Bringing Home a Stable Future
“My dream is to find individuals who take financial resources and convert them into changing the world in the most positive ways.” — Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen
We all want to make constructive differences in our world, harnessing our passions to create significant opportunities for everyone to thrive and succeed. Impact investing is a purposeful way of leveraging the assets in your donor advised fund (DAF) to generate both meaningful social impact and monetary returns. Impact investing differs from your grantmaking tool in that it “recycles” your charitable capital forward for additional projects.
Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GCF) is committed to utilizing that power of impact investing to address the compelling lack of affordable housing in our region through our Affordable Housing Impact Investment Pool (AHIIP). Safe, affordable housing can be the linchpin for low-income families to move out of poverty, affecting their employment, education opportunities and health. High-quality, diverse housing options are the building blocks for stable neighborhoods, which provide region-wide benefits for all of us. According to LISC Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky’s 2017 Housing Affordability in Hamilton County report, in Greater Cincinnati, there is a critical need for 40,000 additional housing units that are affordable to extremely low-income households, defined as those making $14,678 or less. Of those households, 60 percent are paying more than 50 percent of their income on housing; the recommended housing cost burden is 30 percent.
Because we see AHIIP as an integral component of the equity call to action of the All-In Cincinnati report, we are committing $1 million of its targeted $5 million fund size. AHIIP will support a wide range of impact investments, from home ownership and rental options for low-income families to increasing the supply of high-quality rental units throughout our region. Together, we can strategically work to close the gap on affordable housing.
By partnering with GCF through your DAF, you can help to stimulate non-charitable financial support from other institutions and investors to substantially increase the collective power needed to fund these vital community projects.
GCF invites you to join us in this life-changing, community-building work. To find out more about AHIIP, please contact Robert Killins Jr., Director, Special Initiatives, at 513-768-6151 or robert.killins@gcfdn.org.
