Racial Equity

Investing to advance racial justice and equity

Our mission is rooted in addressing structural inequities. Many of our US portfolio partners view their missions as a response to structural racism as they work to ensure widespread and equitable access to healthcare, housing, education, access to capital, and to support long-term efforts to build wealth that enables upward mobility.

We integrate and elevate the community voice in all of the deals we do. In our lending practice, we assess each borrower or fund manager in our portfolio, regardless of sector, on their internal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices. We also collect demographic data on the communities we lend to, as well as our borrowers’ leadership and boards, and are starting to use this data to determine if and how we are advancing racial equity.

Our investments to support racial justice and equity have been most prominent in the sectors of community development, small business, affordable housing, renewable energy, and environmental sustainability. In the wake of COVID-19, we have partnered to build small business recovery funds that operate with an equity lens.

In 2020 we signed the Investor Investor Statement of Solidarity to Address Systemic Racism and Call to Action, committing to continually evolving our practices to promote racial equity.

Learn more about our work to promote racial justice and equity in the resources below.

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Think Broccoli, a client of our borrower Greenline, promotes health and wellness initiatives as part of its community engagement to build thriving urban communities that sustain future generations. Photo courtesy Greenline Ventures.

Racial equity impact metrics across our work and portfolio:*

- 40% of our Board members, 40% of our management team, and 38% of our staff are people of color

- 41% of our borrowers’ Board members, 39% of senior leadership, and 54% of our borrowers’ staff are people of color

- 62% of our borrowers' clients, on average, are people of color

- 92% of US small businesses financed are run by entrepreneurs of color

*Includes both US and international borrowers, unless otherwise noted. We conduct an annual survey of all of our borrowers, including a request for demographic data on their Board of Directors or ownership, senior leadership, all staff, and clients. We also conduct a similar survey with our Board of Directors, management team, and staff. All data as of July 2022.

We utilize demographic categories based on US Department of Labor and US Census surveys, customized to more appropriately reflect our borrowers' end clients. The racial and ethnic categories included in "people of color" include: Black or African-American, or of African Descent; American Indian or Alaska Native; Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Asian Indian, Vietnamese, or of Asian Descent; Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Guamanian, Chamorro, or other Pacific Islander; Mexican, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or of Hispanic, Latino, Spanish origin; Middle Eastern or North African; Person of color, multi-racial, or multi-ethnic. We acknowledge and reinforce that race, ethnicity, and gender are singular elements of identity, and not all people of the same race, ethnicity, or gender have the same lived experiences. We offer these categories based on emerging best practice in order to demonstrate representation in our own company as well as in our borrowers’ organizations and portfolios.

We welcome feedback on this data collection and analysis practice. Please send any questions or comments to impact@calvertimpactcapital.org.