Although billions of public and private dollars are invested in fisheries every year, more often than not, sustainability is neither the driver nor the intended outcome of those investment dollars. Pacific Community Ventures is excited to be one of the founding endorsers of the Principles for Investment in Sustainable Wild-Caught Fisheries. These principles will forward the impact- and sustainable-investment worlds by help investors who want to grow their capital while enabling sustainable practices in wild-caught fisheries. Launched at the World Ocean Summit 2018, the Principles are designed to provide investors with certainty about the specific challenges and enabling conditions in wild-caught fisheries, while also generating confidence that building environmental and social sustainability into fisheries will yield a strong return on their investment. The Principles cover everything from data-poor fisheries to human rights to food security. They align with IFC Performance Standards and UN Principles of Responsible Investment and are designed to advance … Read More
New Source Of Capital For Small Business Owners of Color in Contra Costa County
Pacific Community Ventures – a nonprofit small business lender that’s fueled small businesses in San Francisco and Oakland for 20 years – has just announced a new expansion to provide small business owners in Contra Costa County access the funding and business advice they need to grow their businesses, create jobs, and support the local economy. The majority of businesses supported in the coming years will be minority-owned, women-owned, and immigrant-owned enterprises, reflecting the rich diversity of Contra Costa County’s entrepreneurial community that includes underserved small business owners who are often overlooked in as they work to create wealth in the region. Investing in small businesses combats rising income inequality by creating jobs with living wages; and yet, small businesses struggle to access the capital and support they need to grow. Every day, 8,000 small business loan requests are declined by banks across the nation. Here in California, African-American women … Read More
Reflections On SOCAP 2017
In early October, Pacific Community Ventures had the opportunity to engage with panels at SOCAP in all capacities – as moderators, speakers, and attendees. SOCAP, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a record gathering of 3,000 attendees, is the “largest impact investing capital markets gathering in the world.” As an organization with both a small business lending program and an impact investing consulting practice, we were eager to share our insights as well as learn from innovators in the Bay Area and across the world. Needless to say, we packed a lot of learning into four days. Here are our 6 top takeaways: The current political climate is creating a sense of urgency that’s driving a booming interest in the impact investing industry. Panelists and attendees alike emphasized that the general public no longer believes we can necessarily rely on the government to solve our problems and address … Read More
PCV and Opportunity Fund Have Joined Forces
America’s leading nonprofit small business lender and mentoring platform join forces for Santa Clara County entrepreneurs, supported by $600,000 grant from Google.org Pacific Community Ventures and Opportunity Fund are excited to announce a new collaboration funded by Google.org through a $600,000 grant. Their grant will help 150 small business owners in Santa Clara County access the funding and business advice they need to grow their businesses, create jobs, and support the local economy. Through the partnership, Opportunity Fund – the nation’s leading non-profit small business lender and a Google Impact Challenge finalist in 2014 – will connect the businesses it has funded in Silicon Valley to the award-winning network of advisors run by Pacific Community Ventures. The majority of businesses supported through the partnership will be minority-owned, women-owned, and immigrant-owned enterprises, reflecting the rich diversity of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial community that includes underserved small business owners who are often … Read More
Announcing The Impact Due Diligence Initiative
PCV is excited to announce the launch of the Impact Due Diligence Initiative. This project will identify best practices in impact due diligence, which we’ll build into a free, practical toolkit for investors across sectors – including foundations, faith-based organizations, CDFIs, equity fund managers, institutional investors, and others – seeking to assess the expected social impact of their investments but who may not know where to start. The impact investing industry has been focused primarily on assessing the social and environmental impacts of investments after capital has been deployed. Through PCV’s research and consulting engagements with numerous investors across geographies, asset classes, and impact themes over the past 10+ years, we’ve learned that the social and environmental performance reported by financed companies to investors has, in many cases, little to no influence on investment decisions. Why? First, it’s difficult for investors to determine whether reported social and environmental performance is good or … Read More
We’ve Won A 2017 CDFI Fund Award
Great news! We’re excited to announce that Pacific Community Ventures has been awarded a 2017 CDFI Fund award, to support our programs delivering capital to small businesses across California that create good jobs for working people and build community wealth from the bottom up. In 2016, the small businesses in our lending program grew revenues by 20% on average (vs. 8% for comparable businesses) and saw 73% job growth (vs. 2% for comparable businesses). We’re a nonprofit lender that provides fair and affordable small business loans from $10,000 to $200,000 to California businesses. Our loans help small business owners like thrive and be successful. In addition to quarterly meetings with a pro bono financial advisor, PCV small business loan borrowers also get free tailored business advice from our BusinessAdvising.org program’s pool of 500+ experts in any area they need, like marketing, business strategy, or sales. If you’re a California company … Read More
We’ve Been Awarded An Aspen Institute Quality Jobs Fellowship!
We’re thrilled to announce that Pacific Community Ventures and our President and CEO — Mary Jo Cook — were chosen as one of 15 fellows by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program to more deeply engage in work that expands the availability of better quality jobs in our economy. Americans place a high value on work, and believe hard work should offer a pathway to economic security. But decades of lagging wages, eroding benefits, and declining employment security means too many jobs do not match that vision of work as a pathway to a better life. To restore the ideal of work as the pathway to the American Dream, our economy needs more quality jobs. “Now is the time to focus on making better quality jobs,” said Maureen Conway, vice president for policy programs and executive director of the Economic Opportunities Program at the Aspen Institute. “That’s why we’re launching the Job Quality Fellowship. It … Read More
We Need Your Small Business’ Voice
Here at Pacific Community Ventures, we’ve seen firsthand though our work with small businesses that job creation alone is insufficient to create lasting economic change in underserved communities and for working people. We view the advancement of quality jobs as an important avenue to better support underserved communities and address rising income and wealth inequality across the U.S. As part of our vision to make quality job creation the norm, we must equip small businesses with the practical tools and resources they need to offer higher quality jobs in a way that balances their business’ financial and operational needs with their employees’ interests. We’re committed to empowering small business owners to succeed – and believe a simple, practical quality jobs toolkit will help them to improve job quality for their workers, thereby reducing turnover, improving productivity and revenue, and boosting brand reputation. In order to create a resource that meets … Read More
PCV Reaffirms Our Support For The Small Business Borrower’s Bill of Rights
We work with small business owners who have a dream, but who don’t have big built-in networks or access to enormous sums of capital. For example, the fastest-growing group of Americans starting new ventures is African-American women. But you’d never know that based on where the money is going. Sarah Kersten Studio in Berkeley has been manufacturing heirloom-quality ceramics for Bay Area consumers and restaurants for the past four years. Sales have increased steadily, as has their popularity with major San Francisco restaurants like Frances and Octavia. As a growing small business, owner Sarah was having trouble accessing traditional sources of capital to expand her inventory. Her company didn’t meet the guidelines of most mainstream lenders, so Sarah had to look for an alternative lender. Pacific Community Ventures was able to provide Sarah a loan with an affordable rate. Sarah’s story is the story for thousands of California small businesses. … Read More