In addition to grantmaking, our investments are an effective tool for achieving positive impact. They include program-related investments (PRIs) that directly support our mission in the South. Our investments align with our values and adhere to our Investment Policy, which includes environmental, social and governance factors. These criteria include community impact, labor rights, climate and environmental impact, corporate governance, supply chain management, among other practices. 

Through our PRIs, we support systemic change efforts to build wealth and power in low-wealth communities and communities of color through strategies that democratize ownership and governance of capital, land, and labor.This includes exploring how capital can be leveraged to support community power-building across four domains: 

• Community Ownership: Capital directed to projects that sustainably meet community needs and expand asset ownership, especially in working-class communities of color and communities from which wealth has historically been extracted.
• Community Governance: Supporting structures and practices for community leadership, accountability, learning, and control over finance as a shared resource.
• Community Action: Collective action that amplifies social and economic justice efforts to change dominant narratives and build alternative systems, by strengthening the ability of organizations rooted in community to engage in structural change. 
• Land Justice: Efforts focused on land reclamation, land access, and ownership. 

To this end, we are pursuing a new impact investing framework (through PRIs and grants) that explores expanded impacts through various investment types. This could include, but not limited to: 

• Inviting new PRI partners with experience deploying equity, debt/equity hybrid, and debt financial products in alignment with this learning strategy goals.  
• Investing in funds, community enterprises and land strategies that distribute ownership and control of assets within historically oppressed communities. 
• Models that enable working-class people to directly steward capital and make decisions in service of the common good. 
• Innovative community-driven solutions to provide equitable and non-extractive financing to farmers, land stewards, entrepreneurs, and community groups that advance systemic change towards racial equity and a just economy.  
• Initiatives that advance ecological restoration, and transition to sustainable and just economy centering historically marginalized communities.
• Enterprises that seek to re-localize most production and consumption to the benefit of local communities.  
• Partnering with other funders to align and promote more resources, impact investments, and PRI capital to the US South. 

The Foundation will deploy tools available to advance these goals, including grantmaking, PRIs, investing, influencing, leveraging, communications and co-learning. Approved in June 2024, this is a “learning” strategy, meaning we will evaluate our impacts and make adjustments as we engage with the people we serve across the South, listen to our communities, and learn through the deployment of the Foundation’s resources. Further, this framework will evolve as MRBF staff incorporates communities’ lived experience and reflections from our partners on the ground. 

How to Apply

• Exploring potential alignment: A prospective partner can submit an Organizational Summary at any point in the year.
  • This Organizational Summary helps Foundation staff to get familiar with an organization’s strategies, networks, and goals. This is not a grant application nor a letter of intent- but an opportunity for the Foundation to learn about your organization’s work and explore potential alignment with current funding priorities. 

• After the Organizational Summary is reviewed, staff may reach out to set up a learning call to explore potential alignment with MRBF’s funding priorities and strategic directions.

• Application Process: If funding is available and work aligns with priorities, the Foundation may invite the organization to submit a proposal, along with instructions and guidelines. 
  • Once a full proposal is received, staff conduct a learning meeting to learn more about the work and strategies. 
  • If the applicant organization is a good fit for MRBF funding, staff will write a recommendation for the board of directors for approval. 

Organizations that may align with our approach to mission investing are welcome to submit an organizational summary here to share more about your work. The Foundation’s approach to mission investing aligns with our Complementary Strategy outlined here in our Strategic Directions, which seeks to learn alongside organizations engaged in restorative economic models that promote democratic practices, solidarity, and community ownership.