Lotus Foods, a beneficiary of RSF’s Social Investment Fund (photo courtesy RSF Social Finance).
Since it was launched in 1984, RSF Social Finance has channeled more than $1 billion to social enterprises improving food systems, communities, education and the environment. To do so it has cobbled together funds from DAFs and investors. The launch of new “broker notes” will make it easier to invest in the Social Investment Fund, which now stands at $137 million, and open access to a new wave of financial advisors, asset managers and other institutional investors.
“This launch marks a transformative moment for RSF and for impact investing more broadly.” says RSF’s Kathleen Paylor. “By bringing our notes to the electronic brokerage market, we’re eliminating long-standing barriers and making it radically easier for investors to align their capital with their values.”
The model builds on Calvert’s long running Calvert Impact Notes program, which are sold through brokerages and support mission-driven lenders (see, “Calvert Impact crosses the $1 billion mark in retail sales of Community Investment Notes“). RSF’s broker notes provide capital directly to social enterprises and continue the relationship through the life of the loan.
The fund’s portfolio includes borrowers like Mad Capital, which secured a $5 million facility to support organic farm transitions across the Midwest and High Plains, Goodr, which used a $500,000 loan to expand its food waste and hunger solutions nationwide; and Lotus Foods, which is building sustainable rice supply chains in Asia.
The three-year notes offer a 3.5% fixed annualized return and have a $5,000 minimum. The CUSIP-registered notes are being distributed on Bloomberg’s brokerage platform through Performance Trust Capital Partners as bookrunner and US Bank as trustee and custodian. RSF’s Jasper van Brakel called the broker notes “an institutional-grade product that stays true to RSF’s mission while expanding our reach to new investors ready to drive meaningful change.”