example, it was discouraging to me when I was at the CDFI Fund, and the second two years I was there under this administration that, you know, that a tax policy got, got enacted that just, you know, felt like it was going to undo everything that we were trying to do. So, there are these macro forces that, you know, that we have to try to turn the tide on.   Eve: [00:18:04] Yeah, that's depressing. But I know (laughter) but I know it's a really long patient game because I've been, I've seen that, you know, on things I've worked on that initially were like, what are you doing? You're nuts to now being, OK, this is mainstream. Like co-working or lofts downtown or revitalizing downtowns ...   Annie: [00:18:27] Exactly.   Eve: [00:18:27] ... or all of that. And we're actually ...   Annie: [00:18:29] Exactly.   Eve: [00:18:29] ... I think you're right. We're in a moment. All of the progress we were heading towards has been unbelievably compressed by everything that's happened this year. So, maybe that's a good thing, but ...   Annie: [00:18:44] Yeah, and I think that it's also very complex too, right? Because, even we see in some places tremendous progress running exactly alongside of things that feel like tremendous regression ...   Eve: [00:18:56] Yes.   Annie: [00:18:56] ... you know, so, and both of those things are happening at the same time.   Eve: [00:19:01] Well, what's ... I'm going to ask you, may not know the answer. But I really puzzle about what's happening in traditional financial institutions. So, you know, I have this crowdfunding platform and what's been startling to me and, you know, and our purpose is to help raise money for creative change-making projects and help developers get a little equity together, that seems to be a little more and more equity every year as banks change their position on what they lend for. Because we think that creative, those projects are important for making cities better. B   Annie: [00:19:41] Yeh, yes.   Eve: [00:19:41] But it seems to me that they're retracting even further because we're just being flooded at the moment, and equity requirements go up. It just seems to be harder and harder to borrow money, to do things, that are different than the things we have today. And we know we need to do things differently to fix some problems.   Annie: [00:20:09] Yeah, yeah. Well, the way I think about this and what I see from my perch is that I think that we have to, we have to start thinking about the world beyond banks, and, you know, think about and work hard on this, you know, the idea of having broader stakeholders. I mean, banks have been brought to the table on community finance because of the Community Reinvestment Act.   Eve: [00:20:45] Right.   Annie: [00:20:45] And so, so what are the ways in which, you know, there might be policy levers that need to be pulled to get more folks to the table. But also, you know, what the next generation of employees and employers, I mean, I think that we're in for change and I'm really hoping that we're in for change with the next generation of leaders. Because they have been raised with different expectations and they are already changing, corporate, the way ... corporations are reacting. And you see now, you know, we've been the beneficiary of, you know, almost a 100 million dollars in corporate contributions that are going out to small businesses, as, you know, in this pandemic, in the form of relief grants.   Eve: [00:21:44] That's pretty fabulous.   Annie: [00:21:45] And what we did was, the first one that came in, the first corporation that came in and said, can you do this for us? And we said, yes, we can do it for you, but we're going to do it in our LISC way. And that means we are going to get to community-serving businesses that are majority-owned by people of color and women. And they said, OK, cool. Go ahead and do it. So, you know, and then the next company that came in said we want to buy that, we want to buy, especially as PPP, the paycheck protection program and SBA, major piece of the the CARES Act, you know, was clearly written in a way that was just going to follow the old rules for how you distribute capital. And then people started saying, wait, wait, wait, there has to be other ways to do this. And so the work that we were doing was tipping the scales. We put our thumb on the scale in favor of community-serving small businesses and gave preference, and we're ending up with, you know, somewhere in the low 90 percent, of the businesses that we're funding, are owned by people of color.   Eve: [00:23:04] That's pretty great.   Annie: [00:23:05] And yeah, and in the paycheck protection program, we got to about 80 percent of our companies being minority women- and women-owned companies. And when you put together and in the, on the private sector side, our formula was where we're going to advantage certain census tracts. We're going to advantage minority ownership and women ownership, and we're going to advantage certain size. So, when you line all those up, it's not that hard to come up with lots of folks to invest in. And that's where our money's gone.   Eve: [00:23:43] So, another question I have is looking at the other side of it. If a real estate developer has access to community capital, what should her reciprocal responsibilities be to that community?   Annie: [00:23:59] I think that's really, really very important because, and we have to all get better at this as well, in terms of how we doing community engagement, and how we're bringing people into ownership of what happens at the community level. And so I think, you know, there are just these models and this seems to me to be what's out there on the fringe right now, you know, and it's always what's happening on the fringe that's eventually going to be where where we all go, hopefully. But what I see is, I've been been advising on a project that's being done by a foundation of philanthropy. It's not a traditional philanthropy. It's one of the newer philanthropies. And they are, they're going to do they're investing in a real estate project in a very, one of the most distressed census tracts in Washington, D.C. And they are bringing together community stakeholders to say, how do we create a vehicle for people who live in that community right now before the development happens? How do we create a vehicle for them to invest in it and to get ownership in it? And those are, I think, the kind of strategies we need to be thinking about. You know, how do we, because otherwise if you just let this play out via market forces, you get gentrification a lot of times.   Eve: [00:25:40] Right, right, right.   Annie: [00:25:42] So, you know, we don't want to go in that direction. And that that means giving people real ownership stakes.   Eve: [00:25:48] I mean, I agree. That's what we at Small Change, I'm having similar conversations with some very large developers who are starting to think about that ownership piece, in really humongous projects in D.C. and New York. And it's really exciting to see that people are thinking about it. It is hopeful.   Annie: [00:26:08] So, yeah. And if you think about like, so, another example, and this is not at the project level, this is at the fund level. But, you know, we're managing we're going to be managing money on behalf of Netflix. And Netflix went out, and this was somebody inside Netflix who said, you know, in their treasury department, why are we sitting on all this money and not thinking about where it's invested? Why don't we get this to black-owned institutions and, you know, and that, and that's when, so, you know, like back to your question, when are we ever going to see this get better? I mean, that's when it's going to get better, right? When that person inside that corporation goes to the CEO, and the CEO says, yeah, absolutely, why aren't we doing that?   Eve: [00:26:53] Yeh, yeh.   Annie: [00:26:53] And then you put it out there. And once, when Netflix put that out there and they made the investment in us, we had so many corporations respond to say, well, how do we do that, too? So, that's what we have to do. We have to create the bandwagon. But the bandwagon that's moving money in this direction.   Eve: [00:27:12] Yeh. Yeh, yeh. So, I mean, how would you define impact investing then?   Annie: [00:27:20] Ok, so impact investing to me, I always define it as it's a spectrum, right, because I like I think it's important for all of us to have a big umbrella and be inclusive. Right? And on one end of the impact investing spectrum are the folks that would say, you know, you can invest, and do good and do well at the same time. Right? And there's not really a trade off. And then the other end of the spectrum is, you know, where my work has always been, which is on the whether you call it concessionary or catalytic capital, where you're trying to, because on that that first end of the spectrum, you're not disrupting any kind of the market forces. You're sort of saying the market can do this, but there's something missing in terms of information flow. So, if everybody had perfect information, then you know that that would solve the problem. So, I've never bought into that because I don't think that it accounts for the systemic racism that exists in our society and in our economy. And so, I think you have to be more disruptive than that. And that requires capital that, that is, that can be designed in a, and stacked and engineered in a way that allows more people to get access to it, to do the kind of projects, to create the kind of businesses that are going to let them into, you know, more economic activity. So, yeah. And my dream is always in my work is always trying to think about, how do we get the people who are on one end of the spectrum down toward the catalytic end? Because if you want to disrupt poverty, you can't do it on the market end, purely market end.   Eve: [00:29:28] No. Interesting. I mean, impact investing has been growing, I still think it's small. Do you expect, I'm, I suppose I'm wondering if you expect this, the events of this year to rapidly increase interest in that, too. Well, certainly if you see it from Netflix.   Annie: [00:29:52] Yeah, I think I think it is. And I think the question is, you know, the question that's on our mind at LISC is how do we, how do we convert the short-term interest into long-term relationships. Because, and how do we get people to see? Because actually, frankly, in the short run, it's good for a corporation's brand to step up and do this kind of work.   Eve: [00:30:17] Oh, yeh.   Annie: [00:30:17] I mean they're ... Yeah, and there's not really much at stake there. And frankly, you know, they could direct, if they wanted to, they could purely direct this out of their PR budgets.   Eve: [00:30:28] Yes.   Annie: [00:30:29] You know, and so how do we, how do we, you know, convert people to the long-term play? That's the work that's in front of us right now.   Eve: [00:30:40] Right. So, Just shifting gears a little bit, how, you know, what do we need to think about to make our cities and neighborhoods just better places for everyone?   Annie: [00:30:55] Yeah. I think that we have to, we have to think comprehensively, first of all. So, I don't think, that's the other another reason that I wanted to join LISC is because I like the comprehensive approach. Because I don't think there's any one dimension to neighborhood life that is a silver bullet. Right? So we have to invest more in education and housing stability is fundamental to economic mobility. And so, we have to invest in all of these things. And, you know, back to, back to the big picture of tax policy and how we tax and spend. I do think we just, the thing is, we know exactly what we need to do.   Eve: [00:31:54] Yes.   Annie: [00:31:55] We just have to invest in it. Right? We know the payoff of early childhood education. We know the payoff of education in general. We know the payoff of preventive health care. So, you know, what more evidence do you need? We just need to have the will and the commitment as a society. And once that's there, I think everything else follows.   Eve: [00:32:24] Yeh. And I see physically, too, we know the payoff of neighborhood parks and better streets and better lighting and all of those things that everyone wants in their own neighborhood. And some people don't have.   Annie: [00:32:39] Right. And we have to develop we have to develop our collective will to say that that's not OK. That's not the world we want to live in.   Eve: [00:32:49] So, what community engagement tools have you seen that have worked that, you know, you mentioned that that's a critical piece of it and that's hard.   Annie: [00:32:59] It is hard. It's hard for a lot of reasons, one of which is that when community developers who don't know community, if they don't know the community, if you're coming in to this, you know, as a sort of professional, you may have certain assumptions about what people, and I think one of the things we make a mistake on this all the time, like what does the community want? Well, you know what? Not everybody in the community agrees on what they want, just like, and just like in your community, you know.   Eve: [00:33:35] Yes.   Annie: [00:33:35] So, I think starting with listening, and being open is really, really important. And so, I mentioned a, you know, the project where, you know, in Washington, D.C., where the funder was coming in and actually saying, OK, we want to do, we want the result of, to be that people have an ownership stake. But why don't we find out from the community what that means to them, how they would do it? What, is that what you, is that what's really wanted? You know, so I think, you know, good community engagement starts with listening, not making assumptions and and bringing people in and just providing the space for voices to be to be heard and listened to. And, you know, just having a faith in that. That that's, you know, that that's going to going to lead you down the right path is a good way to get people involved. And I think that also, you know, when I started my career, after I got back from the Peace Corps, I went to work for the Campaign for Human Development. And in that work, we funded a lot of community organizing. And the ability of communities to organize themselves is also an important piece of this. Like the, there's very little investment that goes into community organizing. And I think that's a really important component.   Eve: [00:35:24] You know, that's what I was just going to say, because I think about, like when you're a very large developer doing a large scale project, you can absorb that community organizing piece.   Annie: [00:35:35] Yes.   Eve: [00:35:35] But when you're a small developer doing like interstitial projects that are, you know, fit into a neighborhood, that becomes a pretty heavy lift in terms of resources ...   Annie: [00:35:46] Exactly.   Eve: [00:35:46] ... and there to help, and how do you get that done properly. It's really, it's hard. It's hard.   Annie: [00:35:53] Right. Right. And it's also, you know, and we need more philanthropy dollars in that because that's a really hard role for government to play. And we administer a lot of Section 4 money, and that's out of the HUD budget, and that's for capacity building of local organizations, and, tt's really hard money to work with.   Eve: [00:36:16] Yes. Yeh, yeh.   Annie: [00:36:16] You know, it's, so there's a need for investment in, of flexible dollars into neighborhood organizing and leadership development.   Eve: [00:36:27] Yeah, no, I agree. So, what's what's next for you and LISC? I mean, what do you think the next five years will look like in this pretty fast-moving time that we're having here?   Annie: [00:36:40] Yes. So. Well, I think that we are on a pathway, move, you know, moving to the next level of growth and scale. And for us, that's about how do we, how do we use the assets that we've built so far to get to the next, to get to that next level? And I think for us, you know, putting impact first, you know, the racial equity piece of this is really important. And I think, I am very hopeful that we are going to be able to do the deeper work there, that we're going to, you know, take, choose the pathway of doing the harder, deeper work. Because the long-term outcome is going to be better. And we're going to, you know, try to bring our partners along for that ride. And I think that we are through this period, we have greatly increased our capacity to reach small businesses, and to think about inclusive economic development. How do we build the infrastructure for more inclusive economic development? And ecosystems that support community, small community-owned or locally owned small businesses? And, you know, and we have to be thinking about how are we disrupting systems? So, because we're at the edges of them now, you know, in terms of their usefulness and we have to build something that's built to suit, for the next level of scale. So.   Eve: [00:38:41] Thank you very much. I really enjoyed the conversation. And I can't I really can't wait to see what you build and where LISC goes and where you go with all this.   Annie: [00:38:52] Well, thank you and I love the work that you're doing, every dimension, you know, that, every strategy that brings in more capital and the, you know, more of the kind of equity capital that you're pulling in and democratizing that, I think is a really powerful strategy. And I also wish you the best.   Eve: [00:39:17] Yeh, all takes ... Thank you, Annie.   Annie: [00:39:19] Yes. I can't wait to. I can't wait to see that happening.   Eve: [00:39:22] Bye.   Annie: [00:39:22] OK. Bye, bye.   Eve: [00:39:29] That was Annie Donovan. Annie thinks we need to start thinking about the world beyond banks. We need to find a way to let communities invest in order to change how we tackle development. To give them a real stake in their own future. Listening is key, as is providing the space for people to be heard. For Annie, impact investment needs to have a big umbrella and be deeply inclusive. She also understands playing the long game, saying that we know exactly what to do, but that we need to develop as a society, the collective will to invest in that knowledge. You can find out more about impact real estate investing and access the show notes for today's episode at my website, EvePicker.com. While you're there, sign up for my newsletter to find out more about how to make money in real estate while building better cities. Thank you so much for spending your time with me today and thank you any for sharing your thoughts. We'll talk again soon. But for now, this is Eve Picker, signing off to go make some change.

Alison Powers, Cooperative & Community Initiatives Manager at Capital Impact Partners, and Camille Kerr, Founder of ChiFresh Kitchen discuss the 2020 Co-op Innovation Award, and the work being done by co-op owners of ChiFrish Kitchen. Capital Impact Partners, in partnership with National Cooperative Bank, awarded a total of $100,000 to the 2020 Co-op Innovative Awardees, - ChiFresh, The Guild, and the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative. This year the Co-op Innovation Award focused on organizations educating new audiences on the impact and potential of the cooperative model to disrupt income inequality, steward community ownership, and create strong vibrant places of opportunity. The Innovative Award aims to increase co-op development in communities with low incomes and/or communities of color. ChiFresh Kitchen was awarded $50,000 to expand its commercial kitchen, owned and determined by formerly incarcerated Chicagoans, primarily Black women. ChiFresh pushed forward its intended launch in response to the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on Chicagoans of color and residents with low incomes. Camille Kerr is the founder of ChiFresh Kitchen. Through her various leadership positions in worker ownership organizations over the past eight years, Camille has had the opportunity to shape some of the most innovative initiatives in the field. She has authored thought pieces, drafted legislation, managed cooperative development initiatives, designed new corporate forms, and supported individual businesses in their transition to worker ownership.

Detroit is experiencing a major renaissance—returning to its former glory as one of America’s greatest cities. One way in which this renaissance is obvious is in the vast amount of development taking place across the city. While development is certainly a positive for economic growth, it’s critical that development be inclusive and equitable, so as not to exclude existing residents who have called Detroit home for decades. On this episode of Purposeful Pitch, my colleague, Sawyer Lipari, and I speak to Sonya Mays, president and CEO of Develop Detroit, a non-profit organization committed to building vibrant, resilient communities and expanding opportunities for all residents to succeed. Develop Detroit creates mixed-income communities and single-family homes across Detroit—featuring an integrated approach to stabilizing and growing neighborhoods. Our conversation with Sonya covers the dreaded ‘G’ word—gentrification—and how Develop Detroit is working with partners across the city, such as Capital Impact Partners, to ensure current residents aren’t left outside looking in while economic development continues throughout Detroit. Focusing its efforts in the city’s disinvested neighborhoods, Develop Detroit has launched an innovative single-family development pilot program in the North End (along Woodward Avenue between Marston and Philadelphia Street) and a mixed-used inclusive community in the Sugar Hill Arts District (Garfield and John R. Street intersection in Midtown). The two projects include over $36 million in investment and more than 100 new homes (single family, townhomes and luxury apartment homes). For more information on Develop Detroit, visit developdetroit.org. To learn more about Lambert’s Education & Social Impact practice, contact me at jdibenedetto@lambert.com.

In the first half hour. Patricia interviews Candace Robinson, Director of Strategic Aging Initiatives at Capital Impact Partners, a national, nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). She discusses how Capital Impact Parters provides capacity building to help ensure that low to moderate income individuals have access to quality healthcare and education, healthy foods, affordable housing, and the ability to age with dignity. In the second half hour Patricia interviews Catherine DeOrsey founder of Integrative Healthcare Solutions (IHS), a new division of the non-profit organization Power Forward. Her brother Davids 20 year addiction and fatal overdose on opioids and alcohol, coupled with her own diagnosed health crisis of severe Crohns Disease, was the catalyst for her to bring Integrative Healthcare Solutions to the forefront of healthcare. She discusses how to educate, support and inspire people to break the cycle of the opioids addiction crisis. I

In the first half hour. Patricia interviews Candace Robinson, Director of Strategic Aging Initiatives at Capital Impact Partners, a national, nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). She discusses how Capital Impact Parters provides capacity building to help ensure that low to moderate income individuals have access to quality healthcare and education, healthy foods, affordable housing, and the ability to age with dignity. In the second half hour Patricia interviews Catherine DeOrsey founder of Integrative Healthcare Solutions (IHS), a new division of the non-profit organization Power Forward. Her brother Davids 20 year addiction and fatal overdose on opioids and alcohol, coupled with her own diagnosed health crisis of severe Crohns Disease, was the catalyst for her to bring Integrative Healthcare Solutions to the forefront of healthcare. She discusses how to educate, support and inspire people to break the cycle of the opioids addiction crisis. I

In the first half hour. Patricia interviews Candace Robinson, Director of Strategic Aging Initiatives at Capital Impact Partners, a national, nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). She discusses how Capital Impact Parters provides capacity building to help ensure that low to moderate income individuals have access to quality healthcare and education, healthy foods, affordable housing, and the ability to age with dignity. In the second half hour Patricia interviews Catherine DeOrsey founder of Integrative Healthcare Solutions (IHS), a new division of the non-profit organization Power Forward. Her brother Davids 20 year addiction and fatal overdose on opioids and alcohol, coupled with her own diagnosed health crisis of severe Crohns Disease, was the catalyst for her to bring Integrative Healthcare Solutions to the forefront of healthcare. She discusses how to educate, support and inspire people to break the cycle of the opioids addiction crisis. I

In the first half hour. Patricia interviews Candace Robinson, Director of Strategic Aging Initiatives at Capital Impact Partners, a national, nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). She discusses how Capital Impact Parters provides capacity building to help ensure that low to moderate income individuals have access to quality healthcare and education, healthy foods, affordable housing, and the ability to age with dignity. In the second half hour Patricia interviews Catherine DeOrsey founder of Integrative Healthcare Solutions (IHS), a new division of the non-profit organization Power Forward. Her brother Davids 20 year addiction and fatal overdose on opioids and alcohol, coupled with her own diagnosed health crisis of severe Crohns Disease, was the catalyst for her to bring Integrative Healthcare Solutions to the forefront of healthcare. She discusses how to educate, support and inspire people to break the cycle of the opioids addiction crisis. I

If you’re an investor looking to drive equity through your funding decisions, today’s episode is for you. Kiko talks with Dennis Derryck of Corbin Hill Food Project about how he’s structured that non-profit around equitable ownership and participation. Then Olivia Rebanal of Capital Impact Partners shares her perspectives as a funder who has worked to break down barriers for those traditionally left out of food investment so they can equally access the funds on the table. Leave this series armed with practical tips to inform your action plan for consciously driving towards the food system you want to see!

Host Alex Kravitz talks to Olivia Rebanal from Capital Impact Partners, Jean Chorazyczewski of The Fair Food Network, and Amit Makhecha of FEAST Detroit. These guests share the stark facts about this challenge, detail the steps they are taking to cultivate a more inclusive and equitable local food system, and offer suggestions for what it will take to solve this challenge in communities across America.

Vernon interviews Rosemary Mahoney, Principal of Mahoney Consulting, LLC, and 2018 inductee to the Cooperative Hall of Fame. Vernon and Rosemary will discuss best practices in cooperative development, and her 30-year career as a co-op developer. Ms. Mahoney is Principal of Mahoney Consulting, LLC, where she works as an independent consultant on cooperative development and community projects. She is the former CEO of CoopMetrics, and has worked as a consultant on international cooperative development projects and cooperative business development projects. She was a founding partner of MainStreet Cooperative Group, LLC, director of New Venture Development for Cooperative Solutions, LLC, executive director of Cooperative Development Services (CDS) and Regional Director for Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Mahoney has long advocated the community development potential of 'hybrid' cooperatives and was the founding chair of CooperationWorks! Board. She helped launch Blue Hawk Distributor Cooperative, which serves independent heating and air conditioning businesses, and for several years coordinated the Purchasing Cooperative Conference with the support of the National Cooperative Bank and NCBA CLUSA. Mahoney continues to serve as a senior advisor at CoMetrics and has served on or is serving on more than 13 boards, including The Cooperative Foundation, NCBA CLUSA, Capital Impact Partners, National Cooperative Bank, dotCoop and CooperationWorks!.

I have a conversation with Jason Anderson, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Capital Impact Partners in Washington, DC. This is the first podcast ever recorded in a Wholefoods Supermarket, and I know it's the first podcast recorded in the Wholefoods Supermarket in Pentagon City, Virginia. The reason we're here today is there's a tap takeover by breweries from Richmond, Virginia, and I'm joined by Jason Anderson, somebody I've known for a long time who is a really fantastic communicator. Jason, welcome to the show. Thank you, Mark. So your current position? I am the Senior Director of Communications and Marketing at Capital Impact Partners. Fantastic. Now you've had a really fascinating career. We'll talk about your education, and then you worked for CNN. So tell me about how you got into communications and what drove you towards a communications career to begin with? Yeah. So I grew up in Southern California, and went to Claremont McKenna College where I actually majored in Government and Literature. I actually had an opportunity to attend USC for a broadcasting degree but decided that I wanted to really get the fundamentals of a hardcore political background. Because really my goal at that time was to get into political journalism. And that ultimately fulfilled itself by joining CNN for about 10 years where I literally started as what they called a video journalist, a VJ, at that time. Making roughly $15,000 a year. Killing it. Killing it. And there we did everything from running the camera to running the teleprompter with paper scripts. Which is something in this day of digital age if you think about it. And even robotic cameras, which we didn't have back then. But there I saw a number of fascinating things, really cut my teeth on what journalism was. Learned how to edit videotape, learned how to produce a segment and did a whole number of things with them, but ultimately decided after a number of events, ultimately concluding with the Monica Lewinsky episode in Washington DC, that I decided it was time for me to move on and pursue some of my more personal goals along with journalism. Which was at that point thinking about the environment. That's wonderful. And so after a decade or so at CNN where you focused on political and other reporting, you moved over to the non-profit world. Tell me about that transition. Yeah. So I saw an opportunity at an organization called Conservation International, which does international, non-profit environmental work in communities all across the world, and the opportunity was to take my journalism skills and apply them to public relations. How do we take the things that we do as an environmental non-profit and translate them into actually what news is, and serious news not just marketing, and talk to reporters about covering that news? So I did that actually for a division of Conservation International which was called the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, and it was really thinking about, how do we work with corporations to reduce their environmental footprint, to contribute to the things that we were doing at Conservation International and translate that all into good. You know ultimately, the public relations part in a sense was marketing, in a sense was how do we drive fundraising, how do we drive other corporations to do good things?  How do we put pressure on the organizations that we're working with to do more good things? But ultimately, it was a really fascinating experience. And then after Conservation International, you stayed in the non-profit world? I did. At that point after 10 years of working at the global sphere and working with Fortune 500 companies like McDonald's, like Starbucks, like Walmart to change their footprint and actually do some interesting marketing things with them. I really wanted to focus more in on local communities. And I found a small organization doing really fascinating things called Rare. And they would actually run marketing campaigns in local communities and these are hyper-local communities. Places you've never heard about or can't even find on the map in Indonesia, in Africa, throughout Asia. And what they would do is, they had the ability to take over the radio, take over the newspaper, create mascots around essential message because you have that hyper-local opportunity to not talk about a product, but to talk about environmental conservation. And perhaps it's water, perhaps it's a species, perhaps it's pollution. And you get folks really thinking about ways they can change their practices locally and using mass-media to do that. It was fascinating to watch how that would happen. Now again my job wasn't to do that work. We had specialists with a whole theory of change and the use of psychology, but my job was to get people interested in what we were doing. So again ... Were they trying to change behavior? Behaviour change, exactly. That was at the core of it, which you can do in a place like that. Much harder where we are in Pentagon City to get people to recycle the cups that they were drinking from these fine, Virginia breweries. But you can do it in these awful places and getting donors interested in thinking about that was part of my job. So give me an example of one of the projects that you worked on. Sure, so we worked in a village in The Philippines where they essentially had no fish, which is a problem when fish is what you rely on to eat. So we had to really go in ... Was this because of over-fishing? It's over-fishing. So ... So you really needed to change that behavior or you'll never fix the problem. We needed to change the behavior of over-fishing. So we created a mascot called Malloy. And Malloy was sort of central to this media campaign. He appeared in billboards. He appeared in local restaurants. He appeared in the newspaper. He appeared in local parades that you might see down our main streets. And eventually people got the message. I need to think about the fact that I can't go out every day, 24-hour days, and fish. I need to think about okay, how do I fish responsibly with everyone else who needs to feed their families and also maybe some of the companies who are coming in and using us to buy fish to sell to distributors? And eventually, the metrics showed an uptick in that particular region in terms of number of fish available but of course fish take a couple of years to spawn and reproduce and create a viable colony. But we are starting to show that halfways to guess that was happening. Then you move [inaudible] to Capital Impact Partners. Different mission, but also in a nonprofit world. Tell me about their missions. Capital Impact was sort of my way to come back home. This is after the great depression, after the big financial crises that we all faced. And I thought to my self, certainly, there's a great [inaudible] outside of our boundaries, but then, in the United States, we have a lot of communities that are suffering, and how can we help them recoup from what has happened to them. And so I joined what's called Capital Impact Partners, it's what's called the community development financial institution, which is a long-winded way of saying, "Where are the good guy bankers?" We are a bank with the mission behind us. So we make loans to other nonprofits essentially, hospitals, healthy hood ventures, education, or people and organizations that are really trying to change the paradigm in their communities. But because they're operating in low-income areas, big banks won't finance them. So you can't build that house center, you can't build that grocery store that'll sell healthy food, you can't build the apartment that'll have affordable housing. Big just won't support it. We will, that's our mission. That's the risk we take, and in fact, we don't measure our end of the year success by our profit, we measure it by how many desks are being built for students, how many more affordable housing units have been built. That's really tangible good in the community. Yeah. What drew me to it is, they were interested as more than just a lender because they [saw all of it?], just bringing money into a community wasn't going to do it. So we had to be [inaudible] so we had to bring research, we had to bring a team that would develop programs that addressed this systemic issues being faced and think about how to do it differently, how can we do it this way and instead of the old way. A classic example that we use is around the nursing homes system. You put people into institutional nursing homes, nothing changes, people grow old, they get sick, they eventually pass away. What we've decided was, there's got to be a better way. So how do you go in, and develop a different type of nursing home that's as a community where you'll have your own room, where you go to a kitchen that feels like your home, where you communicate with the outside world? It's called the greenhouse model. We were able to deploy it in multiple states across the country, and it's become a real success. But it really shows that money is one thing, creating systemic change is a whole different paradigm, and that's what really drove me to the organization. So how do you tell that story in a way that's going to [inaudible] and engaging to people who either might be in a position to support it or might be a potential customer or beneficiary? Right. No. It's something I struggle with each and every day because we don't just working agent, we work across seven sectors. And how do I tell that one story to people in seven sectors, whether they want to borrow money from us, or change a program, and then how do I elevate that story to ... [inaudible] to interruption. Is it possible to tell a story that reaches different audiences and is equally compelling across different sectors, and people who have maybe different motivations, and [inaudible] paying attention, or do you have to tailor the story based on your audience? So I approach it from literally story telling. What is good storytelling? And that begins with someone who really has to overcome a barrier and how do they overcome that barrier, which is, if you think about any Hollywood movie, and I just took my kids last week to see Black Panther. Yeah. Me too. Yay. Good movie [laughter]. How do they overcome that barrier of the mineral that they are trying to mine and save the world? Are we saving the world? Maybe. So one of the things I did was when I came into the organization about three years ago was to create a story section to the website. It doesn't market our learning activities, it doesn't market any of the other kind of programmatic activities we do, what it does do is tell the stories of the people it was serving. So in the greenhouse model, we literally sending a photographer, journalist. He spent a couple of weeks with these residences, and he told their stories to a series of photo captions. And it's sort of that heart versus brain effects. How do I [inaudible] in your heartstrings to really get you understand this is what you're doing at this kind of visceral level. And we know. I mean, we know from theory that we also know from the experience that you can make a really, really good logical argument that makes perfect sense to the brain, but if doesn't have that emotional impact, it doesn't matter, people might not even pay attention to it. So if you don't make that emotional connection, you need to be able to follow it up with a logic. But sales are made through emotions. Donations are made through emotions. People care about emotions. They want to follow it up with logic to prove to themselves there's nothing else that their emotions were sound if that makes sense. So [inaudible] make an example of that. We could talk about the greenhouse model as here are 10, 12 group homes with individual rooms, it serves maybe 30 to 50 percent of the residence around Medicare. That's great. I mean, honestly, that's a fact that's excellent. Again, there was a guy named Ervin who we talked to. His wife, basically, she didn't have the capabilities of living in the same room because she could become violent. So what he would do is he would go while she was sleeping and literally cuddle up with her at night, and sleep with her, and then wake up in the morning, get up, and go back to his own bed. And she wouldn't know but now we have this opportunity to show this individual who is still able to be with his wife in their old age at a time when they went to the traditional nursing home. She actually might be institutionalized, but this was not the case. [inaudible] able to let them empower them to keep their relationship alive for months or years harder than they're normally would have. And I was so proud as a person in marketing to tell a story that value that relationship. That's wonderful. Which I don't often get to do. Okay. So, all right, you just got my heart strains, right? Yeah [laughter]. All right. So now I'm ready to make a donation which is sort of [inaudible], right? I mean, you want to make that emotional connection, and want to get somebody walk into your want to understand it and feel it, maybe feel it first. Then understand it, then get involved, and support it. So, thinking about when you were going to school, when you were starting your career, what do you know now that you wish you had known then? I think it is the personal aspects of what I do. Drilling down into emotion and storytelling. I went to a school that valued-- I went to Claremont McKenna College, which was mostly an economics school. I was sort of an outlier as someone who wanted to do nonprofit work. And so there it was research, it was analytics, it was data. Which was great, because it got me thinking about those things, because I never really thought about those things. But somewhere I knew deep inside me that there was still emotion and story that drives us. Maybe that was I was drawn to USC, because of their film elements and all of their production elements. Toss up whether I should've gone there or not, but ultimately I think that now is what makes me a successful marketer, is driving story versus data. Because I could easily talk about, we're a lending institution at our heart. Before I came, we talked about, oh we financed this building. Oh, it's 26,000 square feet. It's in this area that has a 200% under the certain net worth for individuals. Government data, and I can't remember. I can't think of it, because it doesn't drive me. I wanted to [inaudible] that building. And that's your proof right there. Right. Who goes to school there? Who now has a home there? Who's getting health care in that building? That's what I care about. And one person's personal story can negate reams and reams and reams of paper of statistics and facts. Absolutely, yeah. And I do think that you need to back it up, with the ultimate, we have the great story of Irwin, but I could tell you any number of stories. There's a woman who was once homeless. She went to a health care center that we helped finance in San Francisco. [inaudible] San Fransisco, does that mean health care? Well, there are huge amounts of homeless people in San Francisco who have no access to equitable health care. Now it's part of the mission of this-- now she got off drugs, she got off alcohol, and she has now literally a board member of this hospital because they want a certain amount of their patients to be on the board. That's not data, that's a story, that's a person's life who has changed. But the data ulitmately, we still need to talk about. This hospital went from an alleyway to a building that serves 20,000 patients, who are uninsured possibly, and so they now have healthcare. That saves X amount of health care dollars. Yeah, so you need that data to back up the story. So for somebody who's an aspiring storyteller, regardless of the medium that they're interested in, what are the things that they need to know, what are the skills that they need to develop? You need to be emotionally involved in your projects. One, the word I always give to people when they think about communications and all of the things and the tactics and all of that is what is your authenticity? You can have your strategy, you can have your tactics down, you can have everything to a T, but if you're not authentic, it's not going to resonate with people. And ultimately, that's going to  you may get a-- the phrase is, "Fool me once it's on you. Fool me twice it's on me." Authenticity is the same way. You may fool a donor or funder or an investor a couple of times but ultimately they're going to get it. So make sure you have an authentic story to tell. And then don't be afraid to tell it from the rooftops. Just yell it, scream it, promote it, put it on video, put it on social media. Don't be afraid to be hyperbolic. If it's authentic, it's real. Right. I think that's really wise council. What tools do you use that you absolutely can't do without? Well, I'm old school, so I use a lot of pen and paper. We've been experimenting with a tool called Trello which is a kind of electronic tool for project management. I think you do need an editorial calendar of sorts because it allows you to be proactive versus reactive, especially for someone like me where I have multiple sectors to promote. And all those sectors need to ramp up into corporate objectives around social and racial justice. I need to think ahead about, "All right. We've got this day coming up. We've got this conference coming up. We've got this project coming up." How does that react with everything else that we're doing? So that the messaging can be funneled up to, kind of ultimately, what we're trying to talk about. What advice would you give for somebody, who is either starting school or starting their careers right now, who's interested in following a path similar to yours? So I may be antithetical to most people. I did not get a background in marketing. I did not get a background in communications or any of this stuff. I'm not saying that's not valuable. I got an education in what I loved and what I believed in. At that point it was government and literature. Now if you think about it,  I know work in finance so-- and with a stop over, a 15 year stop over, in the environment. So I was just say be passionate. Explore. Which also comes with a lot of self learning reading everybody else's e-newsletters, websites, understanding what they do. And there was some self learning about what does the consumer journey look like. What is the donor persona look like? All of those things so that I could apply kind of what I had  hints of in my brain and make them very [tactical?]. That's wonderful, so these last two questions are sort of fun ones. What's the dumbest thing you've ever seen somebody do in communications and marketing? All right. So off the top of my head I can't think of the dumbest thing I've seen. But I will say that it's funny watching an organization I left, and I will not name them, reuse a tactic that we used. And used to sort of minimal effect. It felt like an organazation that was out of ideas and was just trying to think about, "All right, we'll just reuse that in a different way," Without really undersanding what can be we actually achieve with this. It was a social media campaign about investing in a certain project and who knows in terms of the actual tangible value of it? And I'll pick another which is another organization that I work with, do a multi-million dollar campaign. Hollywood superstars, literally Hollywood superstars - I can't name them because they would give me away - using cutting edge multimedia techniques, putting this out on every communication channel possible, but ultimately almost no [inaudible]. I've heard my superstar say this. I'm interested, because I've heard it in three or four different ways. Now what do I do? Well, what I do was give 10 bucks. Yeah, we're not going to have anybody. But I take your point that you need to craft your strategy and your tactics based on the existing situation, which means whoever is working in communications marketing needs to be acutely attuned to strategy and organization. They need to understand the situation, and they need to bring something fresh and creative. It's not sufficient to continue to rehash what might have been a great idea before, but's already played out. Yeah. And I'll also add to that. The idea that you're going to run into a CEO who thinks that they can create a movement-- and God bless you, if you can create a movement, do it. And don't not try. Definitely try it. But go in with what is what the market research of what the general public says. And I'll take the environment for example. So I did that for 15 years. And creating a movement for the environment was always top of mind of CEO for marketing. You can affect any environmental space, 5% of the population, with what we call the dark greens. And they will give a ton of money. You cannot affect the 95% of the population to give their $10, which will equate to billions if they did it. And if you said, "Oh, hogwash," think about yourself. I'm an environmentalist, and I do all the right things. I compost, I recycle, I drive a Prius ... Yeah. Me too. We might actually be parked next to each other [laughter]. But are all of these people going to give their 10 bucks? It's been proven time and time again that that's not going to happen. And that's for children's charities, it's for multiple charities. I would say the one example would be the Bucket Challenge. I have the Ice Water Bucket Challenge ... Ice Bucket Challenge. Okay. Let's talk about that for a minute. I know we're doing my last questions, but let's talk about that for a minute. I heard the woman who was on-- I can't remember the organization, which there in itself, right, should tell you something-- talk about the Ice Bucket Challenge, made millions for that in a short amount of time. We don't talk about them anymore. It was actually not self-constructed. It was an anomaly of a guy-- I think it was multiple sclerosis? Yeah. I think so. Or ALS, maybe. ALS -- who did it. No affiliation to the organization. He sent that video to three or four people, and it literally went viral. The organization literally had no idea how to harness that or what to do with it. They just rode the wave. And year one, they made X number of dollars. Year two, they tried to recreate it, were unable. Of course, because the underlying dynamic was not theirs, and it's since morphed into the cinnamon challenge and the Dadbod challenge and something else that somebody's going to come up with. But there was an authenticity in the original Ice Bucket Challenge that people loved. Which made it powerful. Which made it powerful. And you can't create that. Sometimes you just have to ride it. Well, right. And you can't program or [inaudible] morality. If you're lucky enough to do something that goes viral, awesome. But don't count on it. That should not be your main strategy, because it's so unpredictable and so unlikely. Try. Try. But try with caveats to your CEO or your chief marketing offer or whomever that you're not getting a ding for that if it doesn't happen. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So the last question I asked you was, without outing anybody individually [laughter]-- no. The dumbest movie you've ever seen in communications-- what got around? What's something that's remarkable, that's memorable, that you think is particularly powerful and well-done in the way of marketing, communications, public relations? I had a boss who stressed ad nauseum about the power of visuals. And to me back then, I was like, why are we agonizing over one photo over another? And I think the best example I think to give of that is if you watch the movie about Steve Job, where he talks about the 57 shark that he used in his powerpoint. Now I mean that's sort of an example, but what it shows is - and it goes back to storytelling - people are very visual. Iconography goes way back to when we lived in caves. That tells you something. So something about visuals and thinking about your powerpoint presentation with 100 lines of text per slide. No. Stop it. Steve Jobs did presentations. It might not have any text. Changed my life. And now we're gold. Yeah. In fact, have you ever read Presentation Zen that Garr Reynolds does? Phenomenal book. Read that. Yeah. Read it. Yeah. A piece of advice that I give to people who work for me is, you're going to get a lot of information about a particular project. And they're going to want data, they're going to want analysis, and they're going to want all this stuff in their communications. But what do we all do? I call it the finger-up analogy. You flip your Facebook, and you just finger up through your phone. You're swiping up, or you're scrolling up and down, or you're swiping left and right. Maybe you're swiping right, if that's how your thing is. But you're swiping. You're swiping. And you're reading quick and fast. What catches your eye? If you're reading at all. You're looking. Right. You're looking at visuals, and you're getting maybe 50 characters of text. You got to boil down your message to that to really communicate well. Yeah. I think you're absolutely right. So Jason, thank you so much for being on this episode of Better PR Now. Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And that wraps up another episode of Better PR Now. Really want to hear from you. Let me know what you think about the podcast overall or about this particular conversation. Like to know what you think about recording on location. I know there was a lot of noise. But let me know. Was it too distracting? Was it okay? I want to hear from you. And also if you have any questions about public relations, marketing, or corporate communications, let me know, and I'd love to address those in a future episode. Also I want to remind you about a special offer that we have from the official transcription partner from the podcast, TranscribeMe. You can get up to 25% off their transcription services. Just go to https://TranscribeMe.com/BetterPRNow. That's it for this episode. Look forward to visiting with you again on the next episode of Better PR Now.

Melinda Clemons, senior loan officer for Capital Impact Partners, and Ashley Mizzi with the Detroit Community Loan Fund, think there's an opportunity for more food-based businesses and subsidized affordable housing developments to create jobs, access to fresh food and residential density. Clemons and Mizzi talked about their organizations' work in Detroit in the respective fields of real estate development and lending to small business start-ups during an interview for the Crain's "Detroit Rising" podcast at Bamboo Detroit, 1420 Washington Blvd.

Vernon Oakes Interviews John Holdsclaw, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs at National Cooperative Bank (NCB). Vernon and John discuss the role cooperatives play in addressing critical issues in low to moderate Income communities, and the tools that are used to sustain them. Holdsclaw is NCB's first Senior VP of Corporate Affairs. He is charged with the development of new bank relationships and management of the bank's existing affiliations with Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs). He also promotes and advances social investment opportunities within the philanthropic arena and in product development, furthering NCB's commitment to mission banking. Prior to joining NCB, Mr. Holdsclaw served as the Director of Policy Development for Capital Impact Partners, a strategic partner of NCB. As Director of Policy at Capital Impact Partners, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of its government relations program, and building a respected brand with other CDFIs.

Vernon Oakes Interviews John Holdsclaw, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs at National Cooperative Bank (NCB). Vernon and John discuss the role cooperatives play in addressing critical issues in low to moderate Income communities, and the tools that are used to sustain them. Holdsclaw is NCB's first Senior VP of Corporate Affairs. He is charged with the development of new bank relationships and management of the bank's existing affiliations with Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs). He also promotes and advances social investment opportunities within the philanthropic arena and in product development, furthering NCB's commitment to mission banking. Prior to joining NCB, Mr. Holdsclaw served as the Director of Policy Development for Capital Impact Partners, a strategic partner of NCB. As Director of Policy at Capital Impact Partners, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of its government relations program, and building a respected brand with other CDFIs.

Rosemary Mahoney, Principal of Mahoney Consulting, LLC appears on Everything Co-op. Vernon and Rosemary discuss her career in cooperative development, and the strategies and analytical tools available to assess the viability of a cooperative. Ms. Mahoney is Principal of Mahoney Consulting, LLC, where she works as an independent consultant on cooperative development and community projects. She is the former CEO of CoopMetrics, and has worked as a consultant on international cooperative development projects and cooperative business development projects in the United States. She was a founding partner of MainStreet Cooperative Group, LLC, director of New Venture Development for Cooperative Solutions, LLC, executive director of Cooperative Development Services (CDS) and Regional Director for Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. At present, Rosemary serves on the board of directors of the National Cooperative Business Association, National Cooperative Grocers Association Development Cooperative, Thanexus, Inc., The Cooperative Foundation and Capital Impact Partners. Rosemary formerly served on the boards of directors of the National Cooperative Bank, the National Cooperative Grocers Association, Cooperative Development Institute and CooperationWorks.

Vernon Interviews Paul Hazen, Executive Director, U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council. Vernon and Paul discuss his career in the cooperative movement; the Community Purchasing Alliance, and how OCDC brings together organizations committed to building a more prosperous world through cooperatives. Paul Hazen became executive director of the Overseas Cooperative Development Council in February 2012. Previously, he represented one of the member organizations and served as OCDC's board chair and as a board member. One of his most-recent initiatives with OCDC is the formation of its Research Group, whose mission is to research, formulate and share effective strategies for the development, performance and growth of cooperatives in developing countries. Throughout his career, Hazen has championed the U.S. cooperative system, which encompasses 29,000 co-ops; generates $654 billion in revenue; and creates more than two million jobs, representing $75 billion in wages and benefits. U.S. co-ops include Ace Hardware, Land O'Lakes, Inc., Sunkist, REI and the Associated Press. Hazen helped establish federal legislation promoting rural co-op development, formed a national network of co-op development centers and initiated national research into the impact of co-ops on the U.S. economy. Active in cooperative matters at many levels, Hazen is the one of the founders of DotCoop the top-level domain for cooperatives around the world. He also serves on the boards of the National Cooperative Bank, Capital Impact Partners and the Community Purchasing Alliance Cooperative. Past board service includes the International Co-operative Alliance, Consumer Federation of American, Cooperative Development Foundation, Cooperative Business International and NCB Retail Finance Corporation.

Vernon interviews Terry D. Simonette, President and CEO of Capital Impact Partners (CIP). Vernon and Terry discuss how CIP uses it's CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution) Status to transforms underserved communities into strong, vibrant places of opportunity. Capital Impact Partners is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution which operates nationally to help underserved people build strong, vibrant communities. Mr. Simonette is responsible for the overall direction and execution of Capital Impact Partners strategic mission, financial management functions, and senior leadership development. While at Capital Impact Partners, he has promoted an insightful strategy that has steadily increased the size and scope of the organization. In addition to extensive community investment activities, under Mr. Simonette's stewardship, Capital Impact Partners has broadened its activities to include, nonprofit and cooperative capacity building, social innovation programs, and state and federal policy development. Throughout this expansion, Mr. Simonette has focused Capital Impact Partners' goals of escalating its tangible impact on the problems and issues of low-income communities across the country. To that end Capital Impact Partners has disbursed more than $2.0 billion in financial and development services to community-based organizations nationwide. To learn more about Capital Impact Partners visit www.capitalimpact.org/

Vernon interviews John Holdsclaw, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs at National Cooperative Bank (NCB). Vernon and John discuss the role NCB has played in building communities, and the tools that are used to sustain them. They also discuss many examples of how cooperatives were used to solve community problems by empowering the community within to create cooperatives, and take control of their destiny. Mr. Holdsclaw is NCB's first senior vice president of corporate affairs. He is charged with the development of new bank relationships and management of the bank's existing affiliations with Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs). He also promotes and advances social investment opportunities within the philanthropic arena and in product development, furthering NCB's commitment to mission banking. Prior to joining NCB, Mr. Holdsclaw served as the Director of Policy Development for Capital Impact Partners, a strategic partner of NCB. As Director of Policy at Capital Impact Partners, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of its government relations program and building a respected brand with other CDFIs.