Learn More: 2026 Nat. Community Foundation Impact Investing Learning Circle

Join Impact Finance Center on January 13, 2026 for an informational webinar to learn more about participating in our transformative eight-week learning experience designed to equip community foundations to become leaders in financial innovation and impact investing. The cohort begins on January 28, 2026.

More Information about the Cohort:

Community Foundation Learning Cohort

Full Spectrum Capital + Rapid Response Impact Investing
Co-taught by Dr. Steph Gripne and Lawrence Miller

Across the country, community foundations are stepping into a new moment of opportunity. Never before has there been such openness from boards, donors, and communities to rethink how capital can work harder for place. Foundations are uniquely positioned to mobilize local wealth, strengthen nonprofit resilience, and align endowments more closely with mission while maintaining strong fiduciary stewardship.

This 8-week Community Foundation Learning Cohort is designed for foundations that want to move from intention to action. It brings together Impact Finance Center’s Full Spectrum Capital framework with practical Rapid Response impact investing strategies, equipping participants with the governance, tools, and confidence to deploy capital responsibly and to address the current financial crises across the nonprofit community.

Rather than treating impact investing and rapid response as separate efforts, the cohort shows how they reinforce one another: clear investment beliefs and policy alignment create the foundation for acting quickly and prudently when communities need capital most.

What you’ll work on

Over eight weekly sessions, participants will:

• Strengthen Investment Belief Statements and align Investment Policy
• Learn when and how to use grants, loans, recoverable grants, and blended tools
• Design rapid response infrastructure that enables timely, responsible action
• Explore intermediary and partnership models that expand capacity
• Engage donors beyond check-writing and mobilize local capital
• Build strategies that fit real staff capacity and governance realities

Two of the eight sessions focus specifically on Rapid Response: how to build standing systems that allow foundations to act with clarity and confidence when timing matters.

What makes this cohort unique

Opportunity-driven design: Learn how to activate capital not only in times of crisis, but in moments of possibility for housing, childcare, workforce, climate resilience, and community-owned enterprises.

Integrated approach: Understand how investment beliefs, policy alignment, donor engagement, and capital stacks connect directly to tools such as recoverable grants, forgivable loans, revolving loan funds, and intermediary partnerships.

Real-world grounding: Sessions draw from live examples of community foundations successfully deploying capital in ways that are both mission-aligned and fiduciary-sound.

Board-ready framing: Emphasis on total risk management, including the risk of inaction, so new strategies are understandable, defensible, and durable.

Peer learning: Learn alongside other community foundations navigating similar opportunities, creating shared momentum and practical pathways forward.

Who should attend

This cohort is designed for:

• Community foundation executive directors and senior leadership
• Finance, investment, program, and donor services staff
• Foundations exploring impact investing or ready to deepen existing work

No prior impact investing experience is required, but it is helpful.