Benefit of Chicago is a $100 million fund which makes impact investments in communities that have been ignored by investors who live nearby. Calvin Holmes of Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) believes aligning investors with nonprofits is key, "Many of the impact investors and traditional social sector investors invest for very short time horizons, and the problems that we are trying to solve have taken generations to develop. It takes long-term money to fix problems that were long in the making."
The MacArthur Foundation is providing $50 million in startup capital along with impact investment management expertise (30 years of experience and $500 million in impact investment assists around the globe). Benefit of Chicago is not part of the MacArthur Foundation's specific programs. The purpose of the fund it to focus attention on urgent needs across the region. It will provide financing to a wide array of organizations.
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Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.