SOCIAL FINANCE
SHOREBANK
What if a bank cared as much about improving the community as maintaining profitability? That’s the thinking behind social finance. Today, companies like ShoreBank serve as examples of financial institutions that have been able to build individual, family, business and community strength and sustainability through loans and education.
ShoreBank was founded in 1973 by four small business loan experts who dreamed of reversing the decline of Chicago’s inner city neighborhoods. They knew fixing the entrenched problems of urban decay would require a different approach and a new kind of institution. In ShoreBank, they created a "development" bank — one that could make a profit while transforming neighborhoods through enterprise.
At first they focused on retaining and rebuilding the physical environment by providing loans to residents who wanted to renovate the neighborhood's deteriorating buildings. Later, they went on to solicit "Development Deposits" from across the U.S., drawing on socially-minded investors who wanted to support community development and still earn a competitive return.
Today, the ShoreBank family consists of two commercial banks, based in Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, and ShoreBank International, a consulting company that helps financial institutions and their funders, governments and communities around the world provide credit for micro enterprise, small and medium businesses and housing. Starting with its partnership with Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank in the 1970s, ShoreBank International has worked with more than 65 banks and development finance organizations in more than 40 countries, advancing more than $300 million in small business loans to date.
In recent years, SVN has influenced ShoreBank to focus on environmental as well as economic sustainability. ShoreBank is living up to its bold tagline, "Let's change the world," by proving that the triple bottom line goals of profitability, community development and conservation are both compatible and mutually reinforcing. Other great organizations working to advance social finance include RSF Social Finance, UNC Partners, Condor Ventures, MicroCredit Enterprises, Underdog Ventures and Renewal Partners.
Idea 18: FUNCTIONAL FASHION →
