Please complete the following application by April 6th (12:00am PST) to be considered for a one (1) year grant from Capital Impact Partners and The National Cooperative Bank. This grant initiative ($25,000-$50,000) will fund projects educating new audiences on the impact and potential of the cooperative model to disrupt income inequality, steward community ownership, and create strong, vibrant places of opportunity. Final decisions and notifications will be made by April 15th.
If you have further questions, please contact Alison Powers at apowers@capitalimpact.org
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) and Capital Impact Partners (CIP) (together the “Partners”) are issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify a consultant or consulting team to conduct research to support the Catalyzing Finance for Racial Equity (CFRE) project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Catalyzing Finance for Racial Equity project is a partnership between both organizations that seeks to identify how we as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) can better incorporate racial equity into our work to support economic justice and reduce inequities. Additional information about our organizations, project and scope of services are provided below.
NFF and CIP are decades-old Community Development Financial Institutions with a long-standing commitment to supporting low-income communities. In more recent years, both organizations have explicitly recognized the opportunity to expand our impact even more if we address structural racism in our work. The imperative has been embraced as a leading issue by the heads of both organizations and supported by our Boards. We have also engaged staff and partners in the beginning to build the awareness, structures and actions in the area of racial equity.
BACKGROUND
The Partners have embarked on a 2-year project to identify ways to use their resources, particularly capital resources, to address health inequities in select community or communities. Both organizations have long track records financing organizations that provide primary and behavioral care, specifically federally qualified health centers, in addition to substance use programs. They have also financed organizations that support the social determinants of health, including housing, healthy foods, education, and workforce development, among others. In addition, while both organizations work nationally, they are focusing this work on the San Francisco Bay Area, where both organizations have offices, staff and portfolios of work.
The major outcome of this work is the identification of capacity building support and capital products that can advance positive health outcomes in communities of color.
Additional outcomes of the CFRE project include documents and tools that can help other CDFIs learn from our experience:
- Documentation of the process by which identification of capacity and capital products was determined
- Creation of a replicable framework, such as a logic model, roadmap, or other shareable tool that helps CDFIs how to drive more equitable outcomes
- Articulation of the ways that CDFIs like CIP and NFF has advanced health equity as a way to build awareness
- Cultivation of relationships and partnerships with those who participated in the process (e.g., interviewees) to help hold our organizations accountable
It is the expectation that the outcomes of this work can be applied across sectors to help community development finance institutions identify and drive capital and capacity toward proven solutions that advance equity and justice.
The complete Request for Proposals can be found here.