“The whole reason why I do this stuff. It’s not for just a moment in time, but to create lasting change.”
— Jenn Pryce
Jenn Pryce (@JennPryce) is President and CEO of Calvert Impact Capital, a global investment firm investing in communities, people, and businesses that are overlooked by traditional finance in the United States and in over 100 other countries. Essentially, they’re putting their money where banks won’t.
Jenn learned the power of community at the start of her career working in the Peace Corps in Africa teaching math in Gabon. She then worked as an equity research analyst for Neuberger Berman before making her way to the investment banking team at Morgan Stanley’s London office and then went on to help raise financial support for The Public Theater in New York City. Facing several challenges in this endeavor, she stumbled upon a Community Development Financial Institution where she began to understand the importance of community investing.
During a stint at the Nonprofit Finance Fund in Washington D.C., she learned about the value of driving financial support to community businesses after which she landed at Calvert Impact Capital where she later became the CEO. During Jenn’s tenure at Calvert, she has expanded the sectors they work in and developed new products and services to ensure that impact investing is accessible from institutional to small retail investors. Since Calvert Impact Capital’s founding, the company has worked with nearly 20,000 individuals, institutions, and advisors to raise nearly $3.5 billion.
Jenn studied engineering at Union College and holds an MBA from Columbia University. She serves as a Forbes contributor, a lecturer at Oxford Saïd School of Business, a board member of UNICEF USA Impact Fund for Children, the Advisory Board Chair of Quantified Ventures, and as a member of the Advisory Board of Ecofin and Operating Principles for Impact Management.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
SELECTED LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Connect with Jenn Pryce: Twitter | LinkedIN
- BlueOrchard Impact Investment Managers
- Calvert Impact Capital
- Calvert Community Impact Investment Note
- Charles Schwab
- Community Development Financial Institutions
- Equilibrium
- Fidelity Investments
- Incapital/InspereX
- Jonathan Rose Funds
- Joseph Papp, NYC Theatrical Producer & Director
- Neuberger Berman
- Non-Profit Finance Fund (NFF)
- responsAbility
- Seychelles Blue Bond
- SunFunder
- The Public Theater
SHOW NOTES:
- [02:03] Jenn sheds light on her experience in the Peace Corps, the investment banking industry, and in entrepreneurship, detailing how she learned the power of community, culture, and connection.
- [06:41] She shares how she first found financing for local organizations, including schools, healthcare clinics, and the arts, through loan capital. Then, Jenn talks about the major shift in finance that drove her to join Calvert Impact Capital.
- [12:03] Jenn speaks on how Calvert Impact Capital is transitioning as an organization, much like the field of impact investing, and why they’re providing education and financial products, like the Community Investment Note, to connect private capital to communities.
- Questions answered:
- How are your activities structured?
- What is the relationship between Calvert Impact Capital and Calvert Research & Management?
- [16:05] Jenn paints a big picture overview of what the community investing space looks like, the perceived risk involved, and where Calvert fits into it.
- Questions answered:
- Is Calvert Impact Capital similar to BlueOrchard?
- How is Calvert different than its competitors?
- What is the most challenging problem in impact investment?
- [23:20] She breaks down Calvert’s process for deploying capital, highlighting their risk tolerance, their theory of change, and how their investment strategy creates a ripple effect of impact around the world. She also divulges why Calvert chose to be the first investor in the Seychelles Blue Bond.
- [30:50] Jenn showcases Calvert’s flagship product, the Calvert Community Impact Investment Note, where everyone can invest from $20 through to $20m in solutions to inequality and climate change. The Note is accessible at https://calvertimpactcapital.org/investing/community-investment-note. To date, they have re-paid their investors 100% of their investment.
- Fun facts:
- The note has created or preserved over 72,000 homes, avoided 27m metric tons of CO2, and supported nearly 74,000 smallholder farmers.
- About 7-8 years ago, they began reaching out to investors to engage with them on impact investing and broadening their network into niche communities. One of their strongest initiatives was Women Investing in Women (WIN-WIN) – they choose to target specific focus areas – in this case, it was women investing.
- Questions answered:
- What is Calvert’s Community Investment Note and how does it work?
- How can I access the note?
- Are these risk-adjusted returns?
- [34:28] Jenn talks about Calvert’s products, investment strategies, due diligence process, monitoring and management processes, and more!
- Questions answered:
- As a global firm, how does Calvert vet their MFIs and intermediaries?
- Is green washing an issue in community investing? How do you avoid it?
- [41:46] She describes how Calvert measures, verifies, and reports the impact of their investing, as well as how they use investment metrics to develop powerful success stories.
- Questions answered:
- With 100% repayment, are there increased risks in investing in community organizations?
- Who is Calvert’s investor base? How has it changed?
- [46:49] Jenn emphasizes the current biggest challenge in social impact investing, what she’s learned from an investment gone wrong, and what she knows now that she wishes she knew at the beginning of her career. Plus, she shares her expert advice for aspiring social impact investors.
MORE JENN PRYCE QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW:
“The whole reason why I do this stuff. It’s not for just a moment in time, but to create lasting change.”
— Jenn Pryce
“A lot of impact investing I see as a bridge to nowhere. And that investment is great, but it’s got to be a demonstration to change policy, to bring in private capital, and to show the investment is investible. Otherwise, it’s just another investment. That’s the whole reason why I do this stuff. It’s not for just a moment in time, but to create lasting change.”
— Jenn Pryce
“Working as a community is how one truly survived and even was able to thrive and that is not what I had experienced growing up in America.”
— Jenn Pryce (Speaking on her time living abroad in the Peace Corps)
“What we invest in, what the community investment space invests in, is investable opportunities that traditional banks don’t do. This is what J.P. Morgan doesn’t do; affordable housing projects, microfinance loans, renewable energy that’s new and novel, rural communities, Black-owned businesses… and because we work close to these communities, we understand these markets and we have increased comfort investing in these businesses or projects, so we see a different risk profile.”
— Jenn Pryce
“If we can create impact funds… in communities where there’s not good access to capital, if we can capitalize them, then that’s a sustainable, reliable capital source for those businesses in place.”
— Jenn Pryce
