Profile: Fair Finance Fund

Zawadi Farm – All photos provided by Fair Finance Fund

Background

Mission

The mission at the Fair Finance Fund is to mobilize equitable and accessible capital for Ontario’s food and farm enterprises, which in turn are creating community social, environmental and economic benefits. They work to foster inclusive local economies and remove access-to-capital barriers, especially for equity-deserving communities, including racialized entrepreneurs, women-led businesses, and rural enterprises.

The Fund was co-designed through deep listening and research. The founding Executive Director and board members engaged directly with food and farm clients to understand barriers to entry and co-create solutions. This participatory approach continues today, as they adapt policies, introduce new products, and deliver financial literacy education.

Earth and Soul

Filling capital gaps

Fair Finance Fund fills a key gap by offering financing to community-rooted agricultural businesses often overlooked by traditional lenders. Their work helps build more inclusive and resilient economies in rural Ontario, with aspirations to scale across Canada.

There are real threats to our food systems in Canada, such as land access and domination of supply chains by a handful of large multinational corporations. Big corporations rarely support local economies, instead consolidating wealth at the top. In contrast, money spent at a local business recirculates within the local economy.

Traditional lenders often lack the sector-specific knowledge required to assess small-scale food and agriculture businesses, making them hesitant to provide financing. This disproportionately affects Indigenous, racialized and women-led enterprises. The Fair Finance Fund exists to address this dual challenge — bridging the gap for both underfinanced sectors and equity-deserving entrepreneurs.

Skills and Knowledge

Financial management expertise is essential for fund modeling and operation, scenario stress testing, and oversight. Sectoral knowledge is equally important to understand the realities of food and farm businesses, help tailor support, and to build trust with clients. Having this knowledge embedded across the board, investment committees, and operations team strengthens their wraparound support.

Financial Products and Capital Sources

The core product is a loan ranging from $20,000 to $200,000 with a 7.5% fixed interest rate for a 5-year term. These loans are paired with wraparound support, including mentorship and tailored business development tools. The Fund specifically serves enterprises that are often deemed “unbankable” by traditional lenders.

Inclusive Prosperity is a subsidiary organisation under the umbrella of the Fair Finance Fund that manages the following:

1. African Canadian Farmers Fund: financing for land acquisition designed to help African Canadian farmers build equity over a 10-year period. The ultimate goal is to enable participating farmers to transition to full land ownership and eventually qualify for traditional mortgages, securing their financial futures.
2. The Nourish Fund: An urban farming microfinance initiative launched in Scarborough for equity-deserving urban farmers and food entrepreneurs. It provides standard, non-profit, and micro loans.

Unlocking policy

Fair Finance Fund is interested in policy reform around RRSP eligibility for community bonds, which could unlock large amounts of capital from retail investors. Also, a community loan guarantee pool would significantly de-risk lending in the social finance sector, unlocking more capital for high-impact ventures.

By the numbers

Riverside Oasis Farm