Nonprofit Finance Fund - Where Money Meets Mission

Pine Street Inn, hopeFound Announce Merger

asoya — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:54:52 +0000

Boston-based Homeless Service Agencies Combine to Offer Better-Coordinated Services to Homeless Men and Women

(Boston–January 30, 2012) Pine Street Inn and hopeFound, two top organizations dedicated to ending homelessness in Boston, today announced that their boards have voted to formally merge the two organizations, under the name and management of Pine Street Inn.

“By merging Pine Street Inn and hopeFound into one organization to deliver a comprehensive and coordinated range of services, we will better support Boston’s homeless men and women, accelerating their transition from the streets and emergency shelter into permanent housing,” said Corinne Ferguson, board chair of Pine Street Inn.

Lyndia Downie will serve as president and executive director of the merged entity. Mary Nee, executive director of hopeFound, will step down from her position and will serve as a consultant with Pine Street Inn during the transition. The merger is expected to be complete in March 2012.

The two organizations began informal discussions about the merger in late 2010 when Nee raised the possibility with Downie that a combined entity could be more effective in achieving mutual goals, especially around housing placement for hopeFound clients.

Strategic analysis conducted by hopeFound in 2010 suggested that the best long-term course of action for carrying out its mission would be a merger. Pine Street Inn was seen as a great fit because both organizations shared similar missions and offered many complementary services and strengths. After a thorough due diligence process, the boards of directors of both organizations recently voted to merge.

“We decided to merge because hopeFound’s mission, the focus of board discussions for many years, requires us to keep innovating to help end homelessness, and we realized the best new idea this time around was to partner with Pine Street,” said Stephen Skinner, board president of hopeFound.

At a time of limited resources, this alignment is expected to manage resources more efficiently and to make a bigger impact on the problem of homelessness in Boston – the ultimate goal of both organizations separately and combined.

“As two of Boston’s leading agencies providing services to our city’s most vulnerable residents, I applaud Pine Street Inn and hopeFound for their decision to merge. Now homeless men and women in Boston will have better access to the services they need to get off the streets, out of shelter and into permanent housing, bringing us one step closer to ending homelessness here in Boston,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

The merger discussions were advanced with financial support from the Catalyst Fund, a unique five-year fund launched in September 2010, created through a partnership of The Boston Foundation, Boston LISC, The Hyams Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and managed by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF). The Catalyst Fund is a source of financial and technical advisory support as a catalyst for promising voluntary collaborative ventures and mergers among nonprofit organizations.

“The Pine Street Inn and hopeFound combination is a shining example of how, with the right approach and support, two high performing and financially strong nonprofit organizations can use strategic collaborations and mergers to respond to a changing economic landscape in which new, innovative and more cost-effective ways of doing business are essential for achieving continued, meaningful improvements in the lives of individuals, families and communities of need,” said Bill Pinakiewicz, Director of the New England Program at the Nonprofit Finance Fund. “The Catalyst Fund is proud to have been a supporting partner in this bold and thoughtful action by both organizations and their Boards that significantly advances Boston’s dialogue about the community benefits of nonprofit collaborations and mergers.”

In the coming months Pine Street Inn will carefully assess the best way to coordinate the delivery of services and to maximize the strengths of each organization to deliver all the services homeless men and women need to move toward permanent housing, stability and their highest level of self-sufficiency. The combined organization will offer a range of services, including permanent housing, emergency shelter, street outreach, substance abuse treatment, and job training and placement.

Read article in The Boston Globe

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CONTACT:
Barbara Trevisan
617.892.9174
617.460.3022 (cell)

New Report from Nonprofit Finance Fund Finds Philanthropic Equity Puts Nonprofits on the Path to Sustainability

asoya — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:01:02 +0000

NFF Capital Partners’ Portfolio Analysis Shows Philanthropic Equity Investments Nearly Quadrupled Nonprofits’ Services to Their Communities And Expanded Revenue By 170% Since 2006

New York, NY – January 26, 2012 – Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) released today an updated report of its ongoing comprehensive philanthropic equity campaigns, which, on average, have nearly tripled revenue and grown program delivery by 370 percent for participating nonprofit organizations since 2006.

The impact presented in NFF Capital Partners’ Portfolio Performance Report provides concrete evidence of the value of philanthropic equity investments, which are typically significant, multi-year investments that a nonprofit organization uses on the path to sustainable growth or change. Since 2006, NFF Capital Partners has supported 18 campaigns for philanthropic equity, totaling $326 million in financial investments.

When done right, philanthropic equity acts as an early-stage investment in an organization for investors seeking social, rather than financial, returns. With the infusion of this one-time growth capital investment that is distinct and separate from annual revenue that pays for program and operating costs, nonprofits can focus on building their organizations to better address the social problems they seek to solve. Using transparent and shared reporting systems, the expectation is that the funding will be used to transform an organization in a way that sticks, allowing them to grow and build.

“Often, the scale of a nonprofit isn't up to the scale of the problem it seeks to address. Often, great programs get stuck in the day to day and cannot make the leaps required to affect real change,” says Craig Reigel, Managing Director of NFF Capital Partners. “At a time when nonprofits are facing an uphill battle to solve our nation’s social problems, philanthropic equity allows nonprofits to build the businesses required to implement effective business models, scale impact, and create lasting change.”

The NFF performance report measures the comprehensive philanthropic equity campaigns for which multi-year data are available. Among NFF Capital Partners’ nine multi-year campaigns, business model revenue excluding philanthropic equity investments has expanded by $63 million compared to pre-campaign baselines. This growth allows organizations to sustain their programs over time.

Late in 2011, portfolio member VolunteerMatch reached 100 percent sustainability. In doing so, they achieved one of their core goals of applying philanthropic equity.

"Raising Growth Capital gave us the flexibility we needed to invest in scaling our model and becoming a sustainable social enterprise" said Greg Baldwin, President of VolunteerMatch. "By securing philanthropic capital up front, and using it strategically, we've been able to nearly double our social impact while eliminating our dependence on big grants to keep the lights on. Thanks in part to NFF Capital Partner's insight and support, VolunteerMatch has grown up and last year was able to independently cover the costs of operating a social network that unlocked over $600 million worth of volunteer service.”

To view the full report, please visit: http://nonprofitfinancefund.org/capital-services/2011-portfolio-performance-report

To read "Philanthropic Equity: Promising Early Returns" by NFF's Craig Reigel in the recent issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly, please click here.

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About Nonprofit Finance Fund
Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) is a national leader in nonprofit, philanthropic and social enterprise finance. Founded in 1980, NFF provides loan financing, access to capital and direct advisory services that build the capacity and the financial health of nonprofits. A leading community development financial institution with over $80 million in assets, NFF has provided over $235 million in loans and access to additional financing via grants, tax credits and capital in support of over $1.3 billion in projects for thousands of nonprofit clients nationwide. NFF has a staff of 70 serving nonprofits nationally from offices in New York City, Philadelphia, Newark, New Jersey, Boston, Detroit, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Media contact:
Justin Ordman
jordman@solomonmccown.com
617-699-5281

"The Latest in Socially Conscious Investing: Human Capital Performance Bonds" in Institutional Investor

asoya — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:52:56 +0000

To read "The Latest in Socially Conscious Investing: Human Capital Performance Bonds" by Katie Gilbert in the January 10th issue of Institutional Investor, please click here.

"Philanthropic Equity: Promising Early Returns" in Nonprofit Quarterly

asoya — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:31:17 +0000

To read "Philanthropic Equity: Promising Early Returns" by NFF's Craig Reigel in the recent issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly, please click here.

Remembering Liz Nicholson

aschwalm — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:29:30 +0000

Last week we heard the very sad news that our former NFF colleague, Liz Nicholson, who was the founding director of our DC office, had passed away after a long battle with a terminal brain disease... Read more>>>

"A New Approach to Funding Social Enterprises" in Harvard Business Review

asoya — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:36:26 +0000

To read "A New Approach to Funding Social Enterprises" by Antony Bugg-Levine, Bruce Kogut, and Nalin Kulatilaka in the January - February, 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, please click here.

NFF Congratulates Janet Thompson for Receiving Investors in America Award

asoya — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:20:21 +0000

To read about Janet Thompson, the recipient of the Investors in America Award from Partners for Livable Communities, please click here.

To read about Investors in America Award, please click here.

"Lessons in Financial Management Pay Off for Chicago Charities" in The Chronicle of Philanthropy

asoya — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:33:59 +0000

To read "Lessons in Financial Management Pay Off for Chicago Charities" by Nicole Wallace in the December 4th issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, please click here.

"The Future of Financing Social Change: An Interview with Antony Bugg-Levine"

asoya — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:47:18 +0000

To read "The Future of Financing Social Change: An Interview with Antony Bugg-Levine" by Neil Edgington in Social Velocity, please click here.

NFF’s Philadelphia office has just moved!

asoya — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:38:40 +0000

NEW ADDRESS (As of December 1, 2011):
Nonprofit Finance Fund
1528 Walnut Street, Suite 310
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Same Phone/Fax:
Phone: 215.546.9426
Fax: 215.546.9427

Please come visit us!