2021 continues the rapid pace of donations, recommendations, and investments through Realize Impact’s philanthropic investment service. $1.5 million so far, not yet five months into the new year. We announced the 100th investor only 45 days ago, barely a year after launching the service. Where is all this money going? Either directly into impactful companies or indirectly to them via impact...
“The Sunday Family and I are forever grateful for the 86Fund, the work they do, and the opportunity they’ve given us. With their grant money, our team has been able to keep regular working hours and we were even able to bring two team members back to work. In these difficult times, it is grant and emergency fund programs like the 86Fund that are helping keep restaurants like ours alive, and we...
One year and a few weeks after launching our philanthropic investment service, the 100th investor has made a donation and recommended an investment. And before we could tout that milestone, the 101st donation arrived as a gift of appreciated shares. The 100th investor recommended an opportunity managed by Mission Driven Finance, to be invested in Nano PharmaSolutions. The 99th investor...
What can a few dozen Microsoft alumni do over a weekend to help end the pandemic? They can and did create a website to track where residents of Washington State can schedule their vaccine appointments, www.COVIDWA.com From their FAQ: We are a rapidly-growing volunteer group with over 70 members from WA State and around the world. We were frustrated at how long it took to try each vaccination...
February 2020, just before the pandemic was daily news, Realize Impact launched it’s philanthropic investment service. At the time we had just one signed partner, Seattle Foundation. In February we quietly launched, informing just a few people in the impact investing industry. By June, over $1.1 million of capital had flowed through the service from a few dozen donor/investors into five...
Ada Developers Academy and Community Credit Lab partnered to focus on increasing equity in tech. Ada Developers Academy is a non-profit, tuition-free coding school for women and gender diverse adults. Ada focuses on serving low income people, underrepresented minorities, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Seattle and the surrounding region. Community Credit Lab provides community-funded, 0%...
The 86Fund is an emergency fund that aids independent restaurants—with priority given to those owned by women and minorities—facing unprecedented hardship during the global pandemic. Support Restaurants According to Yelp, as reported in ReBusinessonline in September, 61 percent of San Francisco restaurants that closed due to COVID will not reopen. A gift through the 86Fund will provide vital...
In addition to our off-the-shelf service that lets anyone turn philanthropic capital into an impact investment, this year Realize Impact now also operates three philanthropic investment funds for three partners. The Decarbon8-US fund is for those who believe in the power of entrepreneurship and technology and wonder what more they can do to mitigate climate change. Created in partnership...
Back in May, at the start of the pandemic, the U.S. SBA rolled out the Paycheck Protection Program (a.k.a. the PPP). It was big news. What we also learned then was that most of this money wasn’t going into the hands of the small, Main Street businesses due to a host of systemic issues. One unspoken issue was that lenders could only lend the money they had in their reserves. The government...
Denkyem provides access to affordable loans for black-owned businesses in the Puget Sound region (a.k.a. the Seattle Metropolitan Area). The loan terms are simple and unique: This is a black-owned business serving black-owned businesses, started in partnership with one of Seattle’s most active early-stage investors: Realize Impact provided a recoverable grant to Denkyem, providing them some...