CMF’s place-based impact investing collaboration work with members has put Michigan in the national spotlight in a series of a new briefs produced by the Urban Institute and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE).

Place-based impact investing is defined in the briefs as “the local deployment of impact capital, or investments made with the intent to yield a financial return as well as a social or environmental return.”

The series highlights work underway in Michigan, Baltimore, Chicago and New York to provide emerging lessons about the roles of foundations and other collaborators in this space. The brief featuring CMF, Place-Based Impact Investing Ecosystems: Building a Collaboration to Boost Your Effectiveness “illustrates the value of building an ecosystem and collaborating to leverage a variety of types of capital from key stakeholders in that ecosystem.”

The journey leading to the creation of the Michigan Collaborative is highlighted as an example of a collaboration in an ecosystem.

“CMF’s work was inspired and enriched by ecosystem actors working together under the leadership of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to create the Michigan Good Food Fund, a $30 million public-private partnership loan fund begun in 2015 that provides financing to ‘good food’ enterprises that benefit underserved communities across Michigan,” the brief states.

As the brief shares, this work began in 2013 for CMF as we sought to discover opportunities for field-building and learning. CMF assessed the current system by conducting a formal statewide ecosystem landscape scan and needs assessment of CMF members.  

The brief shares the Michigan ecosystem journey to date:

• In 2015 CMF created a working group to explore and support impact investing on-ramps.

• CMF began work to create an impact investing fund.

• CMF learned many lessons through this work which helped CMF champion the development of additional benefits to CMF members not available to other investors through a publicly traded fund managed by Community Capital Management, the Michigan Collaborative, which launched in 2017. These benefits include significantly lower minimum investments ($100,000 vs. $500,000), the ability to target funds by impact area or to a county-level and a social impact reporting work group.

• In 2016, CMF announced the appointment of Jennifer Oertel as our impact investing expert in residence and she has since devoted hundreds of hours to supporting members in their unique impact investing journeys.

Through the Michigan Collaborative an additional $55 million has been targeted for investment in Michigan, adding to the $145 million already invested through the fund in Michigan. The investments support home mortgages for low- and moderate-income borrowers, enterprise development and job creation, statewide home ownership and down payment assistance, economic development, environmental sustainability, neighborhood revitalization and healthy communities. The collaborative continues to attract more dollars for investment. 

The brief also provides strategies to accelerate successful collaborations in place-based impact investing.

Recommendations at a glance:

• Foster equity and inclusion: Consider proactive outreach to more diverse networks, explore implicit bias training and focus on open, honest equity conversations to ensure diversity across the ecosystem.

• Amplify the community’s voice: Engage community members with different perspectives in building and participating in the ecosystem.

• Find champions: Engage with other impact investing ecosystems to learn about work underway. Seek out champions within each organization in your ecosystem with decision-making power who can be advocates for the work.

Later this year we will take a closer look at collaborative, place-based impact investing happening on the ground in rural and urban communities across Michigan as CMF debuts a new impact investing video series featuring CMF members at work. There are foundations of all sizes that are making place-based impact investments in the areas of economic development, affordable housing and beyond.

Want more?

MIE and the Urban Institute are hosting a webinar on the briefs on June 27.

Connect with CMF’s impact investing resources and work.

Check out the new blog launched by Jennifer Oertel, CMF’s impact investing expert in residence: The A to Z of Impact Investing.