Transforming communities, improving lives through investment.

March 3, 2011 11:43 AM By Lisa Hall, President and CEO, Calvert Foundation

Recently in Chicago, I had the wonderful opportunity to gather with Citi CEO Vikram Pandit and representatives from local community organizations in the kitchen of Inspiration Corporation's new facility bordering Garfield Park. The facility, which is LEED-certified, is flooded in natural light, offers a great view of the park, and depends on solar panels for power and to heat its water.

Photo by Sam Levitan for Calvert Foundation. L to R: Calvin Holmes, president of CCLF; Lisa Hall, President and CEO of Calvert Foundation; Trinity Logue, president of IFF; Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citi; and Joe Neri, CEO of IFF.

Amid bright, freshly painted walls and tables made of recycled barn wood, the head manager, Anthony, told us his story. It was his love of cooking that led him to Inspiration Kitchens, a 13-week restaurant skills training program designed to help disadvantaged individuals get jobs in the food service industry. It has been six years since then, and after a series of positions with increasing amounts of responsibility within the organization, Anthony is gearing up to open Inspiration's new facility to the public in the next few weeks.

Inspiration Corporation is the type of organization supported by Community Development Financial Institutions -- known as CDFIs -- which are private, non-governmental organizations that have for many years funded essential community services when no one else would. CDFIs build affordable housing, create and retain jobs, finance small and local businesses, and make available social services such as shelter, daycare, and meals. To accomplish these things, CDFIs rely on banks, foundations, and other investors, as well as grant and government funding.

Last May, Calvert Foundation was thrilled to join with Citi and CDFI industry trade group Opportunity Finance Network to create a fund that makes flexible and affordable financing available to CDFIs. The resulting Communities at Work Fund™ -- managed by Calvert Foundation's wholly owned subsidiary Community Investment Partners -- has since made investments in groups like IFF, a regional organization based in Chicago that provided financing to Inspiration Corporation for its new facility and the Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF), which finances social enterprises such as Growing Home, an organic urban farm that hires and trains homeless, formerly incarcerated and otherwise disadvantaged individuals, like Inspiration Kitchens.

Since its launch less than one year ago, the Communities at Work Fund has approved over $100 million in loans to more than 20 CDFIs across the country, serving low-income populations in nearly all 50 states. Citi had the foresight to see that if it could bring the right players together, it could help create jobs and opportunity on a scale larger than we at Calvert Foundation could have made possible on our own.

Calvert Foundation is also a CDFI, and was an early investor in other CDFIs, as well as affordable housing developers, charter schools, microfinance institutions, Fair Trade coffee co-ops and more. For the past 15 years, we have worked just as hard at popularizing the idea of investing in communities as we have on growing our own organization. The unique value we provide is in the connections we make -- as evidenced by the success of the Communities at Work Fund.

In my new role as the President and CEO of Calvert Foundation, I also feel privileged to be working in this industry and to know that my every day work helps to transform communities and gives people like Anthony more opportunities. I wish every socially-motivated investor could have this experience. I am excited for growth in new sectors -- healthcare, education, and "greening" communities -- and look forward to continuing our important work in turning disadvantaged neighborhoods into empowered and thriving communities.