Capital Impact Partners (CIP) is a nonprofit investment firm that functions as a community development financial institution. CIP provides credit and other services to low-income markets and populations in the United States. 1
CIP is one of the largest community development financial institutions in the United States. The firm designs programs to address “systemic poverty” and to create economic equity in low-income communities in the country. CIP frequently receives grants from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI Fund). 1
Activities
Low-Income Housing Projects
Capital Impact Partners works in various markets throughout the United States, primarily those populated by low-income Americans. CIP is a major investor in developing low-income housing units. CIP provides high-risk lending packages to developers to produce low-income housing units and engages policymakers to implement increased public funding and support for low-income housing. 2
In 2010, CIP began investing heavily in low-income housing projects in Detroit. The first projects were intended to increase low-income housing density in the urban center of the city. In pursuit of this goal, CIP launched the $30 million Woodward Corridor Investment Fund alongside the left-of-center Kresge Foundation and several financial institutions. 3
Later in the decade, CIP began shifting its focus away from the city, building low-income housing in suburban neighborhoods surrounding Detroit. In 2014, CIP and J.P. Morgan Chase created the $30 million Detroit Neighborhoods Fund. Since 2014, the Fund has contributed at least $88 million to neighborhood projects. 3
CIP also set up the Equitable Development Initiative in Detroit to train African-American residents in a year-long professional development and networking course. The program was developed after an internal review found that 90% of CIP’s loans in Detroit went to firms that did not represent the city’s racial demographics. 4
Other Projects
Capital Impact Partners invests in community-run cooperatives across the country. In fact, CIP was initially founded and chartered by the United States Congress to support the development of cooperative organizations in grocery, housing, and small business spaces. 5 CIP provides loans and other credit services to cooperative organizations that cannot secure loans from traditional lenders. 6 CIP has focused particularly in the food space, providing loans to grocers and other fresh food retailers in order to eliminate “food deserts” in which low-income residents cannot access fresh foods. 7
CIP also invests in senior living communities by providing loans to organizations that house elderly residents and invest in healthcare for the elderly. CIP also makes loans to support programs such as Meals on Wheels. 8 Aside from investing in communities exclusively for senior citizens, CIP provides loans to community health centers. CIP currently runs a program with AARP to improve the quality of care for seniors in community health centers, which also provide services to low-income and uninsured patients. 9
Ellis Carr has been the president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners since 2016. Carr joined CIP in 2012 as the organization’s chief financial officer and treasurer. Carr previously worked for Freddie Mac, a lending agency that supports the housing market. Carr is also a finance leader fellow at the Aspen Institute. 11
Diane Borradaile is the chief lending officer for CIP. 11 Natalie Gunn is the chief financial officer and the chief administrative officer. 11
Pedro Goitia is the chairman of the CIP board. Wilson Beebe is the vice chair of the board. 12
Financials
In 2019, Capital Impact Partners raised $33.6 million in revenue and spent $35.4 million. CIP also reported $134.3 million in net assets. 13 That year, CIP spent $4.1 million to support low-income housing initiatives, $3.2 million on healthcare programs, and $4.3 on education initiatives. 13
In 2020, CIP received $3.5 million in CDFI Fund grants from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. 14
General support for programs, operations and other charitable purposes
$30,000,000
2022
Wells Fargo Foundation
The Wells Fargo Foundation has announced a $40 million initiative to expand the growth and success of real estate developers of color, including Black- and Latinx-owned firms. The Growing Diverse Housing Developers initiative will work with community development financial institutions (CDFIs), to increase the supply of homes that are affordable across the country. The initiative includes $30 million in support of a collaboration between Capital Impact Partners, Low Income Investment Fund, and Reinvestment Fund for a four-year program that will provide a cohort of housing developers based out of California, Georgia, Texas, and the Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., Metropolitan areas with access to capital and resources to advance their development pipelines and grow their business.
$15,000,000
2020
MacKenzie Scott
Capital Impact Partners announced that it was awarded $15 million as part of a Giving Pledge commitment by philanthropist Mackenzie Scott. The award represents the single largest individual gift in the organization’s history and will help advance the organization’s racial equity work with communities nationwide.
This grant provides three years of general operating support to Momentus Capital to grow its established capacity-building program, the Equitable Development Initiative, and expand lending to Black entrepreneurs through a new initiative, Activate Detroit.
This grant provides support to Capital Impact Partners for the continued operation of its Detroit office in support of a strong community development ecosystem that advances equitable neighborhood development.
