The funding world used to be fairly straightforward: there was philanthropy for nonprofits, venture capital for startups and bank loans for existing businesses. But in the age of social enterprise and impact investing, those lines are blurring. As more businesses combine a social mission with a for-profit business model, finance is adapting, giving rise to the notion of integrated or blended capital.
Blended capital draws private and philanthropic funding sources, each with their own risk and return profiles, to finance ventures that would otherwise not fit in any one box, such as sustainable food and agriculture ventures and food hubs.
One champion of blended capital is RSF Social Finance, a nonprofit that makes loans, grants and investments in social enterprises. Four years ago it launched a series of integrated capital blended funds, two of them focused on farmers. The most recent of those two, Soil Health Capital Collaborative, a $1 million blended fund for sustainable farming ventures, was introduced about a year ago. The oldest: the four-year-old Local Food Capital Collaborative, a $6.45 million fund for farming infrastructure, like moving and processing meat raised by farmers using sustainable methods.[…]
The full and original article can be viewed on Locavesting.com
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