The Catalyst: Community Finance Initiative is a multi-year initiative to develop enhanced ecosystem and policy infrastructure to support the start-up and scale up place-based community finance organizations in urban, rural and Northern communities in Ontario and across the country.
Our Mission
- Collectively design relevant ecosystem and provincial public policy infrastructure to ensure that community finance institutions can successfully and sustainably start-up and scale their impact;
- Facilitate knowledge sharing amongst place-based finance and capacity organizations; and
- Engage existing and new community finance organizations that can serve organizations, projects, and enterprises in selected urban, rural and Northern communities, alongside mainstream leaders in philanthropy, public policy, and financial institutions.
Outputs:
- Learning Community of current and interested place-based community capital stakeholders;
- Community Capital Research Report including case studies, map, data, and comparative analysis of Canadian (federal and provincial), US and UK policies that support community capital institutions
- Action Plan including potential policy interventions to scale up community capital institutions in Ontario as well as potential ecosystem infrastructure interventions with an appropriately phased plan to scale up community capital institutions in Ontario and across Canada
- Tools and templates for community capital leaders.
Catalyst Capacity Building Program: Seeking Advisors and Fund Candidates
The Catalyst Capacity Building Program is community finance intermediary education program pilot to build capacity for at least ten (10) start-up/emergent and scale-up/existing place-based community finance intermediaries, including integrating an equity lens into their investment approach through tailored education.
Catalyst: Community Finance Initiative is seeking Advisors to provide 1-1 and group coaching and guidance to upcoming place-based community finance intermediaries on a variety of topics.
Catalyst is also looking for both new and existing Place-based Community Finance Intermediaries to participate in its Capacity Building Program. Please see below for more details and the application process.
Seeking: Advisors for Catalyst Capacity Building Program
20Catalyst: Community Finance Initiative is seeking Advisors to provide 1-1 and group coaching and guidance to upcoming place-based community finance intermediaries on a variety of topics as listed below. This is a paid role with compensation dependent on the scope, scale, and length of the engagement. Please see below for more details and the application process.
We encourage advisor applications from those across race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, geographic locations and lived experiences. We value lived experience alongside educational and workplace experience; if you are comfortable highlighting all your experience on your application, this will help us consider in a holistic way.
About
Catalyst: Community Finance Initiative is a multi-year initiative to develop enhanced ecosystem and policy infrastructure to support both start-up/emergent and scale-up/existing place-based community finance intermediaries in urban, rural and Northern communities in Ontario and across the country.
The Capacity Building Program: A community finance intermediary education program pilot to build capacity for at least ten (10) start-up/emergent and scale-up/existing place-based community finance intermediaries, including integrating an equity lens into their investment approach through tailored education.
Topics Catalyst is seeking Advisors for are as listed below. Please note that we don’t expect any one individual or organization to have expertise in all these fields. Catalyst is hoping to put together a wholesome roster of several Advisors who can cover the below:
- Business, operational, and financial model of fund design and management
- Legal, tax, and regulatory aspects of fund design, development, and deployment
- Building a clear and succinct Theory of Change (that balances impact and financial returns)
- Ethics of fund management
- Advancing gender and racial justice and equity through the Fund’s investment strategy and decision making
- Fundraising and navigating with potential investors to understand their processes, alignment, mutual fit etc.
- Navigating philanthropic foundations (to leverage for grants for capacity building, and then eventually to raise capital)
- Navigating government relations (can help with initiatives such as the Social Finance Fund)
- Impact measurement and management
- Deal room development and designing presentations and materials (pitch decks, one pagers, financial models, etc.)
Compensation and Details:
- This a paid role with compensation based on the scope and length of the engagement.
- Advisors must be located within Canada.
- There is an opportunity for both in-person and virtual meetings.
- Advisor work schedule will be determined based on needs and may include some evening and weekend work.
Please complete this form, and we will be in touch.
The deadline to apply is 5 pm EST on Monday, March 20.
Seeking: Participants for Catalyst Capacity Building Program
Catalyst: Community Finance Initiative is looking for both new and existing Place-based Community Finance Intermediaries to participate in its Capacity Building Program. Please see below for more details and the application process.
About
Catalyst: Community Finance Initiative is a multi-year initiative to develop enhanced ecosystem and policy infrastructure to support both start-up/emergent and scale-up/existing place-based community finance intermediaries in urban, rural and Northern communities in Ontario and across the country.
The Capacity Building Program: A community finance intermediary education program pilot to build capacity for at least ten (10) start-up/emergent and scale-up/existing place-based community finance intermediaries, including integrating an equity lens into their investment approach through tailored education.
Target Place-based Community Finance Intermediary Profile
This program is designed for place-based community finance intermediaries providing debt and/or equity financing to enterprises, organizations, and/or projects in a local community, region, or ecosystem. This includes community loan funds, community futures organizations, community financing co-operatives, community land trusts, and similar entities. For avoidance of doubt, this program is not designed for organizations seeking to finance a single project, organization, or enterprise.
We are seeking candidates with the following characteristics:
- Participants may be emergent and seeking to start up operations or already active and seeking to scale-up their fund operations.
- Participants should be planning to go to market with their first fund or next fund within a reasonable timeframe (eg. the next 6-12 months).
- Participants should be willing to demonstrate a commitment to gender and racial equity in their current or future operations.
- We want to maximize a range of geographic representation, so we are encouraging participation from intermediaries focused on rural and Northern communities. We also want to advance racial equity so we are also encouraging participation from indigenous communities and intermediaries supporting Persons of Colour.
- Participants should demonstrate community support and participation in their operations.
Please complete this form, and we will be in touch.
The deadline to apply is 5 pm EST on Monday, March 20.
Stewardship Group
Catalyst: Community Finance Initiative is a collaborative with a growing, wide range of networks, intermediaries and funders. The collaborative is stewarded by a number of key partners:
Resources
Catalyst Action Plan
After our first year of engagement with community stakeholders, Catalyst has prepared a comprehensive Action Plan including overall objectives, goals, and next steps.
Catalyst Community Finance Initiative Ecosystem Convening Summary
Catalyst Community Finance Initiative Stakeholder Engagement Report
Five must read resources on place-based impact investing
Place-Based Impact Investing: Catalyzing women-led enterprises in Ontario’s COVID recovery
Five Ways to Catalyze Community Capital in Ontario
Why Community Capital Institutions Could be the Key to Recovery
Place-Based Impact Investing: Three Briefs for Practitioners
