Realize Impact

Now recruiting for our Board of Directors and our Investment Committee! Interested in one or both of these roles with a dynamic, high-growth nonprofit in the impact investing arena? Learn more and apply here: * Board of Directors: https://lnkd.in/eEhqSV5H * Investment Committee: https://lnkd.in/eQwfKSFU Despite our audacious use of AI-generated imagery in this post, rest assured our Board and IC meetings are unlikely to include potted plants or take place in person. But when we do gather, coffee/tea/water and a nice infographic are a must. #impinv #impactinvesting #nonprofit #nonprofitboard #governance #investmentcommittee #boardrecruitment #boardofdirectors #nonprofitleadership Dr. Stephanie Gripne, 'Luni' Libes, Brian Howe, Matt Eldridge, Antoinette Klatzky, Ebony Perkins, Suneela Jain, Piper Bonacquist, Tara Joshi.

Calling all impact investors... If you haven't already responded to Calvert Impact 's annual impact investing survey, now's your chance! Closes later next week. Takes <5 min and results will be shared. https://lnkd.in/gam5KkVg

We're hiring an Associate! Application deadline: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, final deadline is April 19 Location: Remote, with preference for Seattle metro area Start Date: Q2 2024 Total compensation including benefits (see below for details): $66,850-$87,650 Benefits: Flexible PTO, 401k company match, Health Reimbursement Arrangement, Section 127 Qualified Educational Assistance Program (student loan repayment/tuition assistance) You can find the full job description and instructions for applying at https://lnkd.in/gsk2xkBu

An important new role at one of Realize Impact's most valued, longstanding partners, Seattle Foundation: Director of Social Impact Investing. Please help spread the word. #impactinvesting #impinv #communityfoundations

Do you know an African business that restores degraded land and turns a profit? 🌳 💵 They can apply to the #LandAccelerator, a training and mentorship program for budding businesses in the restoration economy. Since 2018, we've already supported 100s of champions - and we'll be assisting 100s more this year. The best part? #TerraFund for #AFR100 makes debt and equity investments in the program's graduates. We've already invested in 24 companies, and we will be supporting dozens more. Don't miss this opportunity! Apply today on TerraMatch: https://bit.ly/3UsyeiB

It is with immense joy and gratitude that I can introduce you to the second cohort of TerraFund for AFR100. Meet them all at: https://bit.ly/47y1qaG Here is our story. Founded in September 2021 on a strong partnership between World Resources Institute, One Tree Planted, and Realize Impact, TerraFund has grown from 1.5 people to a robust team of 50+ experts that are obsessed with delivering finance to Africa's land restoration champions, $50,000 to $500,000 at a time. Since we made our first investments in the "Top 100" champions in May 2022, we've seen serious progress: The reported data collected through TerraMatch and checked against our monitoring, reporting, and verification framework indicates that $15 million has transformed into 12.5 million trees planted, paid work for 36,000 people, and benefits for 202,000 more farmers and their neighbors. This first cohort has piloted our reporting system, helped us improve project management process, and, in one case, even built a data collection app with our team. As they continue to actively restore land in 2024 and communicate their progress for another 4 years, we are excited to continuing learning from them. But we couldn't stop there. With funding from the Bezos Earth Fund and The Audacious Project through the Restore Local project, we are diving deep into three of the continent's iconic landscapes: Kenya's Greater Rift Valley, the Ghana Cocoa Belt, and the Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin of Burundi, DRC, and Rwanda. By concentrating this new round of investment, we are attempting to kickstart restoration economies, in conjunction with our colleagues training champions, securing a supportive policy environment for them, and monitoring their progress. After we opened the application cycle on TerraMatch in May, 601 organizations raised their hands, and we spent 9 months narrowing down the list to our 92 most promising champions, our "Landscapes" cohort. It wasn't easy for them: They submitted an expression of interest, received feedback, sent in a full application, received feedback again, joined us for an interview, were scrutinized by government experts, and survived marathon selection meetings where our teams picked the final list. These 78 non-profits and 14 enterprises represent the best that we have found so far, a mixed portfolio that varies as widely as a tiny NGO led by three ambitious women to a medium-scale juice processing company. Through 2030, they are expected to grow 12.7 million trees, restore 47,000 hectares, create 52,000 jobs, and benefit 580,000 people through 2030. The next step is to train the new cohort on the ins-and-outs of reporting and then verifying that information with data from Land & Carbon Lab and boots-on-the-ground field visits. I am especially thrilled that I can spend the next three weeks with our team, where we will meet 200+ representatives of our champions during our in-person onboarding workshops. Onward!

Proud to be a part of this team in support of the great work of Shekina and other TerraFund investees.

Some good news for a Monday: In 2021, we had an idea at TerraFund for AFR100. A company that restores land, has a solid business model, and has growing revenue can pay back a loan if the terms are favorable. They don't need a grant to expand their business. They need an investor who believes in their work – and offers terms that are concessional enough to encourage repayment while not loose enough to scare away additional investors. In our first 20 loans, we've had some hard moments, including a coup in Niger, a civil war in Sudan, and a bankruptcy. The lows can be low. But the highs are unmatched. After months of consistent repayments and impact reports, we extended an additional loan to Shekina Enterprise, a Rwandan company that processes cassava leaves into a nutritious, shelf-stable powder that they sell locally and export. We first met them at the Land Accelerator training program in 2018, and they became one of TerraFund's first borrowers in 2022. They will use this new flexible capital to work with more farmers and purchase more processing machinery – helping them grow their revenue even faster and restore more land. The most exciting part is that all of this capital that we are re-investing in Shekina – every cent – came from the more than $600,000 that our borrowers have sent back to us since May 2022. What started with an idea has become a real revolving loan fund, thanks to our partner Realize Impact. African enterprises need *investment* beyond grants to create jobs and put more money in the pockets of farmers. I am so thrilled that we get to support PIERRE DAMIEN MBATEZIMANA and Dr Kasema Romain at Shekina in their mission, and check out their work in this video.

Activate your endowment for donor advised fund or family foundation endowment for impact. You can invest in outstanding social enterprises with Beneficial Returns, and build the future we all imagine today. #YourMoneyCanDoMore Learn more at www.beneficialreturns.com. #socialenterprise #impactinvesting #philanthropy #donoradvisedfund #poverty