Reinvestment News Spring 2022

Lumina Ventures Invests in HBCUs

Last quarter, Reinvestment Fund welcomed the inaugural investment into its new $25 million HBCU Brilliance Fund to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Its first program-related investment loan and its largest investment to date, Lumina Ventures’ $2 million commitment will help strengthen the financial health of of HBCUs as well as fund campus projects.

Founded after the Civil War in response to America’s extreme segregationist education practices, HBCUs have always been beacons of the arts, politics, innovation, and civic engagement for Black communities. However, these Black-led institutions have remained notoriously underfunded largely due to systemic racism. Through the HBCU Brilliance Fund, which is actively seeking additional investments, Reinvestment Fund hopes to help shift how these institutions are valued and to get HBCUs the resources needed to better serve their students, faculty, and staff, and deepen their community impact.

The HBCU Brilliance Fund is part of Reinvestment Fund’s three-pronged approach to supporting the schools: 1) convening industry experts and stakeholders to improve cross-sector collaboration; 2) committing funding to provide affordable, flexible, mission-driven debt capital; and 3) advancing the public policy framework to advocate for equitable funding. Since 2018, Reinvestment Fund has loaned almost $35 million to HBCUs.

Investing in Youth and Their Potential

Philadelphia Youth Basketball (PYB) is a sports-based youth development and community empowerment organization that creates opportunities for young people to reach their full potential as students, athletes, and positive leaders. PYB utilizes a holistic approach to youth development by leveraging the iconic sport of basketball to provide positive coaching and mentorship, academic enrichment, health and wellness, and leadership development opportunities. Through its core programs based in North and West Philadelphia, PYB primarily serves middle and high school aged youth from some of the city’s most underserved and under-resourced families and communities.

Reinvestment Fund is providing New Markets Tax Credit financing to help PYB develop a new home that will serve thousands more on an annual basis. Named the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center, PYB’s new 100K square foot world-class facility will be in Philadelphia’s Nicetown neighborhood. PYB’s center will not only include many features such as basketball courts, flexible classroom and event space, and a healthy food commissary, but will also create a hub for jobs and community-serving tenants such as certified financial planners, physical therapists, and mental health therapists – many of which are businesses and vendors owned by people of color and/or women.

Capitalizing Child Care

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role that child care plays in supporting the broader economy. But expanding access to high-quality care often requires capital, for new facilities or intensive renovations that bring buildings up to modern standards. A collaborative project between the National Children’s Facilities Network (NCFN) and Reinvestment Fund aimed to shed light on access to capital in the child care industry and the community ecosystem that is necessary to support a thriving sector.

The study analyzed three major sources of funding for child care businesses: Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), and philanthropic support from foundations. The findings point to major gaps in the nation’s financial infrastructure and the significant challenges that child care providers face when they seek capital for their businesses. As part of the report Reinvestment Fund created an interactive mapping tool to help stakeholders identify and measure the sources of funding for child care that exist in their communities. Read the full study.

News & Resources

• Reinvestment fund welcomes new staff: Halima Miha, Meghan Maguire, Courtney Stewart, Christina Barrett, Nolena Ridgeway, Austin Vasko, Troy Spence, and Marvin Vedar.
• ICYMI: The Fourth Annual Nowak Memorial Lecture took place in late April featuring a discussion on investing in arts & culture to build community. A recording of the lecture is now available!
• Reinvestment Fund has been selected to the ImpactAssets 50 2022, an annual listing of private capital fund managers delivering social and environmental impact, as well as financial returns.
• Reinvestment Fund’s Ira Goldstein is the keynote speaker at the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency’s Commonwealth Housing Forum on May 11/12 in Harrisburg. Register to attend and hear findings from our new report “Barriers to Homeownership.”
• The Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits features a Reinvestment Fund transaction in Atlanta with ANDP that shows the value of using NMTCs to increase homeownership. The project leveraged NMTC to create more than 200 metro homes in metro Atlanta.
• Brookings Institution’s Dr. Andre Perry and Reinvestment Fund’s Yonina Gray write that it’s time to uplift Black cities by investing in HBCUs in the Grio.
• The Richmond Memorial Health Foundation looks at how Reinvestment Fund’s Market Value Analysis is documenting housing trends in the Richmond region, which has seen a sudden and sharp decline in homes most people can afford. As prices rise, more residents are shut out.
• The Clay Studio celebrated the grand opening of its new, state-of-the-art ceramic facility in Philadelphia. Reinvestment Fund partnered with LISC Philadelphia, PIDC and Wells Fargo to finance the space which increases their ability to serve the local community.
• For CDFIs, investing in impact-driven women-led businesses goes far past the individual—to investing in whole communities across sectors. Reinvestment Fund’s Meghan Maguire shares some examples from our portfolio in the Saporta Report.
• A new video from Nuveen features Remark Glass, a zero-waste certified, woman-owned business focused on innovative and creative glass reuse. Remark Glass is in the Bok Building in Philadelphia, which offers affordable workspaces for local entrepreneurs. We are proud to be part of the building’s financing.
• Invest Health announced $173,000 in grant awards to collaboration teams of cities. The awards support opportunities to deepen network connections and advance work at the intersection of community development and health.
• Reinvestment Fund joined the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection at the Leon H. Sullivan Human Services Center in Philadelphia to celebrate a $30 million milestone in energy financing. The Sullivan Center received $700K for energy upgrades from the program.