Illuminarium is Democratizing Extraordinary Experiences in Atlanta

ATLANTA – May 24, 2021 – Illuminarium Experiences, a new breakthrough global experiential entertainment company, announced today that tickets for its first Illuminarium in Atlanta, opening July 1, 2021, are now on sale at Illuminarium.com. Tickets for WILD: A Safari Experience, a first-of-its-kind entertainment experience showcasing the beauty and splendor of Africa’s most exotic animals in their natural habitats, start at $30 for kids and $35 for adults, with premium packages available.

WILD will transport visitors to Africa through cinematic content shot by Radical Media, using custom camera arrays that provide a 240-degree native field of view (versus the average 210-degree human field of view), on location to showcase majestic animals in their native habitats across South Africa, Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania. Complementing the exotic sights of a safari, visitors will also be immersed in its authentic sounds and scents, all without leaving Atlanta’s BeltLine.

Illuminarium’s immersive venues will transport millions of visitors to places they only dream of experiencing by placing them “inside” the narrative with techniques used in traditional motion picture production and virtual reality that facilitate the experience of real world, filmed content (like a safari) and authentic, re-created worlds in an immersive environment, all without wearable hardware. 

During the evening, Thursday-Saturday, Illuminarium will transform into a dynamic bar that features an immersive generative environment, allowing guests to have cocktails and curated eats surrounded by an ever-changing lush and stunning atmosphere. Through state-of-the-art projection and audio systems, guests will be invited to gather in a different far-flung and fantastic setting.

Visitors can also experience The Illuminarium Café, offering both indoor seating and an outdoor patio facing the BeltLine. The café will be an extension of the immersive experience content, serving authentic dishes, beer, and wine from the African continent, along with local southern favorites. The Illuminarium Shop will retail a wide variety of gifts inspired by the safari experience. Along with souvenirs like eco-friendly plush toys and items with a specific conservation give-back, the shop will carry unique items such as woven baskets, beaded jewelry, and hand-carved wooden decor sourced from artisan networks in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. Both the café and shop are open to the public and do not require paid admission to the attraction.

Following Atlanta, Illuminarium will open in Las Vegas at AREA 15 in January 2022 and in Miami, at Mana in the Wynwood Arts District, in fall 2022. Other North American locations under consideration are New York City, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles and Austin.  

Illuminarium will design and operate each spectacle in an environmentally conscious manner that acknowledges its social impact. For WILD, Illuminarium partnered with global conservation organization, WildArk, to work collaboratively with local partners and communities to protect prioritized wildlife, biodiversity and ecosystems around the world. Illuminarium will donate a portion of all ticket and merchandising revenue annually to WildArk. Through this strategic partnership, WildArk targets this funding, as well as additional donations made at Illuminarium, to aligned conservation partners working to protect prioritized wildlife and their habitats across Africa. Illuminarium will also provide opportunities for customers to become personally engaged with WildArk and other mission-based partners they bring to the experience.

 

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About Illuminarium Experiences

Illuminarium Experiences is a breakthrough, global experiential entertainment company created by worldwide leaders in cinematic and interactive content, architectural and theatrical design and venue operations. Illuminarium Experiences are immersive entertainment spectacles presented in custom-designed venues called “Illuminariums.” What museums are to art, cinemas to movies and concert halls to music, Illuminariums are to experiential entertainment. Illuminariums are reprogrammable immersive theaters that surround visitors in a sensory space of sight, sound and scale unlike any other, providing access to the most amazing, but typically out-of-reach, places, people and experiences to make our planet a more inspired, more empathetic and more connected place. Created by Alan Greenberg, Radical Media and Rockwell Group, and operated by Legends, Illuminarium Experiences brings together best-in-class partners in content creation, theatrical design, interactive technologies and venue operations. Learn more at Illuminarium.com.

 

Media Contact:

Julie Horn, DKC for Illuminarium

[email protected]

917-701-7136

Entrepreneur Profile: Kevin Mobolade, Swipe Credit

 

  • Entrepreneur Name: Kevin Mobolade 
  • Venture Name: Swipe Credit 
  • Impact Focus Area(s): Financial Inclusion 
  • Business Stage (Ideation, Startup, Early, Later, Mature): Early 
  • Year Venture Established: 2021 
  • Business Type: Enterprise Software as a Service 

 

Swipe Credit is a financial technology company that provides credit to more than 11 million underserved people in the US. We have made it easier to access financial services by using alternative data to increase access to credit for consumers and small businesses. Our innovative technology provides lenders with information based on actual consumer behavior. We identify customers who want lower payments and fees than existing services offer, then match them to the ideal financial product that matches their needs. 

According to Citigroup, closing the racial wealth wage gap 20 years ago might have provided an additional $2.7 trillion in income available for consumption and investment. Improving access to housing credit might have added an additional 770,000 homeowners over the last 20 years, with combined sales and expenditures adding another $218 billion to GDP over that time. 

Facilitating increased access to higher education (college, graduate, and vocational schools) for students might have bolstered lifetime incomes by $90 to $113 billion dollars.

Providing fair and equitable lending to entrepreneurs might have resulted in the creation of an additional $13 trillion in business revenue over the last 20 years. This could have been used for investments in labor, technology, capital equipment, and structures and 6.1 million jobs might have been created per year. 

At Swipe Credit, we’ve put together a team of engineers from Georgia Tech led by our CTO, who has a Ph.D. in computer engineering. We have developed an algorithmic mechanism and high-quality user onboarding and interfaces to combat this problem and unlock tens of billions of enterprise value in the process. 

As a first-generation American, my family and I personally have experienced the hardships involved in navigating the financial system and the pain that this brings in one’s day-to-day life. The American dream for most is to have a home, a car, and a job. In reality, most families struggle to achieve just those three things. Millions of people in our country don’t have access to credit. 

Swipe Credit’s mission is to support financially underserved individuals and families by providing them with access to financial resources. We do this by providing credit monitoring services, educational resources, and innovative products and services that help consumers achieve financial freedom without the added stress of credit scores. 

I leave with you with this quote from American radio speaker and author Earl Nightingale: ” We are at our very best, and we are happiest when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we’ve established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile.” As a country, as a people, it is time that we provide the least of us with the tools needed to help them do the work they enjoy and build the future they envision. We are made stronger, more secure, and happier as a community. It is time we make that dream a reality. 

 

Interested in learning more, please visit: 

  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/CreditSwipe  
  • Website: https://www.exploreswipe.com/  
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swipe-credit 

Tenth Street Ventures and Partners’ New Project Creates 40 Fully Furnished, Attainable Rent Apartments in Atlanta’s Hunter Hills

The American South Real Estate Fund is a lead investor in renovating the 20-unit garden style apartments into 40 studio apartments with attainable rents at 60% AMI

ATLANTA (April 2021) – Tenth Street Ventures along with partners Miles Alexander III at Alexander Goshen and Richard Taylor with ARRC Capital Partners have purchased 1200 Mobile St., a 20-unit, garden-style apartment complex in the Hunter Hills neighborhood just West of downtown Atlanta. Atlanta Affordable Housing Fund (AAHF) provided the senior loan for the project, while The American South Real Estate Fund (ASREF) provided equity.

The team plans to convert the property into 40 studio apartments, which will be fully furnished, all of which will be offered for attainable rents at 60 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). The team closed on the project April 19, 2021, and are using no subsidies to create this attainable housing. 

“We will be making people proud of where they live, incorporating a substantial amount of art and design into the apartment homes,” said Brian McCarthy, a principal at TSV. “Drastically reducing the costs of moving in and moving out through fully furnishing the homes, which is one of the hardest and most costly parts of moving. We are working to make comfortable high-quality living more attainable for our future tenants with our Affordable Lifestyle Living or A.L.L. Where lifestyle living isn’t just for those that can afford luxury living.”

Miles Alexander III, principal at Alexander Goshen, added, “We want to bring a creative edge to affordable living in the city of Atlanta. Through the use of art and design, we’re creating a new standard of affordable living.” 

ASREF Managing Partner Deborah La Franchi underscored, “We’re incredibly excited about this new partnership with Tenth Street Ventures. We hope it’s the first of many future efforts together. As an impact fund, we seek transformative outcomes for communities and people at the lower end of the income scale. The 40, high-quality housing units being financed are a great, innovative new model for creating housing at a cost that is attainable. This vacant, underutilized real estate asset is transitioning into a community asset that will serve and benefit the neighborhood while at the same time helping tackle the shortage of lower-cost housing in Atlanta.”

ASREF, a joint venture between Strategic Development Solutions and Vintage Realty Company, is an impact fund that seeks to finance projects that positively impact low-income and moderate-income communities in need of economic and community development. ASREF is focused on 10 states across the Southern U.S. and provides equity, preferred equity and mezzanine debt for third-party real estate developers. 

Built in 1960, 1200 Mobile St. consists of two apartment buildings totaling 11,848 square feet in Hunter Hills, a neighborhood that came to life in the 1940s and 1950s as one of the few planned Black communities of its time, attracting both blue- and white-collar home owners to its traditional cottages and ranch style houses. 

Future residents of 1200 Mobile will live on the planned Westside expansion of the Atlanta BeltLine, and will be close to MARTA’s West Lake station, nearby interstates, the Quarry Yards development and several planned parks.

Patty Brubaker from Keller Williams’ The Property Guys of Atlanta team was the realtor and Yakhin Israel from Twin Pillar Capital arranged the financing. 

Ashani O’Mard, executive director of AAHF, also a social impact fund, said, “We’re excited about how this team is bringing innovative solutions to Atlanta’s housing crisis.” 

AAHF’s mission is to raise and deploy $25 million in low-cost capital while generating a modest return to its investors. The fund offers a mix of debt and preferred equity to qualified developers and sponsors who are creating or preserving affordable housing that might not otherwise be developed. The fund has raised $13.1 million from foundations, organizations and individuals to date, of which about $6.5 million has been committed to nonprofit and mission-driven developers.  

Added Richard Taylor, managing partner of ARRC Capital Partners: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be a part of this project and to team with American South Real Estate Fund and Atlanta Affordable Housing Fund. Their values and dedication to building communities that are inclusive and affordable align completely with our own, and we look forward to the impact we can create on the Hunter Hills neighborhood.”

ARRC is a real estate investment firm focused on small- to mid-sized apartments in metro Atlanta, run by a native Atlantan uniquely positioned to understand and address the needs of burgeoning communities, employing a boots-on-the-ground approach to investing.

 

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About Tenth St. Ventures

Tenth Street Ventures (TSV) is a full-service real estate group specializing in acquiring and enhancing intown real estate assets in highly desirable locations. Each investment is tailored to capture the unique energy of the surrounding neighborhood. TSV employs a two-pronged approach: First, to capitalize on up-and-coming submarkets in the path of development, and second, to breathe new life into established neighborhoods with imaginative, ahead-of-the-curve projects. The TSV team is a curated partnership of professionals, spanning a variety of industries, who share a common vision. The team’s background includes accounting, financial structuring, asset and property management, acquisitions and dispositions, deal structuring, development planning, construction management, brokerage, investor relations, architecture, design and marketing. The combined expertise and the team’s past success is the foundation on which future, successful ventures are built. For more information, visit https://tenthsv.com/ 

Media Contact: Rachel Tobin, TobinInk., [email protected], (404) 276-5930

The Oikos Institute for Social Impact Launches First Ecosystem in Atlanta

At the end of 2020, Crossing Capital Group, Inc. (CCG) established the The Oikos Institute for Social Impact (Oikos) to create mutually supportive ecosystems with seminaries and universities, foundations, government agencies and denominational judicatories for social impact. At their best, these ecosystems will be community-centered and will disrupt the cycle of exploitation of properties owned largely by  historically Black congregations. CCG will also coordinate opportunities for the local  deployment of impact capital, or investments made with the intent to yield a social or environmental return as well as a financial return. The two organizations share a mission to help faith communities harness the power of their assets in order to be a transformational force for community economic renewal and vitality.  

“Too many churches do not realize the assets in their midst,” said CCG and Oikos founder Rev. Dr. Sidney Williams. Our “Fishing Differently” approach helps congregations recognize and utilize the resources within their church and community, creating more vibrant congregations and positive impact in the under-resourced communities they serve.” The Oikos Executive  Director is Rev. Dr. Reginald Blount, an AME pastor and an Associate Professor at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. “Learning communities are core to the process,” said Dr. Blount. “Together, participants discover and embrace their vocational identity and mission, and our partnerships provide the resources to help the congregations move their mission forward.”  

One such partner is Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), a 40-year old community development finance institution that promotes the success of nonprofits by providing capital and strategic consulting, as well as working to transform the funding and financing landscape. NFF shares CCG and Oikos’ goal of supporting the agency of Black communities, and recently committed  $5 million in investment capital and its consulting expertise to the initiative.  

“This work requires a thoughtful combination of community organizing and design thinking with  flexible impact investing,” said Antony Bugg-Levine, NFF CEO. “CCG and Oikos have pioneered a proven approach that guides faith communities through a process to reimagine what is possible, build a collective vision, harness financial knowledge, and access the financing they need to bring that vision into reality. The process honors the tradition and legacy embedded in these properties and enables the church communities to maintain agency in the use and development of their assets. NFF is excited to bring to this crucial work our ability to tailor investments to meet community need and to support community leaders to access the knowledge that can enable them to take control of their financial future.”  

The first supportive ecosystem will be launched in the first quarter of 2021 in partnership with The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, Georgia. This partnership, entitled  “Thriving Prophetic Congregations: A Learning Journey with Black Congregations in the  Southeastern United States,” has been funded by a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.  “ITC is excited to partner with Crossing Capital Group and the Oikos Institute to launch this impactful program,” said Matthew Wesley Williams, President of ITC. “The Thriving Prophetic Congregations initiative will help missional congregations reimagine their assets and ministries to facilitate flourishing in the communities they serve.”

Oikos is working to develop similar ecosystem initiatives across the country, with efforts under way in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Raleigh-Durham, NC. “We aim to help faith communities move from a place of survival and scarcity toward a spirit of imagination and abundance,” said  Oikos Institute Executive Director Dr. Blount. “By embracing their role as an anchor institution, and having access to the resources and capital to fully realize this role, churches can be a transformational force for economic renewal.” 

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About Crossing Capital Group  

Crossing Capital Group (CCG) helps faith communities reimagine and steward their assets for the well-being of their community. CCG provides advisory services to equip communities with the vision, tools and multiple sources of capital required to plan, launch, and scale socially beneficial businesses and real estate development projects. 

About the Oikos Institute for Social Impact 

The Oikos Institute for Social Impact helps congregations harness the power of their assets in order to be a catalyst for communal transformation and economic renewal. Through strategic partnerships with seminaries, universities, foundations, government agencies and denominational judicatories, the Oikos Institute creates mutually supportive ecosystems that strengthen the Faith,  Intellectual, Social and Human Capital of congregations actively engaged in social impact and transformational work in the under-resourced communities they serve. 

About Nonprofit Finance Fund 

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF®) works toward a more equitable, responsive, and valued social sector. NFF provides financing and consulting to help nonprofits and their funders better connect money to mission results. They are a community development financial institution (CDFI) applying 40 years of experience to today’s toughest social challenges, and they share what they learn to speed progress. NFF manages over $335 million. Since 1980, they have provided more than $954 million in financing and access to additional capital in support of over $3 billion in projects for thousands of organizations nationwide. 

Georgia Tech MBAs Compete in Turner MIINT Impact Investing Case Competition

By: Rob Joy

 

The Turner MBA Impact Investing Network and Training (MIINT) is a hands on experiential lab designed to give students real world experience in impact investing. This is Georgia Tech’s first year participating in the nationwide competition, sponsored by the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. 

My team, consisting of myself, Sarah Harris, Youngtak Lee, Maren Herby, and Steve Staebler, created our own investment thesis, sourced seed stage startups that fit our thesis, then presented our top choice to the MIINT Investment Committee for the chance of a $50K investment from MIINT as an add on to their current seed round. We won the Georgia Tech round and will be competing nationally against other top MBA programs in April! 

We selected Healthy Hip Hop as our choice to present to the Investment Committee. Healthy Hip Hop aims to improve the learning environment for kids ages 4 to 12 by focusing on culturally relevant content that promotes physical health, classroom engagement, and educational achievement. With child-friendly lyrics, real hip hop beats, and the ability for kids to create their own content, Healthy Hip Hop is a mix between Spotify and TikTok for kids.

Working with founder Roy Scott has been great. His vision and passion for the company is amazing, and the business model is set up for both financial and impact success as Healthy Hip Hop grows. 

This was the first time I have done diligence on a startup. What was most challenging was quantifying the impact Healthy Hip Hop has on children, in addition to typical diligence on early stage startups for financial success. The MIINT gave me helpful tools such as Logic Models and the Impact Management Project (IMP) to help make impact assumptions. Healthy Hip Hop has also done a study with a healthcare company on the benefits of movement using the app and will be doing a pilot in the fall on Social Emotional Learning benefits. The most exciting thing I learned interviewing teachers is that the impact Healthy Hip Hop creates is truly the value proposition and key differentiator against competitive offerings. 

It is really cool to have an idea that improves people’s lives and only gets more impactful for all communities as the company scales. I really hope more companies and startups look for ways to make impact a core part of their business model. I look forward to Georgia Tech and the other great universities in Atlanta growing the social impact ecosystem by helping build the pipeline for future impact entrepreneurs and investors.

Start It Up Georgia Graduation and Grant Funding Winners

Last fall, Atlanta Tech Village launched Start It Up Georgia with the mission to provide free training, support, and guidance to all Georgians who wanted to become entrepreneurs.

 

Here are a few stats on the program:

  • 709 people were accepted into the 13 week program.
  • 56% were not in full-time work at the start of the program (either students, unemployed, retired, or part-time).
  • 90% came from Georgia, but they also had participants from California, Arizona, Florida, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Michigan, Washington, and more.
  • 12 teachers volunteered their time and expertise to teach 12 Lesson Labs.
  • 42 Mentors volunteered to meet with 350+ participants each week to support the founders as they built.
  • 139 new companies were launched!
  • 94% said the program was very helpful in launching their company.
  • 103 people applied for grant funding.
  • 7 startups were granted a cumulative $14,500.

 

“Start It Up Georgia (SIUG) provided us with the opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs and business mentors in Georgia at a time when in-person networking was impossible due to COVID-19. Without SIUG we would have felt very isolated. Thanks to SIUG we were able to build a solid network, incorporate our business, and begin the customer discovery phase. Not only did SIUG provide information on the nuts and bolts on how to start a business, but also provided insights into the human side of running a company thanks to the weekly meetings with business mentors.” – Kevin DeMarco and Sergio Garcia, RIF Robotics Co-Founders

 

Learn more about RIF Robotics and the other grant funding winners below:

 

ANDREA BLAZIA

Blue Honey Homestead

Blue Honey Homestead crafts artisan products for the home – specializing in breads, soap and “garden-to-table” goods. We consider customers friends. We aim to enrich the lives of our friends, creating connections through baking, soap making and gardening. Get some of Andrea’s amazing bread today by visiting her website!

 

ALLAN MEADE

Concept Factory Atlanta 

Concept Factory Atlanta will be a smart collaborative hub and coworking space and will serve as a pipeline for visual storytellers to reach production studios and beyond while building community, relationships, and professional connections. Learn more about the great things to come from Concept Factory Atlanta today!

 

STEPHEN BUSSEY  & ANDY PEREZ

Clove

Clove’s Customer Hub: Clove gives your customers a central place to access everything post-sale. Increase adoption and renewals by connecting your product with your post-sale platforms. All in one place, beautifully packaged. Check out their website to learn more! 

 

ASHLEY TANKS

BLK JOY Coffee & Tea Counter

BLK JOY coffee & tea counter brings BLK coffee & BLK culture back together! They are a mobile counter serving specialty coffee sourced from Black & indigenous farmers steeped in the Black experience. Go see them in South Fulton for a delicious cup of BLK JOY & check out their Instagram today!

 

ELISSA RUSSEL

READI

READI re-skills low literate adults. READI assesses the team, creates and delivers workforce readiness trainings that address the workers literacy gaps and improves their employability. Elissa & READI are all about paying it forward and helping others. Learn more about the amazing work they are doing today by checking out their website! 

 

KEVIN DEMARCO

RIF Robotics Corp

RIF Robotics Corp is developing an autonomous mobile robot to help hospital managers reduce costs, errors, and infection rates with a robot that can assemble customized surgical case carts in a collaborative environment for robots and healthcare workers. Learn more about how they are serving the healthcare community here. 

 

STEVEN SIMMS

The Rural Urban Connection

The Rural Urban Connection is using eco-friendly (regenerative) agricultural practices to raise grass-fed beef in Georgia and deliver that beef to Metro-Atlanta consumers. You can find the Rural Urban Connection on Facebook!

 

Congrats to these founders and all the other graduates! And stay tuned for additional feature stories on SIUG winners over the coming weeks.

Evo Haven Founders Building Container Community Amid Housing Crisis

Founders: Majesty & Elize Gayle

Venture Name: Evo Haven

Impact Focus Area(s): Sustainable Housing; Opportunity Zone Fund

Business Stage: Startup

Year Venture Established: 2020

Business Type: LLC

 

Evo Group Holdings (EGH) aims to end the global housing crisis and increase the supply of entry-level homes by mass-producing environmentally friendly real estate. In their first year in operations, Majesty and Elize Gayle, EGH’s founders, have generated $1.5 million in revenue, helping them prove entrepreneurs can do well while working efficiently for the good of the community.

Evo Haven is one of their container home developments for working Americans, providing solutions to address housing insecurity. Evo Haven homes are made of shipping containers, recyclable materials and utilize renewable energy sources. There are a variety of floor plans, with a sleek design, energy-efficient HVAC systems, and are equipped with solar and geothermal energy sources. The green community reduces air pollution by reducing carbon emissions and is a solution for modern, sustainable infrastructure and an equitable clean energy future.

Close to 8 million low-income renter households in the US suffer from the burdens of increasing housing costs. These households are spending more than half of their incomes on rent and utilities. While the US has a long history of redlining, segregation, and racist housing policies, this has resulted in Black Americans being more likely to be extremely low-income renters than White Americans.

As of 2020, housing affordability is primarily driven by the gap between household income and the rising home value. For every 100 severely low-income renter households, there are only 36 affordable homes that exist and are available immediately. An overview of real estate trends in Atlanta by property investment site Roofstock shows that the median monthly rent is $1,800, the median home price is $405,000, and the average income is $34,000 per year. The federal government defines housing as affordable when it costs no more than 30 percent of a household’s income. At the average salary of an Atlanta citizen, most can only afford roughly $850 max monthly rent.

Evo Haven’s container home solution provides an affordable, “tiny home” option for budding homeowners. These units are 320 square feet and can be financed for $800 per month. They are an economical pathway to land ownership by appealing to potential residents making as little as $15/hour. This product will be available nationwide as Evo Group Holdings works with local jurisdictions on zoning and land use.

The company also offers an immediate retail-level product that is the synthesis of style, efficiency, and social responsibility. The residential properties are 1,200+ square feet and some units offer features like LEED Certified appliances, large sliding doors, and rooftop patios encased in tempered glass railings. The first Evo Haven community will be developed in South Fulton, Georgia. The units will be available for pre-sale starting March 2021.

“The primary focus of our developments are in Opportunity Zones,” says Majesty. “The goal is to be profitable, energy-efficient, and solve a global crisis; we have a new and exciting way to advance the real estate industry like no other company.” EGH and its products are actively aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

With local support, the company will seek financial and social returns on an array of residential and multifamily developments that are built with exceptional speed, quality, and visual appeal not currently found in the marketplace.

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Interested in learning more, please visit:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Evo-Haven-116821340227275/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/majesty_elize/

Website: https://www.evogrouphld.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/in/majestygayle

Community Foundation’s GoATL Impact Investing Fund Announces New Commitments

Three activities result in $1 million deployed for COVID-19 recovery and more than $2 million raised for future deployment 

 

ATLANTA – The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s GoATL Fund provides flexible, cost-effective impact capital to support our region’s nonprofits and social enterprises. This month, it announces three positive moves forward for the community: two are investments that directly further metro Atlanta’s recovery from the pandemic, the third is a new $2 million capital commitment to GoATL from a local foundation to support future investments in the community.

“Having launched the GoATL Fund with $10 million in seed funding from the Community Foundation, our investments across the region are now showing returns through sustainable social impacts” said Mark Crosswell, managing director for social impact strategy, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. “While we’re aggressively deploying funds, new commitments are rolling in from our investors as they seek new ways to make a difference in the community. Foundations and individual donors are thinking about how they use all capital, not just grantmaking, for social good.”

While 2020 presented new challenges across the region, the GoATL Fund moved to assist investment partners by providing select payment deferrals and shifting committed capital to COVID-19 relief; holding webinars to share learnings on relief efforts and recovery strategies for other foundations, investors and nonprofits; and deploying new capital to address existing gaps and exacerbated needs in the community.

To that end, the GoATL Fund recently closed a $250,000 investment in LiftFund, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), to enable it to provide 0% interest loans primarily to Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC)-owned micro-businesses throughout the Atlanta metro area. To mitigate risk and offset costs, grant capital from philanthropic partners will support LiftFund in making this innovative investment for Georgia’s underserved microbusinesses.

“Since 2016, LiftFund has invested over $2 million across Georgia, serving more than 100 businesses,” said Stephaney Bolden, senior business development officer at LiftFund. “While the pandemic is presenting unprecedented challenges for entrepreneurs, this new loan product will help them weather the storm and prepare for recovery.” 

To support affordable housing efforts, the GoATL Fund closed a $750,000 investment in the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) to finance its affordable single-family rental housing efforts in South DeKalb, an area hit hard by the last recession’s foreclosure crisis and now disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

“Since receiving our first GoATL investment in 2018, we’ve more than doubled our single-family production throughout the region,” said John O’Callaghan, president and CEO at ANDP. “GoATL’s investment helps us leverage more capital, achieving exponentially more impact along the way.” 

The first impact investment fund of its kind in the southeast, the GoATL Fund has committed more than $10 million to date to help finance 400 affordable housing units, small business growth that created over 120 jobs, and new slots at local schools that will serve 650 students at capacity. More recent investments support early childhood facilities, non-traditional transitions into the workforce, transit-friendly affordable housing and STEAM education, all of which are located in Atlanta’s low-income communities.

Unlike traditional philanthropy that gives grants to nonprofits, GoATL’s investments provide loans that are expected to be paid back over time, thus recycling capital for reinvestment in new projects. The loans also allow nonprofits and social-purpose for profits to leverage additional funding from the Community Foundation and other sources. On a global scale, impact investing of all types now represents nearly $17 trillion invested for social good.

To leverage the Community Foundation’s original $10 million investment in GoATL, donors of the Foundation have since committed nearly $4 million to grow the Fund by 40% since inception, including the recently received $2 million investment. “The GoATL fund offers us an accessible and streamlined way to make our first impact investments across a variety of areas within our mission, and will help us grow our own investment program by keeping us apprised of what is happening locally,” said Roswell Satterwhite at the William Josef Foundation, GoATL’s most recent investor. “Its investment structure makes it straightforward to achieve balance in both financial returns and socially meaningful outcomes.”

With a robust pipeline of opportunities valued between $6-8 million, the GoATL Fund is actively seeking even more capital in 2021 in order to continue investing in interventions to support greater racial equity, close Atlanta’s wealth gap and scale sustainable solutions in education, food access, healthcare and housing.

 

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About the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta

Since 1951, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta has been leading and inspiring philanthropy to increase the vitality of our region and the well-being of all residents. With 70 years serving the metropolitan Atlanta region and a robust team of experts, the Community Foundation expands its philanthropic reach and impact by providing quality services to donors and bold, innovative community leadership. The Community Foundation is a top-20 community foundation among 750 nationally, with approximately $1.2 billion in current assets, and is Georgia’s second largest foundation. 

About the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s GoATL Fund

Launched in 2018, the GoATL Fund provides innovative and flexible capital designed to scale and sustain social solutions of critical importance to our community. Started with an initial allocation of $10 million from the Community Foundation, the GoATL Fund is now open to receive new capital from the Community Foundation’s donor community. For more information, visit: GoATL Fund, cfgreateratlanta.org or connect with the Foundation via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media Contact: Elyse Hammett, [email protected]

Drawdown Georgia Launches to Accelerate Climate Solutions

Nonpartisan effort to scale solutions by bringing Georgians together to crowdsolve for climate progress

 

The end of 2020 marked the launch of a long-term, multi-stakeholder climate initiative in Georgia – one designed to bring business and industry, municipal leadership, NGOs and others together to accelerate climate solutions in Georgia. Inspired by the global framework of Project Drawdown, the Drawdown Georgia team has identified 20 high impact solutions based on Georgia’s unique economic, natural and social resources that – when scaled – will put Georgia on an accelerated path to a low carbon future.

“If we get this right, we believe we can take carbon emissions in Georgia from about 125 megatons to 79 megatons by 2030 – a reduction by at least one-third in just ten years,” said John A. Lanier, executive director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and a founder of Drawdown Georgia. “And importantly, Beyond Carbon, there are economic and social benefits as well as public health and environmental gains. We’ve done the work to visualize it all, and now we invite everyone working on climate solutions in Georgia to join us in bringing these climate solutions home.” A megaton of carbon is defined as 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent.

Drawdown Georgia’s 20-solution framework is focused on five sectors where the biggest impacts exist, and where the greatest potential to scale solutions is evident: Transportation, Electricity, Food & Agriculture, Buildings & Materials, and Land Sinks. A full list of solutions is here.

The research was led by Nobel Laureate and energy/climate expert Marilyn Brown from Georgia Tech. “Our research effort has created a model that is available to all; by localizing it and applying it to other states and regions, partners across the country can collectively accelerate change in ways that are most impactful, beneficial and equitable.”

To accelerate solutions requires bringing everyone together, so Drawdown Georgia has created a crowdsolving community where people, projects and progress can come together to provide full visibility into solutions, and to provide a platform where people can connect to share ideas, challenges and progress towards drawdown.

 

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About Drawdown Georgia

Informed by Project Drawdown, the world’s leading resource for climate solutions, Drawdown Georgia is the first state-centered effort to crowdsolve for climate change. The goal is to catalyze and scale 20 high impact solutions so Georgia can do its part to advance Drawdown — that point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.

The Drawdown Georgia roadmap was vetted by an expert team of Georgia-based academics, climate scientists, and researchers led by Georgia Institute of Technology, in partnership with Emory University, Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. Drawdown Georgia estimates that the state’s current carbon footprint is 125 megatons, with the potential to cut Georgia’s carbon impact by about 35% in ten years, to 79 megatons.

The solutions are based on five focus areas with the best potential to create the most change in Georgia: Electricity, Transportation, Buildings & Materials, Food & Agriculture, and Land Sinks. Currently funded by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, Drawdown Georgia is bringing climate solutions home. Visit our home page.

Three Ways You Can Support the Climate Change Revolution (from your couch) in 2021

By: Ed Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of 412 Technology

 

In 2020 alone, it seemed like half of California was on fire, there have been so many hurricanes that we’ve run out of names, and the year is on pace to match 2016 as the hottest on record.

If one of your new year’s resolutions is to help fight climate change, where should you begin?

First, you can—and should—lobby all levels of our government for science-backed climate policy, and you should demand that the corporations you buy from become better stewards of our common resources.

But what should you do personally? Personal behavioral changes—such as biking more instead of driving, or eating less meat—can have a huge impact on climate change. But as anyone who’s tried dieting knows, behavioral changes are hard to do and harder to sustain.

Fortunately for us, there are at least three simple actions anyone can do to fight climate change:

 

Invest In an ESG Portfolio

If you have a stock portfolio, you should consider adding an ESG requirement. ESG (environmental, social & governance) investing, also known as ‘sustainable investing’, seeks to invest in companies that take the impact of their business into account in addition to the return they provide investors.

Getting started in ESG investing can be as simple as investing in ESG index funds instead of their non-ESG equivalents, opting for an ESG mix at with your existing roboadvisor, using an ESG-specific roboadvisor or picking a financial advisor who specializes in ESG investments. However you go about it, your investments will be increasing the value of companies that are socially responsible, enabling them to access capital more easily and expand their impact.

This in turn encourages more companies to become responsible, helping mobilize additional capital to fighting climate change. If you’re interested in investing directly into companies at the forefront of the climate fight, resources exist to identify them too.

 

Invest In Climate Change Projects

If you’re ready to take the next step and invest directly in climate-change related projects, consider investing in the green bond market.

Expected to balloon to over $500B in 2021, the green bond market is a catch-all phrase for any public debt that’s been issued to support environmentally sustainable projects. From solar plants in Europe to energy retrofits of corporate campuses to the electrification of city vehicle fleets, almost every form of climate change project a company or municipal government could take exists for you to invest in.

The easiest way to get started in this market is to invest in green bonds through exchange traded funds that track this sector. This gives you access to a portfolio of different projects and a management team that knows how to identify the best investments. If you’re interested in investing in bond issuances directly, a financial advisor is the best starting point.

 

Purchase Carbon Offsets

If you want the biggest climate impact for your dollar, however, there’s a third option available: Simply pay a project sponsor to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Known as carbon offsetting, the concept is very simple: Buyers pay a project sponsor to take an action that removes a verified amount of carbon from the atmosphere, thus directly fighting climate change. Whether your interest is in planting new forests, enabling sustainable farming, conserving critical rainforest or supporting technical solutions, there are a myriad of projects available that have a carbon impact that you can support. As a bonus, many are sponsored by non-profits.

Want to neutralize your impact on the climate? Purchase enough in reduction from the offset market to equal the amount of carbon you generate. Want to go one step further and be part of the solution? Purchase more in offsets than you personally generate in carbon emissions, and you’re actively helping reverse climate change!

Multiple new platforms and services exist—including Arbor, my company’s platform—to make the carbon offset market simpler and easier for everyday consumers to navigate and use. Dollar for dollar, it’s the simplest way to maximize your climate impact.

We’re at an inflection point in the fight against climate change, and our choices over the next few years are likely to determine whether or not we have a recognizable world in the coming decades. Make 2021 the year when you join the solution by taking a few simple steps to help reverse climate change.

 

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Ed Thomas is the co-founder and CEO of 412 Technology, a public benefits corporation focused on reversing climate change. Arbor, the company’s flagship product, enables users to fight climate change by eliminating the climate impact of specific actions through the carbon offset market. Learn more about Arbor and sign up for early access by visiting their website.