Rutu Chaudhari of The Dharma Project on SOCAP

SAN FRANCISCO- October 2018- I am the owner of a yoga studio called All Life is Yoga, and the Founder and Executive Director of the Dharma Project, an Atlanta-based non-profit that brings mindfulness and yoga to communities and organizations that experience high levels of stress and/or trauma. This includes public servants like police officers, first responders, teachers, and leaders in government and the nonprofit sector.

Since our launch in 2016, The Dharma Project has had the privilege of partnering with many organizations, including At-Promise Center, Atlanta Public Schools, Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, Greening Youth…the Dharma Project has launched programs to serve police officers from 3 precincts in Atlanta and over 20 teachers across the metro Atlanta area. The Dharma Project was selected as a winner of the United Way of Greater Atlanta’s SPARK Prize and Rutu was named “Best Yoga Teacher in Atlanta” by Creative Loafing, was awarded the 2016 Civic Innovation Fellowship through the Center for Civic Innovation (with support from the Community Foundation), and received an investment from SPANX founder Sara Blakely for her work.

Most recently, the Dharma Project received a Social Impact Loan from Invest Atlanta and Spanx. This zero interest loan has supported our ability to create organizational stability and increase capacity by hiring a Director of Operations.

Just last month, I had the opportunity to attend the Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) Conference in San Francisco, the world’s largest annual convening of impact investors and social entrepreneurs. As a guest of the Community Foundation and its GoATL impact investment fund, I joined a group of other Atlanta leaders (including several founders of the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative) to learn about the latest trends is social innovation and impact investing. Being at SOCAP was so inspiring and I’m grateful for the Community Foundation for offering me this opportunity. The vitality and urgency of impact investing made it, at times, feel like a movement. There were financial institutions, venture capitalists, nonprofits, educators, foundations, consulting firms, those in agriculture business, those fighting for indigenous people’s justice, etc.—I was surrounded by change-makers and those that want to invest in them! It’s difficult to receive loans for social good, so hearing stories of how ROI’s are framed was enlightening. What is the economic value of justice, human rights, democracy? I enjoyed learning from those that are doing the hard work on how they used investments to build stronger organizations and increase impact and from investors on what they’re investing in and why.

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Rutu Chaudhari is the Founder and Executive Director of The Dharma Project, which provides self-care practices to public service organizations and the communities they serve. Learn more about The Dharma Project at https://www.thedharmaproject.org/. 

The Georgia Social Impact Collaborative (GSIC) provides resources to connect, educate and inspire stakeholders for the purpose of accelerating the development of Georgia’s impact investing ecosystem. Recently, GSIC announced the launch of the Georgia Social Impact Map (the “Map”), an interactive platform designed to connect and educate stakeholders interested in accelerating impact investing for social outcomes. Intended as a resource for communities around the state, the Map connects new forms of capital to sustaining and scaling solutions to social challenges. GSIC also provides workshops and programming for training specific groups of stakeholders on ways to leverage impact investing to achieve their impact goals, such as the workshop described below, which was attended by 30 leaders of some of GA’s top social enterprises and nonprofits.

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Emory Impact Investing Group

Profile Summary:

The Issue

Social entrepreneurship is about solving problems. Tell us about the challenge you are focused on addressing and why it is critical that we make progress.

“Emory Impact Investing Group was founded in 2014 to provide microloans to local entrepreneurs who lack access to capital.

Formally known as the ‘Microbusiness gap,’ research shows that there is ~30% drop in number of microbusinesses per capita from low- to high-poverty neighborhoods in the United States. To unlock the full economic potential of the Atlanta community, EIIG aims to close the microbusiness gap in traditionally high-poverty areas by increasing the number of successful small businesses. We direct our efforts in pursuit of this goal by providing early-stage financing, knowledge, and networks necessary for the sustainable growth of businesses.”

Your Journey

Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires connections and support from a wide array of stakeholders across the ecosystem to help successfully identify, start, and grow a social enterprise.

“Dr. Peter Roberts and the Social Entrepresize @ Goizueta at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School have done extensive research on entrepreneurship in the metro-Atlanta area. His findings have revealed the presence of a microbusiness gap between low- and high-poverty neighborhoods. Dr. Roberts identified high-poverty neighborhoods within Atlanta that lack small businesses, but are economically capable of supporting them. This belies a large problem: a lack of initial capital and network resources for entrepreneurs in Atlanta that need them most. EIIG was created to be a part of the solution to this problem, providing microloans to local entrepreneurs who offer macro benefits and direct social impact to their local community.”

GSIC and the Map

The mission of the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative (GSIC) is to accelerate the growth of impact investing in Georgia. Over the past 18 months, GSIC and its partners have engaged hundreds of investors, nonprofits, social entrepreneurs and others who care about scaling social impact through leveraging creative capital. The result of this work is the Map, an interactive resource designed to educate and connect stakeholders interested in impact investing. For more info, see www.GaSocialImpact.com and the Summary Report from phase 1 of the Map.

From your perspective, why do we need to develop Georgia’s Social Impact Ecosystem and how can the Map help with that?

“The entrepreneurial spirit is at the core of the Georgia community, from high-growth tech to a thriving small business network. When working with social entrepreneurs, matching needs to support resources is crucial for driving impact. Integrating all impact investing stakeholders into one platform is the next step towards building a leading model for economic empowerment, implementable in other states across the nation. Georgia’s Social Impact Ecosystem will allow organizations and individuals to start sharing best practices, monitoring and evaluating impact, and ultimately, provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive within Georgia.”     

Interested in learning more about the Emory Impact Investing Group, please visit:

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Greg Block of First Step Staffing

Profile Summary:

  • Entrepreneur Name: Greg Block, Founder and Chairman
  • Venture Name: First Step Staffing
  • Impact Focus Area(s): Homeless, Workforce Development, Disability Services
  • Business Stage (Ideation, Startup, Early, Later, Mature): Later
  • Year Venture Established: 2007
  • Business Type: Nonprofit Social Enterprise
  • Headquarters: Atlanta, GA

The Issue

Social entrepreneurship is about solving problems. Tell us about the challenge you are focused on addressing and why it is critical that we make progress.

First Step Staffing is a nonprofit staffing agency whose mission is to fight homelessness and poverty. Founded in 2007, First Step’s focusing on securing sustainable income for individuals transitioning out of homelessness, including veterans, re-entering citizens, and others with significant barriers to employment. “There were a lot of work readiness programs…but there weren’t really jobs at the end of them. So we decided to start First Step Staffing to create that pipeline,” said Greg Block, who founded the nonprofit in 2007. What makes First Step different than traditional for-profit staffing agencies is that they give priority to those who may have some kind of “barriers for employment,” said Dave Shaffer, CEO.

Your Journey

Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires connections and support from a wide array of stakeholders across the ecosystem to help successfully identify, start, and grow a social enterprise.

In January 2018, First Step Staffing announced its expansion into Philadelphia through its acquisition of the Philadelphia-based division of On Time Staffing—a for-profit staffing company founded 18 years ago specializing in warehouse, packaging, and manufacturing jobs—which will now become part of First Step’s nonprofit operations. In the first 12 months of operation in Philadelphia, First Step expects to employ 500 homeless men and women and grow to serve more than 1,000 by year three.

The Philadelphia acquisition was funded by philanthropic dollars, including a significant grant from The Barra Foundation, support from the City of Philadelphia, investments by a consortium of socially-minded members of Investors’ Circle, and a senior acquisition loan from four Community Development Financial Institutions (“CDFIs”), including Nonprofit Finance Fund (“NFF”), Reinvestment Fund, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation.

The expansion into Philadelphia came two years after First Step completed its first successful acquisition of a for-profit staffing company in Atlanta. That acquisition helped the organization more than double the reach of its offering in home-town Atlanta, where First Step now places over 1,000 men and women per day into the workforce.

Interested in learning more about First Step Staffing, please visit:

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Brian Cayce of Gray Ghost Ventures

Profile Summary:

  • Entrepreneur Name: Brian Cayce, Vice President, Investments
  • Venture Name: Gray Ghost Ventures (GGV)
  • Impact Focus Area(s): International Development, Technology, Financial Services
  • Business Stage (Ideation, Startup, Early, Later, Mature): Early
  • Year Venture Established: 2003
  • Business Type: For-Profit Investor (Impact Venture Fund)
  • Headquarters: Atlanta, GA

The Issue

Social entrepreneurship is about solving problems. Tell us about the challenge you are focused on addressing and why it is critical that we make progress.

Gray Ghost Ventures is a pioneer of the global impact investing movement and continues to be innovative in furthering its expansion. As one of the earliest private investors in microfinance, GGV seeks to eliminate poverty and strengthen communities through catalytic, early-stage investments in the developing world by focusing on enabling technology, financial services, and other products and services concentrated on enhancing the quality of life for large, underserved populations in emerging markets.

GGV’s Vice President of Investments, Brian Cayce, estimates that there were as few as two to three other firms in the country practicing what we now identify as impact investing in 2003. Gray Ghost now has over $125 million in several funds under its belt, but the team has maintained its focus and mission.

Your Journey

Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires connections and support from a wide array of stakeholders across the ecosystem to help successfully identify, start, and grow a social enterprise.

Brian’s background was uniquely suited for impact investing in developing countries — though not an investment professional at the time, he had served overseas in multiple capacities, as a Peace Corps volunteer (based in Turkmenistan), a non-profit employee, a business consultant, and a technology executive. He knew firsthand the challenges that entrepreneurs in emerging markets faced with getting their product funded and a company built to scale.

In the early 2000s, Brian was working for a private investor who wanted to move beyond helping entrepreneurs in emerging markets through microfinance, into a true equity play to invest in for-profits in those markets. Gray Ghost Ventures started in 2003 as one of the very first mission-driven tech investing firms — focusing on early-stage companies that improve the lives of underserved populations through tech.

GSIC and the Map

The mission of the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative (GSIC) is to accelerate the growth of impact investing in Georgia. Over the past 18 months, GSIC and its partners have engaged hundreds of investors, nonprofits, social entrepreneurs and others who care about scaling social impact through leveraging creative capital. The result of this work is the Map, an interactive resource designed to educate and connect stakeholders interested in impact investing. For more info, see www.GaSocialImpact.com and the Summary Report from phase 1 of the Map.

From your perspective, why do we need to develop Georgia’s Social Impact Ecosystem and how can the Map help with that?

“From our earliest days at Gray Ghost Ventures we were always intentional about building connections in the nascent impact investment industry.  It was our belief that our chances of success would be greater if others were involved and we were working collaboratively. While we were competitive with one another, there was such a small group of practitioners at that time that we all benefitted from the open collaboration and cooperation, as well.  

In many ways, the social impact scene in Georgia is in a similar state: it is young and enthusiastic and many of the participants know each other well and support each other.  However, impact investing grew to the scale of today through momentum over the years as new participants entered the space and there was an industry that was welcoming to them.  Georgia’s social impact scene could do the same, and that is why Georgia Social Impact Ecosystem Map is such an important tool for our community. Hopefully, the Map will serve as a landing spot which will allow social innovators and investors to connect, get familiar with the good work of one another, and find ways to build social value together.”

Interested in learning more about Brian Cayce and Gray Ghost Ventures, please visit:

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Grace Fricks of Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs

Profile Summary:

  • Entrepreneur Name: Grace Fricks, President & CEO
  • Venture Name: Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE)
  • Impact Focus Area(s): Small Business Capital with Coaching and Connections, Job Creation, Asset/Wealth Building, Services Provided in English and Spanish
  • Business Stage (Ideation, Startup, Early, Later, Mature): Later
  • Year Venture Established: 1997
  • Business Type: Nonprofit Investor (Community Development Financial Institution)
  • Headquarters: Cleveland, Georgia with an office in downtown Atlanta and the ACE Women’s Business Center in Norcross, Georgia

The Issue

Social entrepreneurship is about solving problems. Tell us about the challenge you are focused on addressing and why it is critical that we make progress.

“Small business ownership, like home ownership, is an asset and an avenue to create wealth for the business owners and their families. Small businesses also create needed jobs and improve the quality of life in their communities. For many, entrepreneurship is the only viable path to creating wealth. Recent statistics show that Caucasian families have thirteen times more wealth than African American families. When comparing Caucasian and African American business owners, this disparity reduces to a factor of three. This is similarly true for women and Hispanic business owners.  

Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) has been building businesses, jobs, and communities for eighteen years. As a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), ACE provides loans and business development support to help Georgia entrepreneurs create and grow sustainable businesses that generate jobs and strengthen communities. We are the only Georgia-based CDFI serving Atlanta and North Georgia focusing on small business development. We understand that providing people with capital, business coaching, and community connections gives them the resources needed to create their own success, break the cycle of poverty, and support their families.

Small business funding remains hard to obtain, particularly for women, people of color, and low-income persons. Many lenders view these borrowers as inherently risky and the small business loans they need as less profitable than larger loans. Having the ability to be innovative, creative, and flexible in structuring the terms of our loans, ACE is often the only point of access to the financing these underserved business owners need.

In addition to capital, ACE provides grant-funded business advisory services many entrepreneurs need to be successful business owners, income producers, and job creators. ACE leverages the best resources in the community to provide clients with the tools, skills, knowledge, mentoring, and confidence to create successful businesses. Clients have access to individual coaching, classes, and networking opportunities. We take a hands-on, customized approach that has a direct impact on our clients’ ability to build strong businesses and repay their loans.”

Your Journey

Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires connections and support from a wide array of stakeholders across the ecosystem to help successfully identify, start, and grow a social enterprise.

“The experiences of operating a social enterprise like ACE are similar to the journey of a typical small business. Just like the clients ACE serves, we have walked the same path and continue the same journey they do, giving us firsthand experience regarding what they are experiencing and what their needs are – for capital investment, business advisory services and support. Like a small business, we had to identify what our value proposition was, the strategic and financial plan to be successful, and our target market. ACE began serving just four rural North Georgia counties where there was a demonstrated demand for access to capital identified by Georgia’s technical college system. Critical partners in meeting this need included local banks, the local Rotary Club, SBDC, local newspapers, the technical college that provided entrepreneurial education classes, and retired entrepreneurs. Demand grew as social service and economic development organizations and others in surrounding counties learned about small businesses starting and growing as a result of our work. These organizations then sought us expand into their counties to serve businesses there. The Appalachian Regional Commission, USDA, and a regional foundation in North Carolina with a mission to move people and places out of poverty, along with other partners, supported ACE to expand our work.

Crisis, Great Recession, Pivot:

The Great Recession was a defining moment for ACE as the demand for our services in metro Atlanta became clear. Instead of “hunkering down” and waiting for the recession to blow over, possibly taking ACE with it, we aggressively sought SBA and Treasury funds, national and regional bank support, and support from foundations to expand into the metro area. We leveraged our unrestricted net assets (retained earnings) to hire skilled financial staff (former bankers) to move into the Atlanta market. This successful strategy allowed us to survive the recession and establish ourselves in the Atlanta market.

From a founder’s dream with $50,000 to a true community-owned financial institution:

With $50,000, ACE began making our first loans in 2000. Since then, ACE has helped more than 850 businesses obtain in excess of $53 million in capital and create more than 7,300 jobs. We’ve been able to accomplish this with a 97% repayment rate.  

Today’s critical partners in the ecosystem, in addition to investors, are the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Yo Soy Mujer, the Latin American Association, Atlanta Business League, Urban League of Atlanta, Emory University Start:ME program, Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative, Pittsburgh Yards (NPU-V), Greater Women’s Business Council, City of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI), Invest Atlanta, DeKalb County Government, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, SCORE, SBDCs, and many other private business consultants, CPAs, and attorneys.

The ecosystem for Georgia’s small business development is ACE’s ecosystem. We bring access to capital and financial business development assistance, and partner with others with appropriate expertise to ensure our clients have access to the services needed. Our clients benefit from the synergy of our being a part of this ecosystem.”

GSIC and the Map

The mission of the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative (GSIC) is to accelerate the growth of impact investing in Georgia. Over the past 18 months, GSIC and its partners have engaged hundreds of investors, nonprofits, social entrepreneurs and others who care about scaling social impact through leveraging creative capital. The result of this work is the Map, an interactive resource designed to educate and connect stakeholders interested in impact investing. For more info, see www.GaSocialImpact.com and the Summary Report from phase 1 of the Map.

From your perspective, why do we need to develop Georgia’s Social Impact Ecosystem and how can the Map help with that?

“Organizations with investment needs will benefit from having a coordinated system to make these needs known to the ecosystem at large. The map is important in making it possible for investors to identify social impact areas they are interested in, whether that is based on geography, gender or racial/ethnic lens, type of investment (housing, small business ownership, environmental, etc.). The map can also help social entrepreneurs and other providers of services to connect and collaborate on achieving common goals. With multiple partners in an ecosystem, addressing a common, systemic challenge/social issue, the synergy can reduce the silo effect and create greater results.”  

Interested in learning more about Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, please visit:

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Workshop on Impact Capital for Nonprofits & Social Enterprise

ATLANTA – October 4, 2018 – I attended and thoroughly enjoyed the October 4th Georgia Social Impact Collaborative workshop on Impact Capital for Nonprofits & Social Enterprise: Aligning Creative Capital with Mission. Not only did I learn a great deal from the Nonprofit Finance Fund about potential strategies for attracting investors, there was a great deal of value in speaking with our peer group of other high-performing nonprofits to learn from their experience.

It is not often that I attend a meeting or workshop and learn something new that can have such far-reaching potential to bring exponential increases in the way we can leverage resources to expand our mission to put people to work. As a group, we explored how different forms of capital can drive greater impact and more efficiently reach Georgians.

I will definitely be adding our agency to the Georgia Social Impact Map and have action items to follow-up on immediately pursuing the possibilities of using New Markets Tax Credits to fuel our organization’s growth through the region.

We already knew about Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), but it was helpful to see the most recent data and learn how the model has evolved. We’ll take what we’ve learned and continue to explore how to implement a SIB here in North Georgia.

Many thanks to Mark Crosswell and his colleagues at the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative, Antony Bugg-Levine and Beth Doreian at the Nonprofit Finance Fund, and all the bright, hard-working people who convened this high-value event.

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Jenny Taylor is the Vice President of Career Services for Goodwill of North Georgia, a nonprofit leader in putting people to work. Learn more about Goodwill of North Georgia at https://gasocialimpact.com/ecosystem/goodwill-of-north-georgia/.

The Georgia Social Impact Collaborative (GSIC) provides resources to connect, educate and inspire stakeholders for the purpose of accelerating the development of Georgia’s impact investing ecosystem. Recently, GSIC announced the launch of the Georgia Social Impact Map (the “Map”), an interactive platform designed to connect and educate stakeholders interested in accelerating impact investing for social outcomes. Intended as a resource for communities around the state, the Map connects new forms of capital to sustaining and scaling solutions to social challenges. GSIC also provides workshops and programming for training specific groups of stakeholders on ways to leverage impact investing to achieve their impact goals, such as the workshop described below, which was attended by 30 leaders of some of GA’s top social enterprises and nonprofits.