IMPACT launches a new mortgage loan strategy – its first short term strategy and its first focused on preservation of existing affordable housing.

To effec­tive­ly tack­le the afford­able hous­ing cri­sis, the preser­va­tion of exist­ing afford­able hous­ing is cru­cial, in addi­tion to efforts to con­struct new build­ings to meet the grow­ing demand. In 2020, IMPACT launched a new mort­gage loan strat­e­gy – its first short term strat­e­gy and its first focused on the preser­va­tion of exist­ing afford­able hous­ing. With short ‑term lend­ing options, IMPACT has been able to assist buy­ers and devel­op­ers of mul­ti­fam­i­ly afford­able hous­ing build­ings with the financ­ing need­ed to pre­serve or restore pre­ex­ist­ing afford­able units. 

IMPACT’s unique short term strat­e­gy cre­ates pos­i­tive change in afford­able hous­ing preser­va­tion, pro­vid­ing financ­ing solu­tions for the own­ers and devel­op­ers of exist­ing afford­able hous­ing build­ings to ensure they can con­tin­ue to stay afford­able. Learn more about IMPACT’s first short term strat­e­gy in the video below:

In 2020, IMPACT teams up with Freddie Mac to pioneer the issuance of their first social bonds.

This his­toric col­lab­o­ra­tion under­scores the pow­er of part­ner­ships in dri­ving pos­i­tive change, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the realm of afford­able hous­ing mortgages. 

“As an investor, there’s still a per­cep­tion that to make impact invest­ments, you’re going to have to give some­thing up. It’s going to be riski­er, or you’ll have to take less returns,” said IMPACT Pres­i­dent and CEO Jeff Bren­ner. ​“But with our track record, we’re demys­ti­fy­ing impact investing.” 

Build­ing on the suc­cess of this inno­v­a­tive col­lab­o­ra­tion, IMPACT con­tin­ued to lead the way in the fol­low­ing year with yet anoth­er social bond issuance along­side Fred­die Mac. This time, $104 mil­lion of par­tic­i­pa­tion cer­tifi­cates were secu­ri­tized, reflect­ing our con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to gen­er­ate mean­ing­ful impact for com­mu­ni­ties through respon­si­ble and sus­tain­able invest­ments. Since 2001, IMPACT has secu­ri­tized over $1B in assets. 

Learn more about IMPACT’s trail­blaz­ing work with Fred­die Mac in the video below:

In 2019, IMPACT became a member of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment.

In 2019, IMPACT became a mem­ber of the UN’s Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment. IMPACT is proud to be part of the UNPRI’s glob­al indus­try – a net­work of investors, asset own­ers, and ser­vice providers – who are all com­mit­ted to incor­po­rat­ing envi­ron­men­tal, social and gov­er­nance fac­tors into the invest­ment process. 

Watch the video below to learn more about the sig­nif­i­cance of IMPACT join­ing this organization. 

In 2003, IMPACT launches its first fund, the $475M Community Impact Loan Fund, to create a continuous flow of capital to finance the development of new affordable housing.

IMPACT’s for­ward-think­ing ini­tia­tive two decades ago laid the foun­da­tion for our ongo­ing work to address the hous­ing cri­sis that we still face today. 

Fast for­ward to 2023, the need for afford­able hous­ing is more crit­i­cal than ever. Accord­ing to the NLIHC’s 2023 Gap Report, the U.S. faces a stag­ger­ing short­age of 7.3 mil­lion rental homes that are both afford­able and avail­able to extreme­ly low-income renters, and only 33 afford­able and avail­able rental homes exist for every 100 extreme­ly low-income renter households. 

At IMPACT, we’re proud to con­tin­ue our work bridg­ing the financ­ing gap in afford­able hous­ing and assist­ing in the cre­ation of qual­i­ty, afford­able homes for those who need it most.

IMPACT Community Capital was formed in 1998, by leading insurance companies.

IMPACT was formed in 1998 by lead­ing insur­ance com­pa­nies to make sound invest­ments and dri­ve cap­i­tal to com­mu­ni­ties where it can have the great­est impact. Over the last quar­ter cen­tu­ry, we’re proud of to have financed over 50,000 units of afford­able hous­ing, sav­ing res­i­dents more than $200 mil­lion in rent.*

*IMPACT port­fo­lio data as of 12.31.2021

In 2022, IMPACT created a new tax-exempt loan strategy.

For 25 years, IMPACT has inten­tion­al­ly tar­get­ed invest­ment in tra­di­tion­al­ly under­served and under­in­vest­ed com­mu­ni­ties. This focus means that our work has sup­port­ed renter com­mu­ni­ties fac­ing heavy cost bur­dens, espe­cial­ly in areas where over­crowd­ed hous­ing is dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly common. 

In 2022, IMPACT cre­at­ed a new tax-exempt loan strat­e­gy. As IMPACT con­tin­ues to inno­vate, we offer tax-exempt options to invest in afford­able mul­ti­fam­i­ly rental hous­ing. At IMPACT, we lever­age our exper­tise across mul­ti­ple invest­ment types to source oppor­tu­ni­ties that meet a vari­ety of investors’ invest­ment and impact objec­tives — to con­tin­ue scal­ing our pos­i­tive impact in the realm of afford­able housing. 

In 2000, IMPACT was certified by COIN as a California CDFI.

In 2000, IMPACT was cer­ti­fied by COIN as a Cal­i­for­nia CDFI. The Cal­i­for­nia Orga­nized Invest­ment Net­work Depart­ment of Insur­ance (COIN) part­ners with com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment orga­ni­za­tions, advo­cates, and the insur­ance indus­try to work togeth­er towards a com­mon goal: to lead the way in pro­mot­ing safe and secure invest­ment options for the insur­ance indus­try, while also pro­vid­ing fair returns to investors and social ben­e­fits to under­served com­mu­ni­ties. COIN is also respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing the Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Finan­cial Insti­tu­tion (CDFI) tax cred­it program. 

CDFIs are Cal­i­for­nia-based pri­vate finan­cial insti­tu­tions whose pri­ma­ry objec­tive is to bridge the increas­ing gap between finan­cial resources avail­able to the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion and those offered to low-income indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties, as well as non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions and busi­ness­es that cater to them. More­over, CDFIs play a cru­cial role in tack­ling pover­ty and cred­it acces­si­bil­i­ty issues in eco­nom­i­cal­ly dis­ad­van­taged areas by pro­vid­ing devel­op­ment ser­vices or tech­ni­cal assis­tance, along with loans and invest­ments, for com­mu­ni­ty and eco­nom­ic growth. 

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion as a Cal­i­for­nia CDFI high­lights IMPACT’s com­mit­ment to dri­ving impact in our home state, speak­ing to our pri­ma­ry mis­sion to advance com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment and lend­ing to urban and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties in California. 

In 2006, IMPACT creates a private fund of funds to finance commercial real estate and drive economic development in low to moderate income census tracts.

This was one of the first invest­ments for IMPACT in the equi­ty space, aimed at urban infill tar­get­ing local under­served com­mu­ni­ties. Two years lat­er, in 2008, IMPACT cre­at­ed a pri­vate fund of funds to invest in mez­za­nine debt, with a focus on small­er growth com­pa­nies to dri­ve the cre­ation of qual­i­ty jobs. These invest­ments were new oppor­tu­ni­ties for IMPACT’s investors to branch out from tra­di­tion­al invest­ment vehi­cles and expand impact in new areas beyond afford­able hous­ing. Watch the video below to learn more!

In 2021, IMPACT Community Capital successfully closed the $210M IMPACT Mortgage Opportunities Fund.

Inspired by the idea of mak­ing invest­ments that meet the high stan­dards set by our six insti­tu­tion­al investor founders, we cre­at­ed the new fund as our first fund to include exter­nal investors. This fund was ded­i­cat­ed to pre­serv­ing afford­able hous­ing, respond­ing to the alarm­ing short­age of such hous­ing units in the mar­ket at the time and still today. By safe­guard­ing access to afford­able hous­ing, our goal was to pre­vent the poten­tial loss of tens of thou­sands of afford­able hous­ing units. By intro­duc­ing new investors to such invest­ments, we chart­ed new ter­ri­to­ry for the firm and our industry. 

Learn more about our Mort­gage Oppor­tu­ni­ties Fund in the video below:

In 2011, IMPACT achieved an important investing milestone: We reached a total of $1B in investments originated.

As one of the first man­agers to use mort­gage-backed secu­ri­ti­za­tion to deliv­er cap­i­tal at scale for afford­able hous­ing, IMPACT has now orig­i­nat­ed more than $2 bil­lion in invest­ments to pro­vide afford­able hous­ing, health­care, child­care and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties. Look­ing to the future, our team is con­vinced that our impact invest­ments will become even more crit­i­cal in the years ahead, as demand for afford­able hous­ing will con­tin­ue to sub­stan­tial­ly out­pace the afford­able hous­ing supply.

In 2019, IMPACT innovated with Freddie Mac on its first privately placed participation certificate swap. Two years later, IMPACT completed the second private placement participation certificate swap with Freddie Mac for a total of $98 million.

This swap con­sist­ed of $141M of mort­gage loans for Fred­die Mac guar­an­teed par­tic­i­pa­tion cer­tifi­cates, open­ing a new avenue for financ­ing afford­able hous­ing in scale. 

Two years lat­er, IMPACT com­plet­ed the sec­ond pri­vate place­ment par­tic­i­pa­tion cer­tifi­cate swap with Fred­die Mac for a total of $98 mil­lion. Lis­ten to our video below to hear IMPACT CIO Michael Lohmeier and Gen­er­al Coun­sel Liz Kang talk about this ground­break­ing inno­va­tion and why it is so impor­tant for scal­ing and de-risk­ing our investments: 

In 2004, IMPACT forms its third fund, a private debt fund to finance development of Childcare facilities serving low-income families.

In addi­tion to financ­ing child­care facil­i­ties, many ICC-financed afford­able hous­ing projects include social ser­vices that allow fam­i­lies free access to ameni­ties that bet­ter their lives. 

A res­i­dent of an ICC-financed prop­er­ty said, ​“McCleary Hill has been a great expe­ri­ence for me and my fam­i­ly. It gave us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be togeth­er and point our life in the right direc­tion. We were able to plan for the future… It was more than we could’ve asked for!” 

At IMPACT, we are proud to finance projects that make a tan­gi­ble impact on the lives of low-income fam­i­lies and local com­mu­ni­ty members. 

IMPACT launched IMPACT Investment Adviser in 2009, an SEC Registered Investment Adviser.

The move offi­cial­ized IMPACT Com­mu­ni­ty Capital’s long-time focus on serv­ing our clients’ best inter­ests while invest­ing to sup­port com­mu­ni­ties. The launch reflect­ed IMPACT’s growth, key to attract­ing investors out­side of the firm’s core own­er­ship structure. 

At IMPACT, we’re proud to be advis­ing insti­tu­tion­al investors on impact invest­ments. In 2009 this was a sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ment, as there were very few impact-focused invest­ment advi­sors reg­is­tered with the SEC at that time. Below, lis­ten to Gen­er­al Coun­sel Liz Kang dis­cuss the momen­tous deci­sion to become a reg­is­tered invest­ment advi­sor with the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Commission. 

In 2011, IMPACT created its first Historic Tax Credit Fund, resulting in over $54M of capital for two important and impactful non-profit institutions in San Francisco.

We allo­cat­ed over $54M of fund­ing to two remark­able non-prof­its in San Fran­cis­co: a sci­ence muse­um and a vio­lence advo­ca­cy group. 

This invest­ment played a vital role in reha­bil­i­tat­ing his­toric struc­tures in our city, pre­serv­ing their cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance and breath­ing new life into cher­ished spaces. One of the projects took place in the icon­ic Pre­sidio, while the oth­er revi­tal­ized a water­front property. 

In the first of several innovative firsts, IMPACT and Freddie Mac collaborated on the first Q-Series issuance.

IMPACT and Fred­die Mac col­lab­o­rat­ed on the first Q‑Series issuance, a 2014 secu­ri­ti­za­tion, bring­ing the liq­uid­i­ty of agency financ­ing to a wider range of afford­able mul­ti­fam­i­ly lenders and prop­er­ties. For more insight into the impor­tance of our work with Fred­die Mac, check out our video from IMPACT CIO Michael Lohmeier.

In 2020, IMPACT launched a new long-term affordable housing product featuring tax exempt bonds.

Invest­ing in both the preser­va­tion and new con­struc­tion of afford­able hous­ing, this strat­e­gy offers tax-exempt income to investors who are heav­i­ly taxed – such as fam­i­ly offices or insur­ance com­pa­nies – while allow­ing them to make a real impact on their com­mu­ni­ties. At IMPACT, pre­serv­ing exist­ing afford­able hous­ing options and sup­port­ing new con­struc­tion for low­er-income hous­ing is key to our impact strat­e­gy, and we’re pleased to offer a wide range of invest­ment options to cater to all kinds of investors.

In 2002, IMPACT was one of 66 allocatees for the first-ever New Markets Tax Credits, awarded to Impact CDE by the federal CDFI Fund.

As one of the first allo­ca­tees to par­tic­i­pate in the New Mar­kets Tax Cred­it pro­gram, IMPACT Com­mu­ni­ty Cap­i­tal showed that state and gov­ern­ment appro­pri­a­tions did not nec­es­sar­i­ly trans­late to dimin­ished returns. Our suc­cess in launch­ing these three dif­fer­ent funds, through cre­ative struc­tur­ing of our invest­ments, demon­strates our com­mit­ment to invest­ing in a more equi­table and sus­tain­able future. 

Watch our video with Stephanie Tir­man, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Account­ing & Oper­a­tions, as she dis­cuss­es our pio­neer­ing role in the New Mar­kets Tax Cred­it pro­gram — and how IMPACT raised $40 mil­lion in tax cred­its for invest­ments in Cal­i­for­ni­a’s child­care cen­ters, health care cen­ters, and oth­er eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment opportunities. 

IMPACT’s first investment was completed in 2000, investing in a $40M pool of affordable housing mortgages.

IMPACT Com­mu­ni­ty Cap­i­tal com­plet­ed its first invest­ment in 2000, invest­ing in a $40M pool of afford­able hous­ing mort­gages. Ear­ly IMPACT lead­ers saw the need for financ­ing of afford­able hous­ing prop­er­ties in the Unit­ed States. In the years since, our firm has con­tin­ued to lead the devel­op­ment of insti­tu­tion­al-qual­i­ty invest­ing strate­gies that seek to trans­form communities. 

Over the past 25 years, many res­i­dents in IMPACT-financed prop­er­ties have expe­ri­enced the rip­ple effect of pos­i­tive impacts that afford­able hous­ing pro­vides. One res­i­dent of Ashtab­u­la Tow­ers, an IMPACT-financed prop­er­ty in Ohio, shared: ​“I love being a part of some­thing and see­ing the plea­sure oth­er ten­ants get from our week­ly activ­i­ties. There are so many ser­vices pro­vid­ed… The Res­i­dent Ser­vice Coor­di­na­tor, the after-hours main­te­nance, the office staff, and the month­ly blood-pres­sure clin­ic have all been a huge help to me at one time or anoth­er. Ashtab­u­la Tow­ers has giv­en me a true home.”

In 2001, IMPACT Community Capital completed a $164M commercial mortgage-backed securitization consisting solely of affordable housing mortgages.

In 2001, IMPACT Com­mu­ni­ty Cap­i­tal com­plet­ed a $164M com­mer­cial mort­gage-backed secu­ri­ti­za­tion con­sist­ing sole­ly of afford­able hous­ing mort­gages. This secu­ri­ti­za­tion offered an oppor­tu­ni­ty to make sound invest­ments in afford­able hous­ing, while cre­at­ing pos­i­tive social impact for com­mu­ni­ties in need of hous­ing solutions. 

IMPACT Community Capital published its first impact report, “Building Opportunity,” in 2021.

In 2021, IMPACT Com­mu­ni­ty Cap­i­tal pub­lished its first impact report, ​“Build­ing Oppor­tu­ni­ty,” which detailed the impact of invest­ments made over the course of our first 23 years. In that report, IMPACT CIO Michael Lohmeier described the way that afford­able hous­ing can open the door to oth­er vital opportunities. 

“We are proud that our work can have a direct impact in help­ing fam­i­lies address their finan­cial chal­lenges. Ten­ants in IMPACT financed prop­er­ties earn­ing 30% Area Medi­an Income (AMI), for instance, aver­age rent sav­ings of $823 a month com­pared with mar­ket-rate renters.* Those sav­ings are help­ing them address the ris­ing costs of food, trans­porta­tion, health­care, and oth­er essen­tial ser­vices,” said Lohmeier. 

Watch our video for high­lights from our 2021 Impact Report, and read the report here.

*IMPACT port­fo­lio data as of 12.31.2021.

In 2003, IMPACT launched its first fund, the $475M Community Impact Loan (CIL) Fund.

In 2003, IMPACT launched its first fund, the $475M Com­mu­ni­ty Impact Loan (CIL) Fund, to cre­ate a con­tin­u­ous flow of cap­i­tal to fund mort­gages on afford­able mul­ti­fam­i­ly prop­er­ties. Rock­wood Apart­ments, locat­ed in Ana­heim, CA, is one prop­er­ty that IMPACT financed through CIL. 

Rock­wood Apart­ments is an inno­v­a­tive, mul­ti­fam­i­ly devel­op­ment that pro­vides per­ma­nent, sta­ble hous­ing and sup­port­ive ser­vices for: 48 for­mer­ly home­less fam­i­lies with chil­dren, 15 Men­tal Health Ser­vices Act (MHSA) clients liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness, and 6 large, low-income families. 

In 2004 IMPACT Community Capital launched its second fund, a private debt fund to finance development of healthcare facilities serving low-income families.

IMPACT funds devel­op­ment of such health­care facil­i­ties, in addi­tion to financ­ing prop­er­ties that assist res­i­dents with their health­care needs and offer ser­vices to enable bet­ter health and wellbeing. 

Res­i­dent Bet­ty shared,​“I feel safe and am so thank­ful to call this place home. It’s nice to not wor­ry about main­te­nance, shov­el­ing or the upkeep of a yard. Our Ser­vice Coor­di­na­tor has been a huge help sched­ul­ing doc­tors’ appoint­ments and fig­ur­ing out my insur­ance ques­tions. I have gained my inde­pen­dence back.”