Calvert Foundation

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[edit] Organization Information

Calvert Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization specializing in Community Investment, and has operated for over ten years. Calvert Foundation utilizes investment capital, rather than conventional philanthropy, to create a model that enables nonprofits and social enterprises to address social problems.

Calvert Foundation has $82 million invested in 195 community organizations around the world. All of this money is working to serve those who are frequently ignored by traditional capital markets.

[edit] Financial Products

  • Community Investment Note- allows investors to receive a high social return on investment directing their funds into nonprofits and other community organizations while earnning interest
  • Calvert Giving Fund - Advertised as a socially responsible donor advised fund
  • GiftShare- Revolving Donation that can be continuously recycled and reloaned to groups in need of capital support

[edit] Social Impact

Calvert Foundation operates in 106 countries. Its operations include affordable housing, microcredit, social enterprises, community development, fair trade coffee. 35% of its investment is international with 65% of the investment working with in the United States to bring capital to traditionally underserved communities. In the past 10 years Calvert Foundation has helped build 6,841 affordable homes, created 124,755 jobs and financed 7,241 community facilities.

[edit] Awards

  • 2007 Fast Company Social Capitalist Award
  • Wachovia's Corporate Excellence Award for Opportunity Finance
  • 2006 Fast Company Social Capitalist Award; named as one of the Top 25 organizations Changing the World

[edit] History

The Calvert Family of Mutual Funds, is a separate and for-profit investment firm. In February 1988, the New York Times ran a long story on Grameen Bank. Terry Mollner, a Calvert Board member, read the article and was inspired to begin piloting community investments as part of Calvert’s mutual fund investments.

In 1990 the shareholders of the Calvert Social Investment Fund voted to place up to 1% of the assets of the mutual fund in below-market investments in local nonprofit financial intermediaries to support micro-credit, low-income housing, small business and other community development initiatives. Today this community investment component has been introduced into five Calvert Mutual Fund portfolios.

Based on the success of this experience, in 1995 the Calvert Social Investment Foundation (Calvert Foundation) was launched as a separate 501(c)3 with the support of the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Mott Foundation, to popularize community investment as a new asset class. To realize this goal, Calvert Foundation launched the Calvert Community Investment Note program.

Calvert, the fund company, played a critical role in helping Calvert Foundation to develop the legal infrastructure for the sale and distribution of Community Investment Notes, and continues to provide ongoing technical support, office space, and credit enhancements that support the Foundation. Combined Calvert Mutual Fund is the single largest investor in Community Investment Notes program, comprising approximately one-fourth of Calvert's total portfolio.

Since the launch of the Community Investment Note in 1995, Calvert Foundation has launched many investment and philanthropic tools, all designed to maximize the flow of investment capital to underserved communities.

[edit] References

Nonprofits; Community Investing Now Simplified, Streamlined for Individual, Institutional Investors.]
To Market To Market, Microenterprise America
Theories of Change

[edit] External link

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