Pacific Community Ventures



Impact Due Diligence: Emerging Best Practices

FavoriteWe at Pacific Community Ventures are thrilled to announce the publication of Impact Due Diligence: Emerging Best Practices, a report which surfaces the shared impact due diligence approaches employed by leading impact investors. The report examines trends and offers insights in an important, yet underdeveloped, area of investment practice. While impact measurement and management (IMM) has become increasingly sophisticated and widespread in recent years, many investors focus primarily on what happens after, not before, investments are made. This limits the potential of IMM, because systematically examining which investments are expected to generate more or less impact can help investors more Read more





Moving Beyond Job Creation: Defining and Measuring the Creation of Quality Jobs

FavoriteThis report discusses how through a better understanding of what defines a quality job and a set of practical methods for measuring the quality of jobs created, we believe Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and others in the impact investing community will be better positioned to make more effective investments that support good jobs for workers, businesses, and communities.      





Invest Northwest: Ten-Year Final Performance Review

FavoriteThe experience of developing, launching, managing, and evaluating Invest Northwest has provided important lessons for the Northwest Area Foundation’s and the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s mission investing programs. These lessons are also relevant to impact investors and place-based investors. With the fund coming to a close, this report documents these lessons and reflections, as well as the history of Invest Northwest, the fund’s financial performance, and its strong social performance.





The Social and Economic Impacts of Healthy Food Financing

FavoriteLaunched in July 2011 by a broad coalition of public and private partners led by the California Endowment, the $273 million California FreshWorks program provides loans and grants to grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and other food retailers that offer nutritious, affordable food options in communities where such options are scarce. In order to better understand the California FreshWorks program’s food access, social, and economic impact to date, the California Endowment commissioned the first-ever third-party evaluation of the program. The evaluation also sought to document key challenges and lessons from the development and implementation of FreshWorks.  





Aligning Capital with Mission

FavoriteIn an effort to support the broader mission investing field, Aligning Capital with Mission offers, for the first time publicly, findings that highlight the strong alignment of The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Social Investment Program’s impact with the Foundation’s mission and programmatic goals. The report also offers lessons and insights surfaced during the course of the evaluation that can inform foundations and other impact investors in more effectively measuring the impact of their investments.