WINTER 2022 / REAL-LEADERS.COM 53 REDUCED INEQUALITIES OPEN ROAD ALLIANCE EMERGING IMPACT FUND MANAGER Eliminates funding delays and accelerates growth for impact-first companies. Provides short-term bridge loans and fast, flexible, and affordable financing to companies across geographies and sectors facing discrete, unforeseen financing gaps that threaten to derail their work. Open Road has provided $70 million to 300+ impact companies, keeping $800 million+ of impact on track. From installing mini-grids in West Africa to addressing the challenges of financial inclusion in Colombia, Open Road’s loans are designed to ensure that companies can continue to scale while addressing the world’s greatest challenges, such as climate change and inequality. OpenRoadAlliance.org REINVESTMENT FUND A mission-driven financial institution committed to making communities work for all people. Ensures that people in all communities have essential opportunities: affordable places to live, access to nutritious food and health care, schools where their children can succeed, and strong, local businesses that support quality jobs. It identifies ways to deliver for communities who have historically been excluded from access to capital — through research and analysis, community-led partnerships, and capacity building and capital access. Together with its partners and investors, it sparks and sustains local, equitable, and green economic growth within US communities. Reinvestment.com SEED COMMONS Combats increasing inequality by moving resources to cooperatively owned and democratically controlled enterprises in marginalized communities. This ensures that investment benefits are widely distributed to more people who own and control these assets in ways that are accountable to their communities. Seed Commons works by taking in investment as a single fund, leveraging its size and unity to secure desirable financial terms, then sharing that capital for local deployment by and for communities. For example, Cameron Cordon, a chef of more than 20 years, was laid off due to the pandemic's economic impact. Deciding to start a restaurant, he tried three times for a business grant— to no avail. A loan from Seed Commons established a family-led, worker-owned company that now employs five people. SeedCommons.org LAUREN GRATTAN, COFOUNDER Launched in 2016 and a Certified B Corporation, MDF is cofounded and coowned by a woman of color. “I like to think about risk in terms of what could go right,” says Lauren Grattan, cofounder and chief community officer. “Instead of seeing downside risk in overlooked communities, I see opportunity. That feeds into how we do our underwriting and how we develop new impact funds.” As of May 2022, MDF has $29 million in assets under management and $32.6 million under administration, supporting a combined $61.9 million of impact-oriented capital. Across all strategies and transactions, MDF has helped flow nearly $37 million to communities. In 2021, its flagship, place-based strategy Advance saw 88% of capital go to organizations owned or led by people of color. As of May, 100% of new 2022 Advance loans have supported BIPOC borrowers. One of its initiatives is The Regenerative Harvest Strategy, which provides supply chain financing for businesses advancing regenerative agriculture and food systems, and supports overlooked communities. It's the first private lender approved to access the California IBank small business loan guarantee program. MissionDrivenFinance.com MISSION DRIVEN FINANCE “I like to think about risk in terms of what could go right. Instead of seeing downside risk in overlooked communities, I see opportunity.” — LAUREN GRATTAN, MISSION DRIVEN FINANCE INNOVATIVE IMPACT FUND MANAGERS 2022 IN COLLABORATION WITH
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