THE IDEA

Impact Finance Center and Oweesta Corporation seek to engage impact investors in Native community investment needs and opportunities. We have led a series of investor club webinars to begin engagement and are now contacting them directly to learn more about the hurdles keeping them from investing in Native communities. Our goal is to attract investments in Native communities and create a sustainable program that continues to attract investors and investments.

 

WHAT WE ARE DOING

Over the past 18 months, Impact Finance Center and Oweesta have partnered together to produce three Investor Club events, helping build investor engagement in the Native Community Development Financial Institution (Native CDFI) movement. Impact Finance Center has also begun to bring ventures seeking investment to Oweesta – showing the true value of the two-way marketplace. Now, Impact Finance Center and Oweesta have identified 200 possible impact investors interested in Native communities who we want to connect to aligned investment opportunities.

HERE’S THE PROBLEM

Asset stewards who have an interest in supporting Native communities do not know where to find opportunities or that there are a broad range of impact investing tools available to make that support most impactful. This leaves ‘money on the table’ that never gets invested into the kinds of ventures (e.g. projects, startups, small businesses, nonprofits, funds, cooperatives, CDFIs and more) that can build assets in and stimulate Native communities.

 

WHY NATIVE COMMUNITIES?

Native Community Development Finance Institutions directly provide Native American communities the tools and capital support required for real and sustainable job creation, small business development, commercial real estate development, and affordable housing/home ownership, while also offering basic banking services and financial literacy training to “underbanked” Native American communities who have been historically targeted by predatory lending practices.

Capital access stands as a barrier to the success of many NCDFIs; in 2021, Native CDFIs in Oweesta’s portfolio were not able to finance $88MM due to lack of capital. Oweesta provides qualified Native CDFIs with loan/investment capital, which is then reinvested in the communities by the NCDFI in the form of housing, consumer or small business loans, or leveraged to attract additional capital. In addition, Oweesta supports investor who seek to work directly with community-based CDFIs with a host of investor support services.

 

THE INTERVIEWS

We will make 30-minute structured interview calls to all 200 possible impact investors interested in Native communities that we have identified to understand each prospect’s interests, ability to invest, and need for education.