The Kresge Foundation announced today a $7 million guarantee commitment to the Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP). This strategic investment underscores Kresge’s interest in fostering resilient and equitable cities through innovative capital solutions.

The Community Investment Guarantee Pool is a groundbreaking initiative that brings together philanthropic capital from 16 institutions to catalyze and support community development projects that might otherwise face challenges in securing traditional financing. By providing non-cash guarantees, CIGP enhances the creditworthiness of community-led projects, unlocking crucial funding streams and empowering communities to realize their transformative visions.

Locus, a national community development organization that provides lending, advisory, and financial services, houses CIGP. Launched in 2019, CIGP has quickly proven its efficacy by mobilizing more than $50 million in philanthropic capital to support a diverse range of projects across the nation in three sectors — affordable housing, small business/jobs and climate.

“Kresge is proud to strengthen its partnership with the Community Investment Guarantee Pool through this $7 million commitment,” said Aaron Seybert, managing director of Kresge’s Social Investment Practice. “This initiative is born out of our belief in the power of collaboration and innovative financing models to drive positive change in communities. By leveraging our resources through CIGP, we can catalyze projects that will have a lasting impact in communities that traditional markets overlook.”

By pooling guarantees from multiple foundations, CIGP maximizes the impact of philanthropic dollars, creating a ripple effect of positive change in communities facing economic challenges. Fellow philanthropies invested in CIGP include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the California Community Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, the California Endowment, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Common Spirit, the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund, Arnold Ventures, Phillips Foundation, Gary Community Ventures, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Seattle Foundation, the Sierra Club Foundation, Weingart Foundation, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

Kresge was an original investor and incubator of CIGP in 2019, committing a $10 million investment then. Its new $7 million guarantee commitment follows a recent announcement from philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott of a $12 million grant to leverage learnings from the Pool and scale the availability of guarantees for community development.

“This follow-on commitment from Kresge and Scott’s grant demonstrate a shared confidence in the effectiveness of CIGP and its ability to mitigate risk concerns while helping community development partners to advance equity and innovation,” said Jim Baek, executive director of CIGP. “By providing a one-stop shop for community lenders like CDFIs to find and deploy credit enhancement, we help to further our guarantors’ shared vision for building a nation of resilient and inclusive communities where everyone thrives. This partnership exemplifies the strength that comes from collaboration and shared values.”

About The Kresge Foundation:

The Kresge Foundation is a private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through grantmaking and investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development efforts in Detroit. For more information, visit www.kresge.org.

About the Community Investment Guarantee Pool:

The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) is a financing tool launched in December 2019 by impact investing organizations to create a pooled commitment of financial guarantees for intermediaries in affordable housing, small business and climate finance. CIGP accelerates community investments by more fully leveraging philanthropic balance sheets for mission. The guarantors that help make CIGP possible are the Kresge Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California Endowment, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Common Spirit Health, Gary Community Ventures, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Phillips Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Locus, Weingart Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the Sierra Club Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, and California Community Foundation. Locus, a national community development organization, houses CIGP. For more information, visit guaranteepool.org.