News

Reinvestment Fund announced the launch of a new Clean Energy Fund, which will provide financing for small and mid-sized projects implementing energy efficiency, renewable energy and other clean energy technologies that otherwise have limited access to traditional capital markets. First capital for the Fund comes from a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc., one of the world’s leading financial services companies, which is providing $10 million in debt and Reinvestment Fund, which is investing $2.5 million.

The Fund has already committed its first loan to Affordable Community Energy Services Company (ACE) to perform comprehensive energy efficiency and water conservation projects for Mercy Housing in California, the nation’s largest nonprofit owner of low-income housing. The $6 million project will benefit 6,000 affordable housing units in 90 multifamily residential buildings in California.

Reinvestment Fund received a $4.5 million Capital Magnet Fund award from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund. The award was part of $120 million awarded to 40 community development financial institutions and housing nonprofits. Reinvestment Fund plans to use the award to address affordable housing challenges by providing capital to housing projects serving high-need communities and relieving housing cost burdens for low-income families.

Reinvestment Fund announced today that its ‘AA’ issuer credit rating has been affirmed by S&P Global Ratings. Reinvestment Fund is a social enterprise lending organization and among a handful of such institutions that has been rated by S&P Global Ratings. This rating is a powerful recognition of Reinvestment Fund’s demonstrated ability to meet its financial commitments through the strategic investment of capital to revitalize struggling communities.

Across the country, nearly 40 million Americans live in rural and urban neighborhoods where easy access to affordable, high-quality, and healthy food is out of reach. A new bill, introduced by Representatives Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Dwight Evans (D-PA), addresses this critical issue by bolstering an existing program that has demonstrated success in improving access to healthy foods and spurring economic revitalization in underserved communities. The “Healthy Food Financing Initiative Reauthorization Act” would reauthorize the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) program at United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Rural Development, originally established at the agency in the Agricultural Act of 2014.

Reinvestment Fund received a $70 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation award today as part of the 14^th round of awards announced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund. Reinvestment Fund will use its award to finance high-impact projects that drive economic opportunity in struggling communities across the nation. Reinvestment Fund is among 73 awardees who received a total of $3.5 billion in awards this round.

Reinvestment Fund today announced two exemplary nonprofits as the winners of its annual Community Champion Award. The Common Market Georgia, based in East Point, Georgia and beGirl.World, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received grant awards in support of their mission.

“We are delighted to honor these organizations that in many ways reflect our own values as an organization that is committed to creating opportunity for low-income communities,” said Amanda High, Reinvestment Fund’s Chief of Strategic Initiatives. “This unique award program is just in its second year but offers a small way for our staff to shine a light on outstanding local organizations that they deeply care about.”

The Community Champion Award is small grants program that recognizes nonprofit organizations that are aligned with Reinvestment Fund’s own mission. Awardees are selected by an appointed staff committee that makes its selection from a pool of organizations nominated by staff. The selection is approved by Reinvestment Fund’s Community Advisory Board.

First Step Staffing is a nonprofit social enterprise based in Atlanta. Founded in 2007, First Step’s mission is to secure sustainable income for individuals transitioning out of homelessness, including veterans, re-entering citizens, and others with significant barriers to employment. With financing from several organizations, including Reinvestment Fund, First Step is expanding to Philadelphia.

As part of this effort, First Step has acquired a portion of the Philadelphia-based division of On Time Staffing—a for-profit staffing company founded 18 years ago specializing in warehouse, packaging, and manufacturing jobs—which will now become part of First Step’s nonprofit operations. First Step will collaborate with On Time Staffing, the City of Philadelphia, and other local social service providers to transition the approximately 700 acquired staffing jobs to serve the region’s homeless and at-risk men and women. In the first 12 months of operation in Philadelphia, First Step expects to employ 500 homeless men and women in the area and grow to serve more than 1,000 by year three.

Reinvestment Fund’s CEO joins leaders from some of the largest nonprofit CDFIs to urge Congress to preserve New Markets Tax Credits.

Congress passed the NMTC in 2000 as part of a bipartisan effort to stimulate investment and economic growth in low-income cities, towns and rural areas that struggle to attract the capital needed to build new businesses and create jobs. The NMTC offers private investors a tax incentive for investing in businesses or economic development projects located in the nation’s highest-need communities—and, very importantly, it leverages those investment dollars to bring in more capital from other sources.