- [Narrator] Imagine a child leaving school
knowing they're unlikely to have much to eat
when they get home.
Imagine a friend laid off
and eventually evicted from their home.
Imagine riding a bus two hours to the nearest grocery store
to provide healthy food for your family.
Things like race bias, income, education level,
and food access affect people's chances to be healthy.
This is where the Social Impact Fund story begins.
- Social Impact Fund is a nonprofit impact fund
with the goal of creating health equity,
and Social Impact Fund investing community-based solutions
that are reducing both the economic and social barriers
to health equity by supporting nonprofits and for-profits
with either grants or low interest loans
that enable those entrepreneurs solutions to drive the scale
and for us to help build an evidence base
of what's working by the community, for the community.
- The Social Impact Fund allows small businesses
to basically be a part of the solution
as we deal with inequities.
Opposed to someone telling us what to do,
we can partner with a Social Impact Fund,
the American Heart Association,
to say this is what we are doing, this is what we see,
can you help us do it?
- We're able to drive measurable impact quickly.
We're really good at taking big ideas and big commitments
and turning them into tangible, measurable results
in the communities that our corporations,
individuals, and foundations wanna drive change in.
- The unique thing about the Social Impact Fund
it's one of the first foundations to recognize
that social impact comes
from more than just the nonprofit sector.
The fact that you opened up the pool of available actors
that were eligible for funding is unheard of,
no one else is doing it.
This type of funding is not available for small businesses.
- I think businesses like myself are creating new approaches
to addressing some of the world's largest issues.
And some of these approaches have not been seen before.
I think the fund like the Social Impact Fund
from the American Heart Association gives some
of these approaches a chance to live and to thrive.
I would say that's why the funds are important, you know.
They don't necessarily focus on what's been done
and what's normal.
They focus on investing in new strategies and new ways
of tackling some of the world's largest problems.
- For a lot of startup founders,
especially entrepreneurs of color,
fundraising is challenging.
With support of the fund,
we'll be able to increase our earned revenue
and think of new business lines
that we can offer community members during the pandemic.
- The AJ's really good at sourcing
and reaching organizations
that are under the traditional radar of traditional funders
and bringing them into the fold,
but then providing the right flexible support
to get to those groups of scale
and then building out the evidence
so that other resources can go
to the most effective solutions.
- There's a lot of really promising social entrepreneurs
and startup nonprofits and social enterprises
that have fantastic ideas with like the potential
to transform communities for the better,
in a variety of different ways.
If there were more programs like the AHA Social Impact Fund,
I think we'd see more promising startups
not only just come to life, but also go to scale.
I think you'd see more rapid innovation.
- The benefit of investing in leaders of color
that are creating solutions for their community
is that they offer an authentic perspective.
And through that perspective,
they usually offer more holistic solutions
that leads to economic empowerment.
- They don't just give you a check and say,
Hey, go, you know.
They give you funds, but also an opportunity to really grow
as an organization, as a leader,
as well as to teach strategically about your business
and your concept of serving the individual
that you're working with.
- If you wanna make a real change
and have a real lasting impact.
This Social Impact Fund is where the rubber hits the road.
This is not just about giving,
it's about changing their way of life.
It's about changing the trajectory of folks lives.
- There's a lot of people that say they want equity.
Our fund is a way to actually drive real equity
and that it's time to really take a step back
And re-imagine how do you invest in solutions
that drive measurable, lasting change?
And we want those partners to come alongside us
and bring not only the resources, but their ideas,
so that we can collectively drive impact
and create a country that's more equitable in the future.
(quiet rhythmic music)