Community Investment Partners
Community decision-making is a key part of our strategy
We can’t do this on our own! We know that there are many great organizations and networks working in communities across the country right now who deeply understand community needs and are responding to them. Let’s work together! We’re looking to find some community investment partners interested in a long-term relationship with us to help deliver the SFF mandate. Community decision-making is a key part of our strategy, reflecting our commitment to supporting locally based solutions.
Timing and Scope
We’re expecting to make our first decisions around community investment partners in in the first half of 2024 – depending on how advanced the concepts are that we receive. We will start reaching out in January and expect to hold iterative conversations over a few months to build up strong partnerships with solid, developed strategies. We expect to bring on several new partners a year for the next few years. We expect to invest up to 20% of our mandate with community investment partners who will take on, manage and deploy capital.
Submission deadline: January 7
Decisions: spring 2024
There will be additional submission rounds in 2024.
What We’re Looking For
As we read through submissions, we’ll be looking to see how well the proposal meets our broad terms for a community investment partner and for an investment strategy.
Community Investment Partner
- Mission-driven community organization
- Has the capacity, passion and knowledge to deliver real, lasting positive outcomes
Investment Strategy
- Place-based, local strategy
- Has clear impact thesis
- Aims to create lasting positive long-term impact in the community (in terms of increased social equity and sustainable development). Strategies to fund short-term rapid-response projects will not be considered.
- Informed by community needs or developed through community participation
- Investment decisions will be made locally – by the community investment partner or community members
- Looking to take on investment in the range of $500,000 – $10 million, with a preference towards opportunities in the middle of that range. Those numbers sound big to some organizations, small to others! We recognize that. We’re flexible about the range but wanted to set out our thinking on it before you submit a partnership form.
- Has a financial return built into it. With this stream of capital, we are investing with repayable capital and not grant capital. Generally, we are expecting strategies to deliver a targeted financial return of 3-5% a year.
Instructions
We ask that all organizations interested in being a community investment partner answer these questions. Interested but not sure this is right for you? Let’s talk! We’re happy to answer questions during a Tuesday chat. Know an organization that would be a great community investment partner? Please share this webpage with them.
In your submission, please tell us about your organization and your investment strategy, answering as many of the questions below as you can. You may fill in this webform directly or upload your answers in a format that is convenient for you – such as PDF, audio file or video file.