We have had a strong year in our lending work, where many of our newest initiatives gained momentum and had tremendous impact in the communities we serve. As witnessed in our 2016 Annual Report, we delivered $118 million in financing through our core lending work that supported community-based health care, high-performing charter schools, innovative approaches to services for seniors, mixed-income housing and access to fresh, healthy foods.
On Sunday, January 22, the Capital Impact family lost a dear friend and colleague, Brad Frost. He will be remembered as an individual of integrity, thoughtfulness, sharp wit, and dedication. Brad wore his passion for Detroit on his sleeve and was an unceasing supporter, critic and advocate for the city and all its residents.
As I close out my first year as Capital Impact Partners’ president and CEO, I find myself incredibly humbled and inspired to be part of a movement that is focused on improving the lives of those in communities across this country.
While we continue to make meaningful progress, the results of our Presidential election highlighted incredibly important issues. Individuals across this country – on both sides of the political aisle – made clear their feelings of disenfranchisement. These concerns about equity, opportunity, and access to quality social services touch all of us.
It is certainly a sentiment we share, and one that we’ve been working to address for the past three decades. Yet, as the political landscape changes and policies evolve, we must continue to challenge ourselves to find new ways to push farther and go deeper.
At Capital Impact, we’re committed to building stronger communities. While we do this primarily through financing, we also recognize the importance of giving back to the communities in which we live and work.
Capital Impact staff celebrate our commitment to our communities throughout the year with individual contributions and volunteer activities. An annual volunteer event has also been part of Capital Impact’s summer all-staff retreat. This year we took our retreat to Detroit, MI, where we visited several of our project sites and learned more about our place-based strategy in the city.
As Capital Impact’s new CEO, I am incredibly excited to take this opportunity to both look back at 2015 and to expound on our new five-year vision to 2020.
Over the past year, we continued to build upon the organization’s strong financial position, deep partnerships, and innovative product development. We provided ongoing leadership in the health care space, helped a number of charter schools expand their educational offerings, and saw several of our projects come online across Detroit. We also launched two new lending initiatives that will expand access to healthy foods and support age-friendly communities.
As I think about my 32 years with Capital Impact Partners, I am overwhelmed when I consider the thousands of stakeholders that have made contributions to our work of helping people and communities across the country reach their highest potential.
This army of people and organizations, all part of the ongoing and thriving community development finance sector, includes partners who have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with us; investors whose capital participation helped us stand up a strategy that continues to generate high impact outcomes; foundations whose contributions increase our capacity and enable transactions that otherwise would not be possible; and our many board members whose selfless contribution of their time and talent helped to guide us in our endeavor. In my mind, they are our real heroes.
As a mission-driven lender, our core values of cooperation, leadership, commitment, diversity, innovation, and trust are the foundation of Capital Impact Partners’ work. They shape our culture. They underlie our decisions and actions. They help define our brand and strategy. They guide our relationships with borrowers, partners, investors, staff and the communities we serve. Simply put, our values inspire us to do our best every day.
Today we are launching Innovate for Impact, Capital Impact Partners’ new blog. Our newest communications venture comes at a pivotal time for the organization – with my upcoming retirement, the launch of our 2020 strategy, and transition to Ellis Carr as Capital Impact’s new president and CEO, 2016 is going to be an exciting year!
We are kicking off a period of growth and innovation – building on the work we are already doing, and looking at what’s next for Capital Impact. We look forward to using this forum to bring you with us on this journey.
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ding work, where many of our newest initiatives gained momentum and had tremendous impact in the communities we serve. As witnessed in our 2016 Annual Report, we delivered $118 million in financing through our core lending work that supported community-based health care, high-performing charter schools, innovative approaches to services for seniors, mixed-income housing and access to fresh, healthy foods.
