Calvert Impact

We are excited to share our 2024 Community Investment Note® Impact Report, Taking Action for Communities and Climate. This report includes an overview of our impact and investing philosophy, and dives into each of our Community Investment Note® portfolio sectors. Our Community Investment Note® finances organizations creating positive social and environmental impact in communities around the world. The Note is invested across nine sectors, with an emphasis on climate solutions like renewable energy and environmental sustainability.  We’ve chosen in this year’s report to explore these nine sectors through the lenses of community and climate, but as Catherine Godschalk, Justin Conway, and Jennifer Pryce write in their introduction to the Impact Report:  “We know that impact doesn’t sit neatly in silos but is multi-dimensional and interconnected. Our climate work is essential to gender equity; our commitment to racial equity means a commitment to a deep understanding of affordable housing, small business finance, community development, and more. We embrace this complexity, knowing that real change doesn't happen in a vacuum.” As we enter our 30th year of operations, we want to especially thank our investors who enable us to change the lives of millions of people across the globe, and work towards positive impact every day.  A thank you from Calvert Impact leadership: “Your decision to invest in the Community Investment Note® sets in motion a powerful ripple effect that reaches beyond your portfolio – and ours. Without you, none of our work would be possible. So, from our entire team, thank you for believing in our vision, for fueling our mission, and for all you do for people and planet.”  You can read the entire 2024 Community Investment Note® Impact Report on our website here: https://bit.ly/4fe6vsX #ImpactReport #ImpactInvesting #ClimateSolutions #CommunityInvestment #AffordableHousing 

“Home changes everything.” That’s the motto of Minnesota-based affordable housing developer and manager Aeon. Aeon works primarily in the Twin Cities to create and preserve affordable homes, connect clients with resources they need to stay in their homes, and build communities. Since its founding almost four decades ago, Aeon has built, purchased, or renovated over 5,900 apartments and townhomes, providing housing stability for thousands of people each year. In 2003, Calvert Impact partnered with Aeon as a lender, allowing the organization to use more flexible, unrestricted debt capital to acquire properties on a faster timeline, pursue larger, more complex developments, and scale their work. Aeon’s residents shared how housing stability changed their lives. John, who found an affordable apartment through an Aeon property for homeless teens, said, “Those first few nights in my home, I felt something new: comfort. Aeon made me feel safe.” Looking ahead to the next year, Aeon remains focused on serving their current residents as well as expanding and preserving more affordable housing in the Twin Cities. Aeon repaid our latest loan last year, and it was a privilege to work with them for over two decades. Read their full success story here: https://bit.ly/3DfMdlh #AffordableHousing #ImpactInvesting #CommunityInvestment

Mission Driven Bank Fund is excited to share that it achieved full participation in its technical services program, surpassing its goal of 75% participation. The program aims to develop organizational capacity at mission-driven banks across country. The program has two key goals: 1. To promote sustainability by strengthening the bank's financial performance and building staff capacity 2. To help banks better serve their communities by deepening or growing their existing clients, expanding service areas, and/or investing in technology to improve the customer experience All banks are able to access the program upon capital investment, and can use an annual subsidy to work on a technical services project to address various needs including improved marketing and communications materials, updated technology services, and talent recruitment solutions. Learn more about the program and read the full release here: https://bit.ly/3W6UWgn #ImpactInvesting #CDFI #CommunityInvestment Elizabeth Park Capital Management

Did you know that #ChildLensInvesting was named one of TIME magazines "Best Inventions of 2024"? UNICEF created the first-ever framework for investors to analyze how their investments might benefit - or harm - children. Read the article below from Caitlin Rosser, our Director of Impact Management & Measurement, to learn more about #ChildLensInvesting and how we're currently putting it into practice at Calvert Impact 👇

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking about #ChildLensInvesting with an audience preparing for the United Nations 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), a convening set for July 2025 that will address the urgent need to fully achieve the #SustainableDevelopmentGoals (#SDGs) and support reform of the international financial architecture. The group was gathered at the UN to discuss how we can support children and young people, by using innovative and sustainable financing solutions to make the SDGs a reality.    Child lens investing is a framework developed by UNICEF and UNICEF USA, in collaboration with Tideline, that helps #impactinvestors integrate considerations for how our investments impact children, with the goal of improving outcomes for children and minimizing harm. The framework – which was selected as one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2024 – is accompanied by a toolkit that helps investors consider children as stakeholders in their approaches and measure child-related outcomes.     Calvert Impact was part of the cohort of asset managers that were consulted by UNICEF and UNICEF USA in 2023 while developing the framework. We were excited about the framework not only because of the critical subject matter, but because it is one developed for and with private sector investors.    During the cohort, we tested both the framework itself and the tools in the child lens investing toolkit, starting with the metrics suggested for measuring the child lens (the “child lens metrics bank”) to understand if our fund managers already collected relevant data. We were surprised to see that a handful of our fund managers have already assessed the impact that they have on children, with several having a specific child lens strategy as part of their theory of change. Curious about what else we learned and what's next for child lens investing? (Hint: it involves 60 Decibels!) Check out my article below 👇 Many thanks to the UNICEF and UNICEF USA teams for inviting me to share my insights Cristina Shapiro, Kitty van der Heijden, Francesco Saverio Ambrogetti, Radha Kulkarni, Florian Morales, Erin Egan, Sabrina Dong, Johanna Eisenberg and to my colleagues Jennifer Pryce and Annette Vogel for their staunch enthusiasm for investing in positive outcomes for children.

We're joining Praxis Mutual Funds for their #GetUgly4Good campaign to help rebuild small businesses in Asheville, NC devastated by Hurricane Helene. Today is the last day to participate! Praxis will donate $1,000 (up to $5,000 total) to Mountain BizWorks and WNC Strong: Rebuilding Together for every 100 likes on one of its Ugly Sweater posts or posts using the #GetUgly4Good hashtag on LinkedIn. #RealImpact #ImpactInvesting #SmallBusiness

The Mission Driven Bank Fund announced this morning its investment in FNBC Bank, a CDFI bank committed to expanding financial services in underserved communities in Arkansas and Missouri. FNBC Bancorp, Inc. will use the capital to expand its geographic footprint and scope in North-Central Arkansas and Southern Missouri. Bank leaders hope to grow their current products to increase credit access in underserved populations, primarily through their First Chance Mortgage Program and Small Dollar Loan Program. Learn more about the investment, which marks the seventh Fund deployment in 2024 and adds to the growing portfolio of banks that demonstrate the Fund's commitment to help underserved communities across the US: https://lnkd.in/g7w8JEKT #ImpactInvesting #CDFI #CommunityInvestment Elizabeth Park Capital Management

The Mission Driven Bank Fund is proud to support Anchor Bank, which serves small businesses in South Florida. Anchor Bank's services have helped companies like Catayu Management Group Inc., which owns a line of supermarkets in the West Palm Beach area, expand to meet the needs of their customers and employees. "For our customers, we were able to provide a great shopping experience for them by having an expanded location. For our employees, we were able to provide a better working environment for them, better facilities, and we created a lot of job opportunities in the Latin community as well," said Rijab Omar, CPA, CFO of Catayu Management Group. Watch the video to learn more. #ImpactInvestment #SmallBusiness Elizabeth Park Capital Management Calvert Impact does not control the content or accuracy of information in this video, and this video should not be the basis of an investment decision.

Calvert Impact CEO Jennifer Pryce spoke to the Financial Times' Sarah Murray about the state of the impact investment industry for her recent article, "How to get more impact into investing". Jenn explained that differentiating ESG and impact investing has been helpful for growth of the market: "There’s a lot more understanding that, at its core, impact investing is thinking about investment for solutions." She also discussed a key challenge in impact investing today - a lack of nuance around the different types of impact investors: "Some are longer-term, some shorter-term, some carry more risk and need a higher return, some take on lower risk so should carry a lower return.” This lack of differentiation is a factor contributing to the debate of whether or not impact investing delivers market-rate returns. Read the full article for more insights from Jenn and other leading impact investors at BlueOrchard Finance Ltd, The Global Impact Investing Network, Blue Haven Initiative, Ford Foundation and many others: https://bit.ly/4gmwjUj #ImpactInvesting

Calvert Impact is unique in many ways, including our nearly three decades-long track record and our accessible products designed so everyday investors can participate. Another important way we're unique? We are one of only 18% of all financial firms managed by women. Our CEO Jennifer Pryce wrote for Green Money Journal about why more women are needed in impact finance. Impact investing often focuses on the critical work of providing resources for women globally, but it also needs to focus on increasing the number of women leaders in the industry. "I want to encourage impact investing to be equally thoughtful in getting women into roles managing and deploying capital as well. I often think of the work we’re doing in impact investing as providing a 'demonstration effect' for the broader capital markets, proving that you can earn a financial return while also creating the social and environmental solutions communities need, and normalizing what we and our impact partners have been doing for decades. We can also normalize women as leaders of financial firms and work to ensure that there are women at every professional level of impact investing organizations, seeding a strong pipeline for the next generation of finance leaders." Jenn cites Quona Capital led by Monica Brand Engel, ImpactAssets led by Margret Trilli, and Anthos Fund & Asset Management whose impact investing strategy is led by Dimple Sahni as firms setting great examples. She also notes the importance engaging more women in finance to help lead the clean energy transition: "Investments to adapt to climate change and develop low-carbon technologies will generate trillions of dollars of investment and millions of new jobs over the next decade. Ensuring women are at the table making these investments and are part of the wealth building story needs to be the legacy of this generation of leadership." Read more about Jenn's path to impact investing and ways women can break into the industry here: https://lnkd.in/gErvCrPW #ImpactInvesting #CleanEnergyTransition #WomenInFinance