Pictured left to right are City National Bank’s Keith Unger, EWVCF Past President Darlene Truman, NCIF CEO Marten Jenkins, NCIF Business Development Manager Hannah Vargason, and EWVCF VP and Investment Committee Co-Chair Bill White. These five joined David DeJarnett and me for the official document signing and transfer of funds on Thursday afternoon.
The Community Foundation loan to the Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIF) was finalized yesterday afternoon thanks to the members of our Investment Committee who encouraged us to become involved with impact investing in our five county region. Our loan of $200,000 to NCIF is slightly less than 1% of our total assets and we hope this is just the beginning of a very successful partnership. If you aren’t familiar with NCIF and the great work they have been doing in Appalachia over the past 22 years, you should check them out at http://ncif.org.
This was truly a team effort and we are grateful to Marten Jenkins of NCIF and David DeJarnett of Bowles Rice for preparing the necessary documents, Keith Unger of City National Bank for managing the funds being used for the loan, our Past President Darlene Truman for supporting the idea we had to do something outside the box, and our Investment Committee Co-Chair Bill White who kept us moving in the right direction over the past year as we hammered out the details.
The $200,000 note pays EWVCF 3.5% interest annually and has a term of five years, so it is an excellent addition to the fixed income portion of our investment strategy. Perhaps even more exciting is the fact that NCIF will actually be lending the funds to small and micro businesses in the Eastern Panhandle counties of Berkeley, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, and Morgan.
This has been a wonderful week for the Community Foundation as we received a $195,000 gift from the estate of Nancy Needy to establish a scholarship fund in her name, and a $100,000 gift from a very generous couple who added the contribution to their donor advised fund. Plus, we awarded several grants to a variety of worthy nonprofit organizations.
To top it all off, Felicia spent the week vacationing out west with her husband Shawn. And, Amy has been celebrating her 30th anniversary with David by hiking the Cinque Terra in Italy!
Have a great weekend!
Regards,
Michael