Integrated Capital Institute faculty and staff at Hollyhock Centre

Committed to creating financial relationships that are direct, transparent, and personal

John Bloom

Vice President, Organizational Culture

Chris Cook

Chief Financial Officer

Susie Lee

Chief Investment Officer

Deb Nelson

Vice President, Client & Community Engagement

Katrina Steffek

Chief Operating Officer

Jasper van Brakel

Chief Executive Officer

Dear Clients and Friends,

Imagine a year in which unprecedented success and a major transition happen contemporaneously. That imagination will give you a sense of 2017 at RSF Social Finance. We exceeded our funding goals for our investment and philanthropic funds, as well as money raised for Money to Transform, our capacity building campaign. Our assets surpassed $200 million and our social enterprise loan portfolio surpassed $100 million for the first time. We also had a record year for funding social enterprises through loans and grants. At the same time, we absorbed the announcement of a CEO transition and the formation of a search process for the next leader.

It was as if the good work of the past, the challenges of the present, and the invitation of meeting the needs of the future brought a special focus to the collaborative work of the Executive Team. The team has clarified roles, identified strengths, and reflected upon the best way to lead together. This capacity will serve the organization and our clients well as we join with our new CEO to engage in relationship building with clients and partners.

“Every day we are reminded of the wisdom that our clients and partners hold and what they are accomplishing, sometimes against great odds, toward a more just and regenerative world.”

Don Shaffer concluded ten years at RSF at the end of 2017. Not enough could be said about all that we accomplished through his leadership. He formulated what has now become our mission when he first arrived in 2007: every financial transaction should be direct, transparent, and personal, and based on long-term relationships. This is in contrast to the financial system outside of RSF—complex, opaque, and anonymous, and based on short-term outcomes. This framing and call to action has served us well and will continue to guide our thinking into the future.

Don also imagined that the integrated capital approach would become the center of our work, and as a result, RSF launched the Integrated Capital Institute in October under the leadership of Deb Nelson. The Institute flows from our own experience in working with integrated capital and serves a diverse group of financial professionals who want to more widely implement the transformative power of providing multiple forms of capital to solve pressing social problems.

As part of the transition year, we have gone deeper into work with diversity, equity, and inclusion by elevating discussions about race and gender. There is an active staff working group in place, and the full staff engaged in a training during our 2017 retreat. The Board of Trustees also engaged in this training and has committed to furthering these discussions. The trustees and staff are working more closely on imagining the future and identifying the key issues that we can work on together.

While we officially welcomed our new CEO, Jasper J. van Brakel, in March of 2018, much of the last quarter of 2017 was devoted to the CEO search process. This process enabled us to engage with RSF’s community of stakeholders and reflect on the question of the right leadership structure that would best serve RSF’s commitment to innovation, creativity, collaboration, and continuing to lead this emerging field of social finance.

Every day we are reminded of the wisdom that our clients and partners hold and what they are accomplishing, sometimes against great odds, toward a more just and regenerative world. This is what brings us to work every day and, we hope, inspires you, our expanding community.

With gratitude,

Executive Team

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Social Entrepreneurs
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT:
Borrower

Whitethorne

Ghent, NY

In 2017, RSF supported Whitethorne LLC’s expansion by providing a mortgage for its new facility, a loan for equipment from our Food System Transformation Fund, and funding for capital improvements from our Biodynamics Capital Collaborative.

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Whitethorne products are good for the earth. We use only ingredients that are certified organic or biodynamic for our ferments, which are packed with health benefits. Fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, and extracted drinking tonics are rich in probiotics. Ferments are an excellent source of the life-sustaining bacteria needed by the body to maintain health.

In 2017, the Hawthorne Valley Association teamed up with a group of regional impact investors to establish Whitethorne LLC, a new business that produces and distributes fermented vegetables and living, probiotic products. We do this all from our newly remodeled hub in the Hudson Valley of New York, which RSF supported with financing.

Since RSF’s investment, we have significantly increased production and distribution of our fermented products. Important parallel results are growth in purchasing produce from regional farmers and jobs added to the local economy. We expect to procure more than half a million pounds of local and regional organic produce this coming growing season. While we distribute widely in our region, anyone can now order our products online.

Hawthorne Valley Association and RSF Social Finance have a longstanding relationship that goes back to RSF’s main office’s being located adjacent to Hawthorne Valley’s home in Harlemville, NY, until 1998. Our two Steiner-inspired organizations have partnered on farmland purchases, the growth of a Waldorf school, and now Whitethorne LLC, a social enterprise that nourishes people and the planet. As part of the overall economic plan for Hawthorne Valley Association, surplus capital from the fermenting business will be part of the long-term support for the arts and education at Hawthorne Valley.

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Return to Overview
Social Entrepreneurs
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT:
Grantee

The Cultural Conservancy

San Francisco, CA

The Cultural Conservancy is a grantee and a committee member of the Pawanka Fund.  In operation now for four years at RSF, the Pawanka Fund is the first ever indigenously run global fund and makes keynote decisions on how resources donated to the fund by institutions or donor advisors get shared with Indigenous communities in every corner of the globe. The fund invests in real solutions to combat climate change, end violence against women and children, and protect sacred landscapes.

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Serving as both protectors and restorers of native landscapes, the Conservancy is a Native-led nonprofit on a mission to not merely conserve but also connect the First Peoples on that land to the sacred wisdom and teachings at its genesis. For native peoples, land is more than a commodity; it is a relationship that is foundational to all aspects of one’s life.

In 2017, our staffers and volunteers devoted much of their time to native plants and placing their hands in the soil. Last year, the organization was the sole and primary manager of the Indian Valley Organic Farm and Garden at the College of Marin. For us, the experience was a crash course in farm management. For the participating youth, it was a learning experience in planting, harvesting, and sharing native corn, squash, beans, and medicinal plants such as tobacco and sage. For the beloved elders who joined, it was a rare opportunity to pass on the sacred traditions of our native culture.

The passing down of intergenerational knowledge is core to our efforts. The rise of the information age and the digital revolution has left many native youths hungry for a different type of knowledge and for their own rich but often erased history. To combat this, we use digital media to foster a community of indigenous digital storytellers who can accurately tell their own stories and histories and share the uniqueness in each native culture.

Last year, we cultivated networks of indigenous trailblazers doing land-based work in the Americas and the Pacific that were highlighted by this media work. Those efforts helped incubate and grow the Slow Food Turtle Island Association and spurred us to join the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Also, through our Mino-Niibi Fund, we provided small grants to indigenous peoples in other areas who are fighting to protect their ancestral lands. With the grant money comes the Te Ha Alliance, a community of advisors and thought leaders from around the world that provide solidarity and support on the most practical, such as grant writing, to the more spiritual.

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Investors & Donors

Jessica Rolph

Jessica Rolph—a social entrepreneur who is passionate about women’s empowerment and leadership—donated to the RSF Women’s Capital Collaborative in 2017. A trustee on the RSF Board of Directors for ten years, she is currently an investor and donor advisor.

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Early in my career, progressive entrepreneurs like Seth Goldman at Honest Tea and Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm inspired me to learn how entrepreneurs use their business acumen to make a positive social impact. Years ago, an opportunity came up to volunteer at a Social Venture Network conference, and I jumped on it. I was ready to refill water bottles and hand out name tags, anything just to be surrounded by a hall of fascinating social business leaders. I left with a stack of business cards, including one I’ll never forget: RSF’s then-president and CEO, Mark Finser.

The more I learned about RSF, the more engrossed I was: it’s an organization that propels social enterprises during crucial times in their development, and its total conviction in transforming the way the business world works is what makes it one of the true catalysts for positive social change out there. RSF backed my first company, Happy Family, with much-needed debt capital. That financing helped us scale the impact of our goal to make organic foods mainstream and accessible to families at any income level. RSF believed in us and our mission and challenged us to push our vision further. The entrepreneurial support I received then was a key reason I was thrilled to help the Women’s Capital Collaborative: entrepreneur-led social change has everything to do with paying it forward.

While philanthropy, by nature, should give one joy, it can be difficult emotionally: there are just so many possibilities—and so many worthy recipients of help, guidance, and financing—that it can be overwhelming. RSF is terrific at helping people navigate that. I am very impressed with RSF’s collaboratives, and I’m delighted to be one of many people supporting today’s social entrepreneurs as they work for a better society with a financial partner who truly understands them and the change they’re after.

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Investors & Donors

Kristin Hull

Kristin is an impact investor, entrepreneur, activist, and educator. She is the founder and CEO of Nia Impact Capital. Kristin opened her Social Investment Fund Note account in 2011 because of the values alignment and, since then, has become a close ally and partner.

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I’m committed to transforming the financial system and how we engage with our money. Investing in the Social Investment Fund is one way I’m working toward those goals. There is so much synergy between RSF, the work I’m doing, and the change we want to see.

Through all the work I’ve done in the impact investing space—moving the Hull family foundation’s assets into 100% mission-aligned investments and starting Nia Community Fund and Nia Impact Capital, a women-led registered investment advisor—what excites me the most is when I see people’s eyes light up as they connect the dots between their money and the world in which they want to live. I often engage with amazing activists, and yet, they don’t have their money aligned with their values. Helping people connect the dots is what gets me out of bed every day. That’s why I love RSF’s community pricing gatherings. Bringing investors and borrowers together to discuss and make interest rate recommendations is one of the most transformational experiences you can have around money.

I greatly appreciate RSF’s dedication to direct and transparent financial transactions, and I am committed to the same approach. For some time, I wasn’t invested in public equities, but ultimately, I wanted to cover all asset classes with my investing. Our flagship product, Nia Global Solutions, is making transactions easy and fully transparent in the public market. Instead of investing in anonymous indexes, we look for investment opportunities that will help the transition to a just and sustainable economy. We’ve built a portfolio around six solution themes—health care, sustainable transportation, renewable energy, financial access, communication, and education.

My hope is that Nia Global Solutions will be in everyone’s 401k with a very low minimum to participate. Similarly, I want everyone to have the RSF experience, open an account for $1,000, and connect directly with the community of values-aligned investors and borrowers.

I am honored that I get to do this work and that we all get to do it together. It is sacred.

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Social Entrepreneurs

RSF supports mission-driven nonprofit and for-profit social enterprises in the U.S. and Canada. As a values-aligned financial partner, we foster a diverse community of borrowers and grantees who endeavor to create a just and regenerative future.

Whitethorne

Hawthorne Valley established a new business that both makes and sells sauerkraut and other fermented products from its biodynamic and organic certified farms in the Hudson Valley of New York.

Borrower Whitethorne

The Cultural Conservancy

The Cultural Conservancy is a grantee and a committee member of the Pawanka Fund at RSF, which invests in real solutions to combat climate change, end violence against women and children, and protect sacred landscapes.    

Grantee The Cultural Conservancy

Investors & Donors

RSF provides investors and donors with opportunities to align their money with their values. Our clients value knowing that their money is supporting entrepreneurs who create lasting positive social and ecological change.

Jessica Rolph

Jessica Rolph—a social entrepreneur who is passionate about women's empowerment and leadership—donated to the RSF Women's Capital Collaborative in 2017. A trustee on the RSF Board of Directors for ten years, she tells us about what inspired her to give.

Donor Jessica Rolph

Kristin Hull

Kristin is an impact investor, entrepreneur, activist, and educator. She is the founder and CEO of Nia Impact Capital. Kristin opened her Social Investment Fund Note account in 2011 because of the values alignment and, since then, has become a close ally and partner.

Investor Kristin Hull
Defined In Action

Integrated Capital Approach

Integrated Capital is the coordinated use of diverse forms of financial and human capital to support enterprises and strategies that are addressing complex social and environmental problems. 

Tools

Loans

Senior-secured loans
Unsecured loans
Loan participations

Loan Guarantees

RSF guarantees
Third party guarantees

Investments

Equity
Revenue share agreements
Mezzanine finance

Grants

Technical assistance grants
Third party grants

Non-Financial Support

Network connections
Advisory support

Integrated Capital in Action: Guayakí Yerba Mate

2009
With a $500,000 revenue share loan from the Mezzanine Fund, Guayaki was able to roll out its canned beverage line, develop its small-store delivery distribution model and build inventory.
2011-2017
In 2011, Guayaki qualified for a loan from our Social Enterprise Lending program. The working capital line of credit started at $1.25 million in 2011 and increased over the years to $5 million in 2016. In 2017 the line was increased again to $6 million.
2017
Guayaki needed capital to support growth but did not want to dilute mission or independence. In addition to the line of credit increase, RSF provided a $4 million term loan.
2018
This year:
An $800,000 loan to build a centralized processing & drying facility for Guayakí in Brazil. $300,000 provided by the Fair Trade Capital Collaborative and $500,000 from Beneficial Returns, a close RSF financial partner.

Often described as the lungs of the earth, the South American Atlantic rainforest is a treasured biosphere that replenishes the earth’s air and houses millions of plant and animal species in its region. With this understanding at heart, David Karr and Alex Pryor founded Guayakí Yerba Mate, the now well-known yerba mate-based beverage company. In fact, the impulse of that heart has shaped both the identity of the company and its logo. The duo had a bold mission to accomplish through the means of social enterprise: to steward and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020.

When Guayakí’s founders started their business in 1996, they thought they would help preserve the rainforest—one of the globe’s most endangered habitats—by giving local communities a way to make a living from working within it without cutting down trees. A few years in, though, they faced a devastating reality, a map showing 95 percent deforestation of the Amazon since 1900. Preservation, they realized, was not enough, and with that, they started focusing on reforestation. For those efforts, the yerba mate plant was vital.

Typically, industry farmers cultivate yerba mate by using traditional slash-and-burn methods for full sun. Though the technique makes for a fast-growing crop, it is a far cry from the plant’s natural canopy of the Upper Paraná Atlantic rainforest, which stretches across Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.

Guayakí supplier and yerba mate farmer. Photo by Dane Grady.

In an environmentally conscious shift from the norm, Guayakí supplies its yerba mate from small-scale farmers growing organically and using an environment resembling the plant’s shady native habitat. By insisting on a supply chain of solely shade-grown plants, the social enterprise encourages farmers to reforest their land with native hardwoods. This important ecological growing method and standard has made it possible for Guayakí to pay farmers a price premium to grow yerba mate, provide living wages and healthy working conditions, and help fund community development projects for local, predominantly indigenous, communities.

RSF Social Finance has been a loyal partner in Guayakí’s tireless effort to protect the Amazon and empower its native people. Beginning in 2009, RSF provided an investment of $500,000 that helped Guayakí roll out its canned beverage line, develop its small-store delivery distribution model, and build inventory. In 2011, RSF extended the social enterprise a $1.9 million working capital line of credit to fill a cash flow gap between inventory purchases and the sale of goods. Guayakí’s credit line with RSF was subsequently increased to $2.75 million in 2013, $4 million in 2015, and $5 million in 2016 to support the social enterprise’s fast-paced growth.

Last year, RSF made its most significant financial commitment to date, a $10 million financial package, complete with values-aligned partners and international impact. With funding from its Fair Trade Capital Collaborative, RSF is set to provide Guayakí the capital it needs to build a centralized processing and drying facility in Brazil.

Guayakí’s impact in 2017 was stellar. Last year, the social enterprise advanced its mission metrics to capture the number of stewarded acres and living wage jobs more accurately. It also hired two people to lead and expand its regeneration and sustainability strategy in the U.S. and South America. Additionally, Guayakí launched a zero-waste program at its headquarters and completed a full greenhouse gas inventory of its supply chain; its findings showed that the social enterprise’s operations are carbon neutral.

Financing can be easy and cheap to find for fast-growing companies like Guayakí. But, not all capital is created equal, and some comes with strings that can hobble an unsuspecting social enterprise. Guayakí purposely seeks capital from mission-aligned investors who support its work to regenerate the rainforest. The social enterprise stays with RSF because they trust us to hold and honor their founding vision as a financial partner with a shared interest in healing the ecology while building a sustainable local economy for their community, all the while producing healthy beverages for you and me.

 

Overview Financial Highlights

Susie Lee

Chief Investment Officer

2017 was a showcase year for RSF Social Finance, where the resilience and creativity of our team shone brightly. We surpassed our goals for fundraising, capital deployment, and revenue generation. It was a fitting farewell to a decade of leadership by Don Shaffer and a clear indication of the growing demand for RSF offerings.

Our integrated capital approach has catalyzed the growth of social enterprises and resulted in increased demand for our flagship lending offering. We bring a unique ability to provide expertise across the capital spectrum from debt to equity to grants. Entrepreneurs value the guidance we provide on how to optimize capital structures that will maximize their ability to deliver impact over the long term. We made $34 million in new loans to social enterprises and closed the year with $105 million in net loans receivable, an 8% increase over last year.

Investment in our Social Investment Fund increased by 6% to $126 million, with original maturities ranging from 90 days to five years. We continue to explore new ways to meet client demand for longer-term notes. In the meantime, we welcome the opportunity to craft custom terms for investors committing $5 million or more to the Social Investment Fund while we develop standardized long-term offerings. By year’s end, RSF grew total assets by 11% to $209 million. From an operating perspective, we generated $9.7 million in revenues, exceeding our goal by $582,000 and ended the year with a $1.2 million operating profit.

One notable integrated capital partnership, our largest in dollar amount to date, is with Guayakí. We increased the size of loans from our Social Investment Fund, shared expertise and connections to support its equity raise, and provided more flexible financing from our Fair Trade Capital Collaborative to deepen Guayakí’s impact. Our relationship began nine years ago with a creative revenue share loan that enabled the not-yet-profitable company to raise financing to grow. Since those early years, Guayakí has demonstrated a strong track record of growth while partnering with indigenous communities to protect the rainforests in Brazil and enhance economic opportunities for these communities through sustainable sourcing of the yerba mate. Today, Guayakí could meet its financing needs with any major financial institution, but the leadership team chose RSF to continue serving as its long-term partner because of our commitment to authentic relationships, shared values, and nuanced approaches to structuring capital.

As we expand our capabilities to provide larger funding packages, we equally emphasize the value that small loans, investments, and gifts can have on advancing the field of social finance. Last year, we made loans, investments, grants, and guarantees out of all five of our philanthropic Collaboratives and two shared risk loan funds. Of these initiatives, the Women’s Capital Collaborative stood out in 2017. We made investments in four women-led social enterprises: Akola Project, Eu’Genia Shea, Kreyòl Essence, and Spotlight: Girls. These organizations empower women and girls through economic and educational opportunities. Through this collaborative, we also led a Shared Gifting Circle that brought together 12 nonprofit leaders from across the U.S. for a session that enabled the women to experiment with shifting the power dynamic of philanthropy.

Our investor and donor clients are also key partners in our overall integrated capital strategy. By participating in multiple offerings that span our loan funds, philanthropic Collaboratives, and Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), they help us deepen the connections, expertise, and value added across our focus areas of sustainable food & agriculture, education & the arts, and ecological stewardship.

In 2017, we raised over $31 million in contributions to DAFs and related offerings, almost a 50% increase over the previous year. We ended the year with a total philanthropic assets balance of over $60 million. Our clients are actively flowing money out: we made over 900 grants totaling $18 million, a 38% increase over 2016 in grant dollars deployed.

Key to fully executing on the potential of our integrated capital approach is to enhance the power of the investment side of our philanthropic assets to advance the field of social finance and deepen our impact. With this goal in mind, we began developing investment strategy “Version 3.0” in 2017. Our historical divestment from public stocks coupled with rapid asset growth has resulted in excess liquidity and a tremendous opportunity to optimize how we align our investments with our mission and values. We began by making several new investments with stronger mission alignment. In the next phase, we plan to fully refresh our strategy to achieve deeper value alignment across asset classes and areas of impact.

Based on feedback from community pricing gatherings—which we believe is transparent, interconnected, and less volatile than the conventional system—we decided to increase interest rates by 0.25% in Q1 and then hold steady throughout 2017 at 0.75% for investors and at 5.00% for borrowers. We are monitoring global trends closely and will continue to listen to our stakeholders to decide what rates best serve our community and mission.

Our community of entrepreneurs, investors, and donors enabled RSF to accomplish the success and impact we delivered on last year. We are grateful for your continued engagement and look forward to deepening these partnerships with you in the months and years to come.

 

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Consolidated Statements of Financial Position

Dollars in thousands

2017 2016 2015
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents $33,613 $15,562 $29,228
Restricted cash 0 0 216
Mission-related investments:
Loans receivable, net of allowance for loan losses 105,459 97,238 79,222
Investments, at fair value 66,021 73,631 64,428
Prepaid expenses & other assets 2,516 1,241 724
TOTAL ASSETS 208,756 187,924 173,819
LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS LIABILITIES
Investor notes payable 119,771 112,518 107,148
Long term loans payable 6,002 6,006 0
Other liabilities 489 226 399
TOTAL LIABILITIES 126,262 118,750 107,547
NET ASSETS
Unrestricted 82,344 68,773 66,122
Temporarily restricted 50 300 50
Permanently restricted 100 100 100
TOTAL NET ASSETS 82,493 69,173 66,272
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS $208,756 $187,924 $173,819

 

Consolidated Statements of Activities & Changes in Net Assets

Dollars in thousands

REVENUES 2017 2016 2015
Earned Income 1
Lending interest, fees, other income 5,319 5,519 4,648
Investment income, net 390 -421 -1,985
Gifts and Contributions 34,495 20,565 18,769
Program revenue 2,545 – –
TOTAL REVENUES 41,384 25,662 21,432
EXPENSES PROGRAM SERVICES
Interest Expense on Investor Funds 1,036 618 536
Provisions for loan losses 65 400 272
Grants Made to Programs 2 18,435 13,236 11,402
Other Projects and Program Expenses 642 898 207
Personnel costs 3 5,329 3,470 2,860
TOTAL PROGRAM SERVICES 25,672 18,622 15,277
SUPPORTING SERVICES:
Management and General Expenses 4 2,166 4,138 4,106
TOTAL EXPENSES 27,672 22,761 19,384
CHANGES IN NET ASSETS 13,672 2,902 2,048
NET ASSETS AT BEGINNING OF YEAR 68,773 66,272 64,224
NET ASSETS AT END OF PERIOD 82,445 69,173 66,272

Notes

1) We earned additional revenues through fee income from RSF philanthropic services. Following GAAP standards, we do not show this income in our financial statement because of their classification as intracompany transfers.

2) Roughly 97 percent of grants made by RSF are recommended by clients via donor advised funds.

3 and 4) Following our auditor’s recommendation, we revised the cost breakout of RSF personnel and management. The total spent on both categories was $7.6 million in 2017, equivalent to the sum spent in 2016.

Overview Values Culture Staff Board

RSF is committed to cultivating and sustaining a strong organizational culture. Our intention is to embody our values as we strive to be of deep service to our clients and community.

Embodying our values

Katrina Steffek

Chief Operating Officer

In my 14 years at RSF, I have seen our work evolve, our staff size more than double, and the flow of money in and out of RSF increase significantly through our integrated capital approach. What hasn’t changed is our unique organizational culture, our passion for impact, and our deep belief that the world needs a more human-centered approach to finance.

Our organizational values – cultivating gratitude, building trust, and encouraging radical collaboration – are alive and well in our workplace community and in how we partner with clients to change how they participate in financial systems.

Gratitude

RSF has the privileged position of serving as the facilitator and hub for thousands of financial relationships each year. While so many people are yearning for more authentic, values-aligned interactions with their financial partners, our staff is privileged to cultivate and experience those qualities every day. Our community of clients and partners is interconnected through the flow of money in and out of RSF, and appreciation for all the people involved runs deep. The incredible investors and donors who entrust us with their money bring their thoughtfulness and intention and their commitment to social and environmental justice. The enterprises we support are a constant source of inspiration as we closely experience their innovation, vision, and determination. If you are reading this, you are part of RSF’s story, our past, and our future, and you are part of creating a more mindful, grounded, and regenerative economy. Thank you for being here, we are grateful to be fellow travelers.

Trust

Our investors trust us with their money and our donors trust us to steward their intentions through giving. All of our clients are passionate about supporting social enterprises with catalytic capital. This may sound simple on the surface, but each dollar is part of their legacy and hopes for the future. And we know that social entrepreneurs choose us for financing because they view values-aligned capital as a fundamental ingredient of their business. We approach our work with the awareness that we are being of service to these deeply personal intentions.  At our community pricing gatherings, we bring together investors, borrowers, and RSF staff to learn about each other and discuss current interest rates. This experience embodies a level of trust you generally don’t have in other financial relationships. Money is challenging to talk about—there are often many emotions, assumptions, and different levels of comfort with financial terminology. However, at the Community Pricing Gatherings, we’ve observed the participants open up to the uncomfortable, embrace the interconnectedness of the other stakeholders, and shift their expectations because of someone else’s needs.

Radical Collaboration

We recognize the power of community wisdom. RSF has always had an open-source approach to its innovations and practices, and we know we are only one player that is part of a broader ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, donors, and financial practitioners who are working to shift the financial system. Opportunities to learn from and with others and to share what we know is a core aspect of our work. Our integrated capital approach demonstrates how different forms of financial and social/human capital (from RSF and other partners) can be woven together to support enterprises. Our shared gifting approach to grantmaking empowers grantees to decide where the money should flow. The RSF integrated capital institute teaches valuable leadership and financial/technical skills and builds relationships amongst financial activists across the country. Our staff and board members are passionate about working with our clients and partners to build a more thriving, equitable economy. For over 30 years, we have prioritized the movement of money by offering opportunities to give, invest, and borrow. We know that collaboration leads to more joy, creativity, and prosperity for all, and we are committed to doing our part to build the field of social finance.

 

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By shifting control of grant funds from donor to grantee, RSF Shared Gifting Circles demonstrate our values in action.

Organizational Culture

John Bloom

Vice President, Organizational Culture

With RSF’s success in 2017 comes the opportunity to reflect not only on financial or operational results but also on how we deepened our work in connection to our mission and through the insights of Rudolf Steiner. Two key areas gained focus as part of these efforts: our Leadership and Personal Transformation Intensives (LAPTI) and our broader organizational work with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

LAPTI is a three-day intensive where staffers explore self-knowledge, biography, leadership styles, and our ability to support one another through coaching. Participating staffers inform LAPTI’s design based on personally identified needs.  Many share intimate learning moments from the year and set their intentions for personal growth for the next. For those who have participated in the three-day LAPTI, we hold an annual two-day “refresher” with the purpose of reconnecting colleagues with his or her personal destiny paths and with each other as individuals growing in leadership and learning through their respective roles at RSF.

An equally prominent aspect of RSF’s culture is our commitment to recognize and engage diversity, equity, and inclusion as being critical to transforming the paradigm of how we work with money in the world. We have begun what will be a multi-year process of learning about the tools and sensitivities that are foundational to understanding the many perspectives that make up the world. Using what we have learned, we’ve started the practice of engaging in conversations that recognize everyone’s distinct views and lived experiences. In the long run, these conversations will help us understand more closely the experiences of our clients so that we can serve them better.

As part of our culture, we are committed to deepening our understanding of RSF’s origins, mission, and purpose. We continue with our staff studies on economic and social themes inspired by Rudolf Steiner and other economic thinkers. In addition to this inner development, we support staffers in refining their public speaking skills so that each one feels comfortable embodying RSF’s work in the world. After all, the way we advance our work, with humility and profound interest in others, is as essential to our clients and our organizational culture as all that we have accomplished in supporting the field of social finance and enterprise.

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STAFF

Kristine Arboleda
Accounting Manager
Lisa Barry
Senior Manager, Human Resources
Amy Beck
Manager, Client Engagement
Amy Bird
Senior Manager, Social Enterprise Lending
John Bloom
Vice President, Organizational Culture
Kelley Buhles
Senior Director, Philanthropic Services and Organizational Culture
Alexandria Cabral
Senior Credit Associate
Steven Chai
Senior Credit Associate
Melinda Cheel
Marketing Director
Tammy Childers
Senior Portfolio Manager, Social Enterprise Lending
Chris Cook
Chief Financial Officer
Hadiza Dalhatu
Processing & Servicing Associate, Loan Administration
Kate Danaher
Senior Director, Integrated Capital
Stu Fram
Senior Associate, Social Enterprise Lending
Roja Gottimukkala
Business Systems Analyst
Tim Green
General Counsel
Alex Haber
Philanthropic Advisor
Mark Herrera
Senior Manager, Client Engagement
Lynne Hoey
Senior Director, Credit
Afsana Hye
Program Associate, Philanthropic Services
Casey Johnson
Senior Associate, Social Enterprise Lending
Leah Johnson
Senior Manager, Loan Administration
Neha Kapur
Credit Manager
Ellie Lanphier
Program Manager, Philanthropic Services
Kayla Leduc
Program Associate, Philanthropic Services & Client Engagement
Susie Lee
Chief Investment Officer
Reed Mayfield
Manager, Social Enterprise Lending
John Meyers
Marketing Associate
Carrie Monae
Senior Manager, Information Systems
Deb Nelson
Vice President, Client & Community Engagement
Enrique Perez
Marketing Manager
Diane Robinson
Office Coordinator
Katrina Steffek
Chief Operating Officer
Meredith Storton
Senior Associate, Social Enterprise Lending
Jasper van Brakel
Chief Executive Officer
Muy Yam
Senior Associate, Human Resources

BOARD

Ron Alston
Chair of the Board
Neil Blomquist
Jocelyn Romero Demirbag
Mark Finser
Siegfried Finser
Rachael Flug
Jasper van Brakel
Chief Executive Officer
Scott Williams