Ethical food sourcing company Coconut Merchant has signed on as Business Call to Action (BCtA)’s newest member, with a commitment to focus on sourcing food products from underserved communities and farmers in developing countries to provide sustainable income, and new routes for their products to international markets.
KeyBank Real Estate Capital arranged a $3.9 million Fannie Mae, 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) forward commitment permanent loan for Four Corners Development to finance the new construction of Council Trails Apartments. Council Trails Apartments is a 72-unit affordable housing property in Oklahoma City, OK comprised of four, three-story residential buildings. The Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) provided the 9% LIHTC equity allocation.
Once again, it’s BlackRock CEO Larry Fink who has appeared as the socially responsible investment oracle. Almost a year after his “paradigm shifting” letter--a call for social purpose in the 4,000+ companies in which the $6.3 trillion fund invests--Fink has issued a definitive follow-up statement on the subject.
We may be heading into the cold, dark days of winter, but my inbox has been glowing red-hot with a blast of news about sustainable finance. Updates are coming from every area of the category, from giant global entities to funds offering niche investment products, and services aimed at millennials and women.
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), NeighborWorks® America, Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation (ONIC), and Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) today announced the NeighborhoodLIFT® program will launch for Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties with a $6.3 million commitment by Wells Fargo to boost local homeownership.
The Humana Foundation is investing $1.16 million to address social determinants of health in two Florida communities – Tampa Bay and Broward County. This is in addition to a $820,000 Humana Foundation grant in Jacksonville, funding a University of Florida program to promote social connections and food security in local seniors.
KeyBank Community Development Lending & Investment (CDLI) provided Cook Inlet Housing Authority (CIHA) $6.9 million in combined construction-to-permanent loan financing for the development of Elizabeth Place Apartments, along with $5.8 million in LIHTC equity. Elizabeth Place Apartments will be a mixed-use project in downtown Anchorage, AK with commercial space and 38 units of affordable housing for those earning between 50 – 60% area median income (AMI). The project will also have 12 market rate units.
KMF, a Kazakhstan-based microfinance organization, joins Business Call to Action (BCtA) with a commitment to expand access to financial products and services for 40,000 new micro-, small- and agrobusiness customers across Kazakhstan by the end of 2018. KMF also commits to ensuring at least half of its new clients will be women, and will actively engage potential clients from rural areas.
Today, American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Main Street America announced the winners of the 2018 Partners in Preservation: Main Streets campaign. The 11 winning historic sites will receive a total of $1.6 million in grants to fund their respective preservation projects. At the outset of the campaign, an additional $400,000 was allocated to the 20 Main Street communities that participated in the program to increase public awareness of the importance of these historic places and build grassroots support for the participating Main Street districts.
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Environmental Responsibility: We’ve achieved 14 out of 16 of the environmental goals we set in 2010, and we will accelerate our progress as we work to...
