Thrive Impact Fund focuses on providing flexible and patient loans, providing the right capital at the right time to help social enterprises grow, unlocking untapped potential in local communities and providing a way for investors to make both financial and impactful returns.
Written by: Kristi Fairholm Mader
On June 1, 2021, we incorporated the Thrive Impact Fund, and this Fall we are officially launching.
What a journey! I tend to like to move quickly through concept, research, pilot and launch, believing that the kinks get worked out through action and doing. But as it turns out, conceptualizing and developing an impact investment fund is a different process, one that requires time for process and reflection, a deep community of support, and a whole lot of technical and legal knowledge! We have been privileged to have access to all three.
Today, as I am reflecting on this point of the journey, I am specifically grateful for the community of support that helped bring TIF into fruition. In particular, I want to recognize a number of people whose guidance has been instrumental:
- Carol Hall from Victoria Foundation was part of the early imaginings of how the right capital at the right time could leap forward the enterprising initiatives that were coming out of the Thriving Non Profits program
- The Integrated Capital Institute was 9 mind-blowing months around aligning values to money, and painting a picture of what is possible. There are so many amazing people that have shared their ideas, networks and models with us since, that have helped conceptualize this fund. In particular, I want to thank Joel Solomon (Renewal Funds), Wendy Cooper (Dragonfly Ventures), Janice St. Onge (Flexible Capital Fund), David LeZaks (Croatan Institute), Amy Gudgeon (Studio Watershed) and Manuel Vega (Capital de Impacto Social).
- McConnell Foundation’s Solutions Finance Accelerator was instrumental in providing support and mentorship, and a community of practice. The cohort is an incredible group of people doing amazing work across Canada-thank you McConnell for building capacity in the social finance ecosystem. In particular, we want to thank Christian Novak (FM Advisors) who provided us invaluable mentorship, Julie Segal (McConnell Foundation) who guided the whole process, and both Brian Smith and Lana Selbee (Yukonstruct) for walking the journey with us.
- Andrew Greer from Purppl has also been incredibly collaborative and open about their experience with place-based investment. And Dawn Bowles (Flourish Strategies) has been so open with her vast expertise and is always up for a walk.
- I want to thank our founding investors. Your vote of confidence and shared values/vision has made Thrive Impact Fund possible.
These moments of pause and reflection are important. Each step in the process was essential. Each person above (and many more) was instrumental and helped put another building block in place. We are still in the early days and know the road ahead will be both exhilarating and nail biting, but we are entering these waters with both a steady well-built ship and this deep community of support. Onwards!
