Megan Mendenhall
RSF Social Finance
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Past articles by Megan:
Announcing 2016 Seed Fund Grantees
Each spring, RSF provides small gifts to seed new initiatives that offer innovative solutions in the field of social finance, or address issues in one of our three focus areas – Food & Agriculture, Education & the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship. Thank you to all of our individual investors, donors, and staff members who make … → Read More
Clients in Conversation: Marian Moore and Lorene Arey Play BIG
Originally published in the RSF Spring Quarterly Fresh off the heels of 2016’s Play BIG, co-founder Marian Moore and attendee Lorene Arey talk takeaways from the four-day event. At Play BIG, participants—all with significant discretionary wealth—are challenged to reimagine their money in the context of the broader vision and mission of their work and their … → Read More
True Peer-to-Peer Lending
Originally published in the RSF Spring Quarterly By Jonny Price, Senior Director, Kiva Zip In the conventional finance model, a central institution, such as Bank of America, provides capital and decides which borrowers qualify for loans. In the peer-to-peer model, individual people brought together by the power of the Internet, in an aggregate known as … → Read More
The Currency of Self
by John Bloom Technically, money is meant to be nothing more than a holder of assigned value and to serve as a means for facilitating the exchange of goods and services. However, money is also a complicated social reality, and it is encrusted with layers of perception, values, assumptions, and behaviors. For example, we say … → Read More
Democratic Finance for Affordable Space in NYC
New York City is the quintessential melting pot. People from all over the world come to the city in search of culture, cuisine, art and opportunity. Yet for many New Yorkers, their ability to stay in the city they’ve helped create has been compromised in recent years by soaring real estate prices. Between 2000 and … → Read More
RSF Spring Quarterly: Is Digital Money Transparent?
In the latest RSF Quarterly, we do a deep dive into digital money and the fast-growing fintech (short for financial technology) sector. Uphold’s Tim Parsa lays out a case for why blockchain technology may mean an end to banks. Jonny Price, senior director for Kiva Zip, critiques mainstream peer-to-peer lending for its lack of investor … → Read More
RSF Fellows Follow-up: Stu Fram
The RSF Social Finance fellowship is missioned with growing the field of social finance, one cohort of thought leaders at a time. During their time at RSF, fellows work closely with the lending team to identify prospective borrowers, conduct due diligence, and structure loans. In this blog post, former fellow Stu Fram (2014-’15), now a … → Read More
Santa Monica Non-Profit Cultivates Contemporary Artists
by Megan Mendenhall When artist Susanna Bixby Dakin and writer Linda Frye Burnham founded Santa Monica’s 18th Street Arts Center in 1988, they wanted to break a common cycle: Artists move into a neighborhood with cheap rents, the neighborhood becomes trendy, housing prices rise, and the artists have to leave. What would happen if the … → Read More
Closing the Financing Gap For Mission-Driven Businesses
RSF Social Finance was recently featured in the January/February issue of Conscious Company Magazine. They sat down RSF President & CEO Don Shaffer to discuss shifting the paradigm of the financial industry and what companies typically need to scale successfully. Here is an excerpt from the conversation. Conscious Company Magazine: How did you develop the … → Read More
Finance Innovation: The Next Frontier in Fair-Trade Supply Chains
Originally published on TriplePundit By Kate Danaher Rising demand for fair-trade products is creating an emerging need for growth in fair-trade supply chains. This is a fantastic opportunity to put more people to work under fair pay and labor standards — but the time and cost involved in scaling these supply chains while maintaining fair-trade … → Read More
Contemplating Conversations on Money, Race, and Class
By John Bloom The high-profile presence of wealth inequality and racial tension in the media, mind, and moral compass have made conversations on the interplay of money, race and class ever more important. These conversations are complicated and emotion-fraught, but also potentially transformative. They take courage and time to convene, and an even deeper personal … → Read More
The Third Immersion: BALLE-RSF Community Foundation Circle
By Catherine Covington Surrounded by the beautiful rolling hills of Napa County, California, the BALLE-RSF Community Foundation Circle (CFC) gathered at Mayacamas Ranch last November for the third of four gatherings. It has been a year since the initial gathering of the CFC, and so much has happened within the group both personally and professionally. … → Read More
Benefits of a Biodynamic Education
Originally published in the Winter 2016 RSF Quarterly Abbot Hill in Wilton, New Hampshire, is home to High Mowing School, a Waldorf boarding high school, and Temple-Wilton Community Farm, one of the first biodynamic community supported agriculture (CSA) programs in the U.S. Also nearby is the Yggdrasil Land Foundation, an agricultural land trust committed to … → Read More
RSF Fellows Follow-up: Nakul Kadaba
The RSF Social Finance fellowship is missioned with growing the field of social finance, one cohort of thought leaders at a time. During their time at RSF, fellows work closely with the lending team to identify prospective borrowers, conduct due diligence, and structure loans. In this blog post, Stu Fram, lending associate, catches up with … → Read More
RSF Winter Quarterly: What is the Nature in Art?
In the latest RSF Quarterly, we explore the role of nature in education and the arts. Brad Miller, a teacher at High Mowing School, shares with us the life lessons his students gain through their study of biodynamic horticulture. RSF’s John Bloom and Enrique Perez reflect on a sculpture recently gifted to RSF, and contemplate … → Read More
Bushwick’s Black, Brown Youth Enriched by Composting Project
BK ROT, one of RSF Social Finance’s 2015 Seed Fund grantees, received a small gift in support of their efforts to establish a sustainable grassroots composting service in Brooklyn, New York. In this blog post, co-facilitator Renée Peperone tells us more about BK ROT’s work and what the funds have made possible. There are a … → Read More
Deb Nelson Joins RSF
Deb Nelson, formerly the executive director of Social Venture Network (SVN), will join RSF Social Finance in late January as the new Vice President of Client and Community Engagement. Nelson expanded the field of social entrepreneurship by growing a network of values-driven leaders interested in leveraging the power of business for social and environmental good. … → Read More
Native Species for an Indigenous City
Arc of Greater New Orleans has evolved much since its inception in 1953. Today, the organization is a culmination of decades of work by devoted individuals whose ultimate goal is to integrate people with intellectual disabilities into their communities. Arc serves some 900 children, adults and their families in Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, and St. … → Read More
Reflections from NC’s Shared Gifting
By Kelley Buhles What is the best way to distribute money amongst a group a non-profits? This is a question that foundations and donors struggle with on a regular basis. Non-profits, the ones on the receiving end of these decisions, don’t often get to take up this question. In an effort to change this common … → Read More
Prepare for the Day You Step Away
Originally published on Tugboat Institute by Don Shaffer Leadership succession for founders of Evergreen companies. There are so many ways for CEO succession plans to go wrong. Sometimes the old CEO is not really ready to let go or the new CEO isn’t properly prepared to take the reins. There can be factions; there can … → Read More