Latinx Drink Company, Waku, Receives Line of Credit
Waku produces and sells horchata lojana, an ancient Andean herbal beverage that promotes a healthy gut. The Latino-owned business sources its herbal ingredients from small-scale indigenous…
From our CEO
Dear friends:
In reflecting upon my first year at Boston Impact Initiative, two things have stood out: our role in moving the impact investing field towards the arc of economic justice; and our responsibility to advance financial, social and political power among the New Majority – which we define as people who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latino/a and Asian.
Since 2013, Boston Impact Initiative has pioneered innovative ways to promote the flow of capital to small businesses as a tool for closing the racial wealth divide. While doing this, we have centered the values of solidarity and mutuality, bringing the relationships with our stakeholders into the center of our work. In 2021, we did this in our three core program areas: our local impact investing fund; the Integrated Capital Fund-Building Cohort; and our national field-building work.
As we navigated through another year impacted by COVID’s aftermath, our portfolio stood strong, showing resilience and adaptation to our ever-changing economy. As we look back at 2021, we are proud to have invested $1.4 million in 14 social enterprises, and a total of $7.1 million into 63 investments over the life of our fund. We strengthened our technical assistance program to provide the knowledge and social capital needed for our enterprises to stabilize and increase their impact. In October, we completed the Integrated Capital Fund-Building Cohort Program with participants from initiatives all across the U.S. and we are providing ongoing support to the Cohort. We expanded our national practitioner and funder learning by hosting numerous Integrated Capital Card Games.
Our mission of using integrated capital to build regenerative and equitable local economies has never been more important. The deep relationships with entrepreneurs, partners and communities who reflect the voices of the people we serve, is the foundation for advancing our mission. As we look to the future, we will focus on expanding our work with a second integrated capital fund and by influencing the field of impact investing through education, policy and practice that drives economic justice.
Warmly,
Betty Francisco
CEO
BII entrepreneurs grew and excelled
BII Fund makes impact investments into small businesses in Eastern Massachusetts in order to help close the racial wealth divide. We believe we can build a sustainable, inclusive and equitable economy by investing integrated capital in regenerative local enterprises that restore the productive capacity of communities of color.
BII has been an essential player in filling the gap between traditional lending & mission based capital. They’ve helped the Chelsea Business Foundation to execute on our mission; supporting folks that drive the economy. Because of their assistance, we’re able to put $1 million into the hands of the Latino and small businesses of Chelsea. BII’s ability to be creative, and provide innovative solutions allowed us to serve the essential businesses of Chelsea in one of the most dire moments of their existence, COVID.
Carlos Matos
CEO, Chelsea Business Foundation
This is a post archive
I am testing the idea of a post archive for our three impact stories. Do you like it?
Women Moving Markets: 3 Takeaways from a Boston Globe Panel featuring Social Finance CEO Tracy Palandjian
Tracy Palandjian joined Boston Impact Initiative CEO Betty Francisco discuss women, opportunity, and economic mobility. They agree on the following; (1) To expand opportunity for women, we must…
City of Boston and East Boston Neighborhood Trust Announce Acquisition and Expansion of Affordable Housing in East Boston
The deal will create the state’s first mixed-income Neighborhood Trust, establishing affordability of 114 units in perpetuity. Building on the City of Boston’s commitment to expanding…
“BII has been an essential player in filling the gap between traditional lending & mission based capital. They’ve helped the Chelsea Business Foundation to execute on our mission; supporting folks that drive the economy. Because of their assistance, we’re able to put $1 million into the hands of the Latino and small businesses of Chelsea. BII’s ability to be creative, and provide innovative solutions allowed us to serve the essential businesses of Chelsea in one of the most dire moments of their existence, COVID. This is regular pullquote.”
Carlos Matos
CEO, Chelsea Business Foundation
“BII has been an essential player in filling the gap between traditional lending & mission based capital. They’ve helped the Chelsea Business Foundation to execute on our mission; supporting folks that drive the economy. Because of their assistance, we’re able to put $1 million into the hands of the Latino and small businesses of Chelsea. BII’s ability to be creative, and provide innovative solutions allowed us to serve the essential businesses of Chelsea in one of the most dire moments of their existence, COVID. This is pullquote.”
Carlos Matos
CEO, Chelsea Business Foundation
BII has been an essential player in filling the gap between traditional lending & mission based capital. They’ve helped the Chelsea Business Foundation to execute on our mission; supporting folks that drive the economy. Because of their assistance, we’re able to put $1 million into the hands of the Latino and small businesses of Chelsea. BII’s ability to be creative, and provide innovative solutions allowed us to serve the essential businesses of Chelsea in one of the most dire moments of their existence, COVID. This is quote mode FYI.
Carlos Matos
CEO, Chelsea Business Foundation
Portfolio highlights
This is just a demonstration of what it might look like if we typed text saying that the portfolio did exceedingly well in 2022 and wow aren’t they amazing and this is total placeholder text for you to see.
Portfolio highlights
Sunwealth was named to the 2021 ImpactAssets 50, a national leading list of impact fund managers. They were also named Member Company of the Year by Solar Energy and Business Association of New England (SEBANE) for their work bringing solar access and green jobs to our communities.
CERO Cooperative won two large university composting contracts: Northeastern University and Boston University. These partnerships helped them divert over 5,000 tons of food waste from landfills.
Meetcaregivers raised over $1 million from Mass Mutual’s Catalyst Fund and other investors, making CEO Florence Furaha one of relatively few Black women to raise over $1 million in 2021.
Caribbean Integration Community Development opened its first affordable housing development to residents. The majority of residents at Cote Village in Mattapan make 60% or less of the area median income (AMI).
BII has been an essential player in filling the gap between traditional lending & mission based capital. They’ve helped the Chelsea Business Foundation to execute on our mission; supporting folks that drive the economy. Because of their assistance, we’re able to put $1 million into the hands of the Latino and small businesses of Chelsea. BII’s ability to be creative, and provide innovative solutions allowed us to serve the essential businesses of Chelsea in one of the most dire moments of their existence, COVID.
Carlos Matos
Chelsea Business Foundation
I believe in social justice and racial equality and I am on the BII board because I think BII is great.
Rose Felix Cratsley
BII Board Member
There are two types of gallery blocks, both of which can be made clickable, but as far as I can tell, they can’t be made to be continuously clickable to go through the whole thing, just one by one.
Here is the other gallery type.
Below I tried to use the testimonial slider as a slideshow without testimonials. It didn’t quite work, but it gives you an idea of what a slider could look like.
