NEWSWORTHY

Initiative designated as Clinton Global Initiative this week at Annual Meeting

In an effort to mainstream microfinance and community investing, Merrill Lynch Community Development Company (MLCDC) has invested $10 million in Calvert Foundation’s Community Investment Note, a fixed income investment product that allows individual and institutional investors to support economically disadvantaged communities around the world. The investment will be targeted to provide particular support to women entrepreneurs in developing countries, where microloans as little as $100 can enable impoverished women to start their own businesses and work their way up the economic ladder.

The initiative was designated as a Clinton Global Initiative at its Annual Meeting this week in New York, where heads of state, business executives, heads of nonprofit organizations and foundations, and scholars are meeting to discuss energy and climate change, global health, education, and poverty.

The MLCDC investment will provide financing to approximately twenty microfinance organizations that are expected to provide microloans to more than 25,000 women entrepreneurs around the world. Organizations such as Adhikar in India, Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) in Nigeria, Women Finance Trust (KWFT) in Kenya, Pro Mujer of Bolivia and Mexico, and Women’s World Banking in Colombia, through a combination of microfinance, business training and healthcare support, will enable the regions’ poorest women to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families.

Merrill Lynch president and chief operating officer Greg Fleming said: “This investment is part of our firm's commitment to help improve the lives of women and their families which is essential to the growth of sustainable economies in the developing world."

> Read the full release on our website

PORTFOLIO NEWS

Civic Builders Makes Educational Facilities Affordable

As summer draws to a close and the start of the new school year gets underway, we would like to highlight an organization committed to providing affordable educational facilities in under-served, urban neighborhoods. Civic Builders is a nonprofit facilities developer that provides turn-key real estate solutions for high-performing charter schools. By assuming responsibility for building financing, acquisition, design and construction, Civic relieves charter schools of the burden of navigating a complex real estate market enabling school administrators to focus their time and resources on the important work of educating children.

To date, Civic has developed, or is in development on, seven charter school facilities in New York City totaling over $151 million and encompassing 307,000 square feet. In addition to accessing over $112 million in NYC Department of Education capital funds, Civic has raised over $16 million in philanthropy from foundations and individuals for investment in New York charter school facilities.

Civic's developments serve approximately 3,500 students in such high-need communities as Harlem, the Bronx and Bedford Stuyvesant and typically puts two to three new projects into development each year.

> Explore all of the organizations in Calvert Foundation's portfolio

SPOTLIGHT ON

Calvert Foundation was sad to lose Associate Anne Katharine Wales this summer,but happy to congratulate Wake Forest’s Babcock Graduate School of Management on its gain of an enthusiastic, optimistic and incredibly bright student. Wales is a recipient of the Dingledine Scholar for Positive Social Impact award, which is a full-tuition, two-year scholarship that recognizes an incoming full-time MBA student with at least two years of post-graduate work experience in a not-for-profit organization or agency. As she starts business school this fall, she looks forward to sharing with fellow students the experience she gained in the social capital marketplace while at Calvert Foundation.

“I strongly believe that our world can be strengthened if we choose to invest in opportunity for others,” Wales said. “Business tools are there to create capital which can drive both growth and change. And for-profit corporations can be modeled to not only turn a financial profit, but also a social one.”

Aside from her time at Calvert Foundation, Wales was also influenced by a summer she spent in Honduras. “I watched my host family struggle to make ends meet on their farm, because they couldn't afford machinery or the most resilient fertilizer or seeds,” she said. This piqued her interest in microfinance. “A loan of $50 would have made all the difference in their lives.”

Wales was particularly drawn to Wake Forest because of a new microfinance program they have been working on for the past few years called “Project Nicaragua.” This project was started in the fall of 2006 by several Babcock students who wanted to use their business skills to exact social change.

“Working at Calvert Foundation exposed me to constant discussion about how to greater influence social change, through affordable housing, microfinance, small business and social enterprise development,” Wales said. “The momentum and urgency of the work I was part of at Calvert Foundation prepared me for using my Babcock education to start building on instrumental change."

 

Meet New Staff Members at Calvert Foundation

By Brian White, a Calvert Foundation intern from the University of Chicago

Patrick Davis

As Calvert Foundation’s new Community Investment Associate, Patrick Davis has a full plate of responsibilities to tackle.  This doesn’t bother him much though.  In fact, he enjoys the challenge.  “One of the most exciting aspects of my job…is the challenge of working through the diversity of responsibilities that land in my lap,” he says.

Patrick’s unique experiences in life have certainly prepared him for a position that requires an open and adventurous mind.  In the past two years, he’s traveled to Italy, Greece, Argentina, and Costa Rica, just to name a few.  Says Patrick, “I’ve always been partial to St. Augustine’s quote: ‘The World is a book, and those who do not travel only read a page.’… I’d love to see every continent before the time I’m 30.”

Stephanie Madison

As a member of the Community Investment Partners team at Calvert Foundation, Stephanie Madison is charged with maintaining communication between the CI Partners and Calvert Foundation. Eventually, she will be managing and processing these accounts. “I haven’t been here very long, but the work culture is great, and it’s been great getting to know all the people who work here,” she says about her experiences.

However, as an unassuming member of the CI Partners team, you wouldn’t think that Stephanie had a dark secret only her closest friends knew about. “I am a huge bibliophile,” she says. “Book club anyone?”

Amber Kuchar

Calvert Foundation newcomer Amber Kuchar hit the ground running when she joined Calvert Foundation. She is responsible for managing the social enterprise portfolio – a collection of loans to businesses motivated more by public good than by personal profit. Her job entails, “vetting possible deals, reviewing due diligence and shaping the structure of the deal, presenting the deal to the approvers, closing the deal, and managing the relationship” she says.

But Amber’s no stranger to adjusting to new environments quickly and putting herself to work. As a sophomore in high school she spent a year in Chile as a Rotary Exchange Student, where she lived with a Chilean family and went to a local public school.

Meghann Oudmann

Calvert Foundation President and CEO Shari Berenbach manages a very busy schedule, which would be even more hectic without Meghann Oudmann. As Executive Associate, Meghann is the oil that makes many parts of the Calvert Foundation engine run smoothly. From something as simple as placing an order for office supplies to scheduling conferences and board meetings, Meghann is a cheerful and helpful addition to Calvert Foundation’s team.

Meghann herself is a woman of many different talents. Whether it’s writing proficiently with either her right or left hand, or her talent for traditional Indian dance, Meghann is full of energy and surprises.

ASK SHARI

To paraphrase Thomas Paine, “These are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls.” The world’s financial system is being forced to reexamine its priorities in the wake of a growing credit crisis. There are two points I want to make very clear to our investors and partners:

1) Our performance continues to be excellent. Our strategy is to partner with nonprofit organizations to expand credit, not turn a quick buck. Our partners offer their clients old fashioned, solid products and services. This, combined with the rigorous discipline and due diligence of our lending team, has served us well and will continue to serve us and our investors regardless of Wall Street's peaks and valleys.

2) The need for affordable and flexible capital has never been greater.  When the music stops, it is always those in underserved communities who are left without a chair. As we continue to grow, we will never forget our mission to provide hope to those in poverty throughout the world.

Thank you for your trust in these difficult times. We commit to you that we will continue to earn it.  

> Ask Shari a question.

 

Photos courtesy of Christina Brown, Carrie McGarry and Art Stevens