Success Story: Industry-Leading Impact Tools
In 2016, PCV began moving from our efforts at laying the groundwork for impact investing, to creating the tools and frameworks that investors would need to create real, measureable social and environmental good. Our early efforts at this involved partnering with Northern California Community Loan Fund (NCCLF), to develop a tool called the Social Impact Rating […]
May 10, 2016 –
Investing in Small Business and Big Ideas
In 2016 the U.S. unemployment rate dropped below 5% for the first time in ten years, real incomes rose slightly for the first time in decades, and social impact investing finally entered the mainstream. Yet almost half of American workers are stuck in low-wage jobs at places like strip malls and fast food restaurants, the […]
May 09, 2016 –
Our CGI America Commitment to Action
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Clinton Global Initiative America, which convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. Well, just two weeks ago, PCV joined hosts President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton in Denver for the CGI America’s meeting. PCV was proud to participate in this two-day event […]
May 12, 2015 –
Impact Investing and Economically-Targeted Investing
There’s almost nothing we’ve been prouder of over the last 20 years than our ability as an organization to create partnerships and build coalitions. In 2015 we turned our eyes to some of the biggest holders of untapped impact capital in America: pension funds. In order to make the case to both fund managers and […]
May 11, 2015 –
The Definition Of a Quality Job
2015 was a turning point on PCV’s focus. As an organization we decided that it wasn’t justifiable to focus on job creation alone, and that we would only focus on creating good-quality jobs. But up until now there hasn’t been one authoritative way of defining a quality job that we, or any CDFI, foundation, investor, […]
May 10, 2015 –
New Leadership, Major Awards
In 2015 we saw the start of a new era at PCV. Over the past years, Pacific Community Ventures’ impact had grown steadily and the organization became poised to scale nationally and internationally. PCV was at an exciting inflection point in 2015 with an effective and proven platform now in place on which the organization […]
May 09, 2015 –
Investing in Good Jobs for Working People
As we turned the corner into 2015 our economy was thriving — on paper. Since the end of the Great Recession, almost 12 million jobs have been created. But, average wages working Americans have dropped 23 percent. The strongest job growth these past few years has all been in low-wage work, at places like strip […]
May 08, 2015 –
The First-Ever “Roadmap for Impact Investing”
In 2014, Pacific Community Ventures created the first-ever “roadmap for impact investing” for the G8 Taskforce on Social Impact Investment. At the same time, we published a seminal report on Impact Investing global policy. In the present day the impact investing industry has been solidly established at a global level, with hundreds of billions — en route […]
May 09, 2014 –
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
In the five years following the start of the “Great Recession” Pacific Community Ventures helped fuel the economic recovery for underinvested communities. Over those five years we invested money and resources in 867 small businesses across 25 states. Those companies created 1,297 jobs, averaging 12% job growth and paying out $250,000,000 in wages. In 2014, PCV doubled […]