IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Reinvestment Fund, Inc.
Community Development
Education
Health and WellbeingFirm Overview
Reinvestment Fund is a mission-driven financial institution committed to making communities work for all people. We bring financial and analytical tools to partnerships that work to ensure that people in all communities have the opportunities they strive for: affordable places to live, access to nutritious food, schools where their children can flourish, and strong, local businesses that support jobs. We use data to understand markets and how transactions can have the most powerful impact, and we build coalitions that can shift how entire sectors work to dismantle systems that perpetuate social and economic inequality. Since our inception in 1985, Reinvestment Fund has provided over $2.7 billion in financing to strengthen neighborhoods, scale social enterprises, and create resilient communities, where everyone can thrive and prosper. We maintain an A+ Standard & Poor’s rating, evidence of our skill as asset managers. Reinvestment Fund works nationally with offices in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Atlanta.
Years of Operation: 10 years or more
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: Less than 25%
At Reinvestment Fund, we believe finance can and should be an agent of positive change and equitable growth for all communities; and through partnerships and strategic investments, we can strengthen neighborhoods, scale social enterprises, and build resilient communities, where everyone can thrive and prosper.
Capital is the critical resource that allows communities to have safe housing, quality schools, businesses with living-wage jobs and good health care. But inequitable investing has concentrated wealth and opportunity in some communities and withheld it from others — particularly communities of color. Since 1985, Reinvestment Fund has disrupted inequitable investment practices and driven measurable impact. We bring capital into communities by supporting and partnering with businesses and organizations that share a common mission to expand opportunities and support others. We work in places and sectors underserved by traditional capital sources and we support entrepreneurs with big ideas who struggle to access capital because their social networks aren’t wealthy, or because their track records don’t match the expectations of traditional lenders. By building coalitions, structuring complex transactions with partners, and sharing our strategies for tackling systemic injustices, we are charting paths and forging collaborations that catalyze positive, lasting impact.
Reinvestment Fund is a social enterprise lending institution that frequently co-lends and collaborates with peers. Where we distinguish ourselves is our entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to break new ground: in the 90s, we invested in wind farms across Pennsylvania at a time when that industry could not secure traditional debt. Today, we remain one of the few among our peers with a robust clean energy portfolio. We pioneered the first healthy food financing fund, which became the model for federal and regional initiatives. We remain a leading food systems investor and administer the USDA’s national food financing initiative. We established a note program for private debt 30+ years ago to enable socially motivated individuals to invest in community development –before the term “impact investing” was coined. Today, we continue to advance new capital models, like Reinvestment Fund Impact Advisers, a regulated investment adviser that connects private investors to impact investments.
Investment Example
PosiGen is a residential solar developer that works primarily with low- to moderate-income households and in communities of color. Their work effort expands the use of clean energy while helping homeowners invest in their homes. The firm pioneered an approach to assess customers’ credit risk focusing on utility bill payment history instead of credit scores, and also developed an “out of the box” system design that reduced installation costs compared to the “design to fit” systems more prevalent in the industry. With these two innovations, the firm has installed over 17,000 systems to date, with over 70% of its customers being low- to moderate-income households. Even with its success, traditional capital providers have been slow to recognize that PosiGen’s portfolio performs just as strongly as those underwritten based on credit scores. Thanks to financing from Reinvestment Fund, together with financial institutions Mizzen Capital and Stonehenge Capital, PosiGen continues to grow.
Leadership and Team
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Don Hinkle-Brown – President and CEO More Info
Donald Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO, leads a staff of 80 highly skilled financial experts, research analysts, and other professionals at Reinvestment Fund, a catalyst for change in low-income communities. Reinvestment Fund integrates data, policy and strategic investments to improve the quality of life in low-income towns and cities. Mr. Hinkle-Brown is widely recognized as an expert in mission investing and capacity building through his work developing new programmatic initiatives, raising capital and creating new products that improve opportunity, equity and health for underserved people and places. Under his leadership, Reinvestment Fund launched ReFresh, the nation’s first practitioner network of community lenders committed to improving access to healthy food for all Americans. |
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Mike Crist – EVP & Chief Financial Officer More Info
Mr. Crist joined Reinvestment Fund in 2001. Mr. Crist leads the finance function of Reinvestment Fund and its affiliates through fiscal oversight, strategic planning, budgeting and financial projections, treasury operations, and financial risk management. Additionally, he manages Reinvestment Fund’s information technology, human resources and office administration needs. During his tenure at Reinvestment Fund, Mr. Crist has raised over $1 billion in capital. Prior to his time at Reinvestment Fund, Mr. Crist had numerous positions of increasing responsibility at PHH/Cendant Corporation including mergers and acquisitions, secondary marketing, product development, financial reporting and controller. |
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Nancy Wagner-Hislip – Chief Investment Officer More Info
As Reinvestment Fund’s Chief Investment Officer, Ms. Wagner-Hislip is responsible for overseeing Reinvestment Fund’s Lending and Investment activities, including business development, loan origination, New Markets Tax Credit investment, risk management and capitalization. With assets under management of approximately $1.2 billion and new originations in excess of $120 million annually, Ms. Wagner-Hislip leads a team that possesses deep knowledge of charter school, housing, food access, energy efficiency and healthcare finance. Ms. Wagner-Hislip joined Reinvestment Fund in 1998 and has played many roles during her tenure at Reinvestment Fund, most recently serving as Reinvestment Fund’s EVP of Capitalization and Lending operations. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
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Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
100%
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Impact is central to Reinvestment Fund’s deal sourcing and due diligence. Projects are prioritized based in part on their outcomes, and—for certain capital sources—there may be minimum requirements for social and/or environmental impact to be achieved. Measures vary. For example, we evaluate housing investments for affordability and quality compared to what is currently available. For schools, we assess whether the programs offer higher quality than existing options, and how many prospective students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. For grocery stores and supermarkets, we use data from USDA and our own research on the availability of healthy food to target investments to places that have inadequate access. We also finance innovative products such as Energy Savings Agreements and Power Purchase Agreements, and employ leading edge practices including the installation of community solar networks, combined heat and power systems, and smart building management systems.
Reinvestment Fund does consider the quality of jobs created by our borrowers, as well as women or minority ownership status, and commitment to the use of environmentally sustainable technologies. Measures of job quality include the payment of a living wage for a single adult (as estimated by MIT’s Living Wage calculator); the provision of basic benefits, including health insurance and paid sick leave; career building opportunities, such as programs for upward mobility for low skilled, entry-level positions, and/or employment for vulnerable populations such as former offenders; and wealth building benefits, i.e., employee stock ownership plans, 401(k) plan, IRA. In sourcing and due diligence, Reinvestment Fund considers organizational diversity (those that are minority and/or woman owned and led) and organizations’ commitment to environmental sustainability through the inclusion of energy-efficient building practices, use of clean energy, or the remediation of brownfields and former industrial sites.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
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1700 Market Street, 19th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA
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