Featured Partners

Over 150 million people suffer from visual impairments worldwide, of which 75% are easily treatable or preventable. Deutsche Bank’s newest structured social investment fund, Eye Fund I, provides a new avenue to provide health care via eye care hospitals that serve the poor in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Identified in collaboration with Ashoka and the International Association for the Prevention of Blindness, these high-quality hospitals are social ventures that use fees from affluent patients to cross-subsidize care for the poor, a model that is replicable to other health care and social service fields. The $15 million Eye Fund attracts socially motivated commercial investors by utilizing a $1 million equity commitment from the New Initiatives Fund as a credit enhancement alongside other PRIs and funds from international development agencies.

Family Independence Initiative (FII) is a national center for anti-poverty innovation offering results-based, resident solutions to reducing poverty. FII’s program limits counseling from social workers, instead encouraging families to determine their own paths. This “Self-determination Approach” galvanizes families to act upon their own goals by working with their community. The organization tracks more than 250 metrics including; income, debts, health, education and civic engagement for each family and offers rewards (in the form of capital) based on positive improvements. DBAF’s $100,000 Program Related Investment is seed funding to start FII’s loan program. The FII loan program will target unbanked families that do not have access to micro-lenders or banks all over the United States.

ROC USA, is a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to transforming the manufactured home communities (MHCs) market through resident ownership. MHCs, known colloquially as “trailer parks” or “mobile home parks,” are a component of virtually every rural and suburban market and provide the most affordable, unsubsidized homeownership option in many localities. Residents living in MHCs typically own their mobile homes but not the land under them. This lack of land tenure makes residents vulnerable because they cannot qualify for conventional fixed rate home loans. ROC USA seeks to provide homeowners with the opportunity to purchase their community as a cooperative. The organization provides two crucial supports to help communities of renters become a Resident Owned Community: timely acquisition financing and access to technical assistance through a network of Certified Technical Assistance Providers.