Riverside Church Seeds New Investment Strategy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 28, 2016
The Riverside Church Seeds New Social Justice-Based Investment Strategy
Strategy Targets Urban Minority- Owned and Operated Businesses Committed to ‘Open Door’ Hiring
Morningside Heights, NY – The Riverside Church in the City of New York, one of the nation’s most prominent and socially progressive Christian churches, is pleased to make a significant investment commitment to a social justice- based investment strategy intended to address the economic and social drivers of inequality in the country’s most neglected urban areas. The flash-points of Ferguson, Baltimore, Staten Island and Chicago gave new impetus to the imperative of community reinvestment as a sustainable asset class in Riverside’s balanced portfolio.
“The Riverside Church is a community working to live out God’s vision of the heavenly banquet, where all are loved and blessed,” said Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, senior minister of The Riverside Church. “Every time we take action toward wholeness and justice for all, we’re extending that table. We believe this is one such action.”
Riverside will be the seed investor in a newly-formed private debt impact investment strategy led by Progress Investment Management Company LLC (“Progress”) and Urban Advisors LLC (“Urban”). The Progress – Urban joint venture will serve as the lead investment manager for the strategy on behalf of The Riverside Church.
“Social justice is the love ethic of the Christian faith, and our investment committee should not be exempt from that,” said Lisa Hinds, finance committee chair of The Riverside Church. “Allocating a portion of our resources to world-changing purposes and possibilities is core to our identity.”
The Progress-Urban Investment Strategy seeks to make debt capital available at attractive interest rates to minority- owned and operated businesses in select urban areas nationally that have embraced, among other social metrics, a commitment to ‘open door’ hiring. An open door hiring policy offers employment opportunities regardless of educational attainment, work history, or other social barriers such as incarceration, homelessness, or drug use.
This new strategy also makes capital available to invest with non-profits and social entrepreneurs seeking to grow for-profit social enterprises. Access to debt capital from traditional lenders at competitively-priced market rates is virtually non-existent for many of the nation’s undercapitalized urban businesses and for non-profits operating for- profit ventures. The Progress-Urban Strategy will make loans ranging from $250,000 to $2 million, with an average loan size of $1 million. Typical borrowers will be businesses with less than $3 million in annual earnings.
As part of the strategy, Progress-Urban borrowers may receive technical assistance to help them grow smartly and execute business strategies maximizing their own community impact. A key differentiating feature of the strategy is that, in addition to financial returns, these investments will produce measurable social impact.
“It is important we behave like prudent investors rather than donors or grant-makers,” Hinds says.
The Progress-Urban Strategy plans to target income inequality as the primary social impact factor to address through its loans to small businesses and non-profits. According to the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “Income and wealth inequality are the most prominent social issues in the world today.”
Progress-Urban Strategy is targeting to deploy $50M in total capital. Currently, Progress-Urban is engaged in examining potential deals and hopes to deploy capital by mid-year 2016.
About The Riverside Church
Located in Morningside Heights on the Upper West Side, The Riverside Church in the City of New York is one of the leading voices of Progressive Christianity, influential on America’s religious and political landscapes for more than 85 years. Built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and currently led by The Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, the interracial, interdenominational, and international church has long been a forum for important civic and spiritual leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, President Clinton, the Dalai Lama, and countless others. Visit www.trcnyc.org or find us on social media to learn more about our rich history and the latest news and events.
About Progress Investment Management Company LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Progress Investment Management Company LLC (“Progress”) is a registered investment adviser and multi-manager investment specialist managing over $8 B in assets as of December 31, 2015 for many of the nation’s largest and most sophisticated institutional investors. Celebrating its 25th year in business, Progress specializes in investing with diverse and emerging investment managers in various equity, fixed income and hedge fund investment strategies. Progress is a 100% minority-owned and employee- owned business enterprise. Visit www.progressinvestment.com to learn more about the Company.
About Urban Advisors LLC
Urban Advisors is a minority owned, nationally recognized impact investment consulting firm, based in Charlotte, NC, that has been involved in numerous impact investment initiatives/transactions (market rate and below market rate) over the past ten years. Urban Advisors is focused primarily on capital strategies that help to address asset and income inequality, particularly in underserved communities of color. Overall, Urban Advisors structures initiatives and transactions that leverage philanthropic, public and private capital to help positively address social and environmental issues. Visit www.urbanadv.com to learn more about the Company.
