If you’re looking for a new worthwhile investment that could have a broader societal impact, Jessica David and the team at the Rhode Island Community Investment Cooperative have a pitch for you.
It’s called the Local Return Diversified Community Investment Fund, and it’s seeking to raise $3.5 million through a direct public offering to invest in local real estate projects and related ventures that create or preserve local ownership and economic activity.
David, a former executive vice president at the Rhode Island Foundation, has been working on this project for several years, and she and her team are now beginning to raise money. They ultimately hope to make loans and equity investments between $15,000 and $500,000 to help real estate developers with their first projects, assist small businesses in controlling their real estate, promote shared ownership models, or support nonprofit community development projects.
You can learn more about the fund by clicking here, and I asked David to tell us more below.
Get Rhode Map
A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State.
Q: You’re calling this the first Local Return Diversified Community Investment Fund in the country, and Rhode Island’s first-ever community investment fund. Why is it necessary to create this kind of program?
David: Community investment funds are vehicles for raising capital from within a community and investing it into ventures that benefit the community. Because of federal law, it’s really hard to pool our money in ways that benefit our people and places and produce a financial return for ourselves. The Local Return DCIF focuses on using local assets to make our communities more vibrant, generating and keeping wealth right here in Rhode Island. Economist and author Michael Shuman has said, “Americans now have about $56 trillion in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance funds, nearly all of it invested in global corporations. If we could shift even a small amount of that capital from Wall Street to Main Street, local economies could flourish.” That’s what we’re trying to enable.
Q: Tell us about the planning process. You first launched your nonprofit in 2021. What have you been doing since?
David: It’s been a journey! We started Local Return to build community wealth through community investment and ownership. We set out to create an investment vehicle that does three things: creates a structure that makes room for unaccredited investors – everyday Rhode Islanders – to participate, centers power and decision-making in the community, and builds local capacity. With the help of expert advisors, we’ve been able to draw on models from around the US. We’ve received legal support from Pathlight Law, a mission-driven firm that has pioneered community capital strategies since 2010. Together, we created a legal structure and fundraising strategy that allows us to be compliant with federal and state regulations and achieve our goals.
Q: Your goal is to initially raise $3.5 million. Do you already have a project in mind that you’d like to invest in?
David: We’ve identified four types of projects that we’d like to invest in: First, we want to help small businesses own – and thus build equity from – their space. We know lots of entrepreneurs who have invested a lot into rented real estate but are not reaping the rewards of ownership. Second, we want to help neighborhood residents generate intergenerational wealth by taking on their first small-scale real estate projects. Think: triple-deckers or accessory dwelling units. Third, we’ll likely support revitalization projects that are key to the health and vitality of specific communities. And fourth, we want to seed shared ownership models like housing trusts or cooperatives.
Q: Give us a best-case scenario for where this program will be by 2030.
David: In our best-case scenario, we surpassed our $3.5 million goal quickly with the support of a broad base of Rhode Islanders so we could focus on deploying the funds into exceptional projects in communities across the state, refining our community-driven due diligence process, and generating returns for our investors. Our portfolio projects are rejuvenating their neighborhoods, creating jobs, and keeping money circulating throughout Rhode Island’s economy. And since we’ve always said that we created Local Return to build community wealth, by 2030 we’re working on our next community investment vehicle!
This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, links to interesting stories, and more. If you’d like to receive it via email Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.
Dan McGowan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @danmcgowan.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66e9a7af265e4237ab946ed49b4e9964&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bostonglobe.com%2F2024%2F09%2F17%2Fmetro%2Fnew-rhode-island-investment-fund-jessica-david%2F&c=6158090840794532198&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-09-17 04:09:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
