Grantmaker Investors in Built Environment

Beneficial State Bank is an FDIC-insured, state-chartered community development financial institution (CDFI) headquartered in Oakland, California, with branches in California, Oregon, and Washington. Kat Taylor and Tom Steyer founded it in 2007 as a triple-bottom-line community bank and donated the capital to Beneficial State Foundation, a nonprofit that is now the majority owner of the bank’s capital. That ownership is the lock: the institution is meant to stay governed in the public interest rather than recapitalize through a conventional holding-company sale. Causeartist indexes it in the funders directory as a CDFI bank and debt provider, not as a venture fund. The product is credit: deposits become loans for affordable housing, nonprofits, small businesses, and environmental projects on the West Coast. CDFI rules require at least 60% of financing to low- and moderate-income or underserved communities; the bank reported that 100% of its 2025 loan portfolio upheld that community-development mandate. It will not lend to fossil fuels, private prisons, or weapons manufacturing, industries it calls “contra mission.” It has been a Certified B Corporation since 2012 (B Lab directory; the bank’s certifications page also cites 2013), is Fossil Free Certified, belongs to the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, and describes itself as the only unionized community bank in the U.S. As of year-end 2025 it reported $1.98 billion in assets, $1.67 billion in deposits, $1.47 billion in outstanding loans, and 15.4% net loan growth. Those figures are company-reported from the 2025 Impact Report, not an independent audit.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is the philanthropic organization of Michael Bloomberg, focused on improving lives at scale across the globe. The foundation works across more than 150 countries, supporting initiatives in public health, climate, education, government innovation, and the arts. Its approach combines data-driven decision-making with deep partnerships across governments, nonprofits, and institutions. Bloomberg Philanthropies is known for backing large-scale, measurable programs that aim to deliver systemic change and improve outcomes for millions of people worldwide.

LISC — Local Initiatives Support Corporation — is a national nonprofit community development financial institution that finances affordable housing and broader neighborhood revitalization. It was created in December 1979 from a Ford Foundation initiative and formally announced in May 1980 with a $10 million pool from Ford and corporate partners including Aetna, Atlantic Richfield, Continental Illinois Bank, International Harvester, Levi Strauss, and Prudential. National headquarters are at 28 Liberty Street, Floor 34, New York, NY 10005. Michael T. Pugh became president and chief executive in October 2023 after leading Carver Federal Savings Bank and holding senior roles at Capital One and Citizens. LISC’s public results board reports $1.8 billion in grants, $7 billion in loans, and $29 billion in equity, for $38 billion total investment since 1979 that it says has leveraged about $102 billion in total development. The organization works through local offices in dozens of cities and across more than 2,000 rural counties. Program areas sit on a housing foundation and extend into small business, health, education, public safety, and community facilities. Lending covers predevelopment through permanent financing for multifamily rental, affordable for-sale, and mixed-use projects. Corporate and philanthropic partnership inquiries go to development@lisc.org. Press contacts use press@lisc.org. Affiliates extend the capital stack. National Equity Fund (NEF) is LISC’s LIHTC syndication affiliate. LISC Fund Management runs city and regional housing opportunity funds, including structures in Charlotte and Cleveland that blend public subsidy, bank capital, and mission debt. Broadstreet and other affiliates appear on the national site as part of the investor bridge into under-resourced markets. LISC is both a direct lender and grantmaker and a platform that brings national capital to local community development corporations and mission developers. For Causeartist’s affordable-housing shortlist, LISC is the national CDFI with the deepest local-office network and the parent of NEF’s tax-credit platform. It is not a venture firm. Capital is debt, grants, and tax-credit equity aimed at real estate and community projects.

Prime Coalition is a Cambridge, Massachusetts nonprofit that helps philanthropists deploy catalytic capital into climate solutions that conventional investors often skip. Since 2014, Prime has focused on additionality: filling gaps where technology risk, long timelines, or first-of-a-kind infrastructure make ordinary venture or project finance a poor fit. The organization stewards impact-first programs rather than acting as a classic closed-end VC. That includes earlier vehicles such as Prime Impact Fund and Azolla Fund I (managed with Azolla Ventures), plus Trellis Climate for first-of-a-kind climate infrastructure projects that need risk-tolerant capital to reach commercial scale. Public materials cite on the order of $108M in catalytic capital into Prime programs and about $2.8B in external capital crowded in, with dozens of companies supported through impact-first funds. Prime's role in the ecosystem is bridge and standard-setter. It evaluates impact and additionality, helps philanthropists make their first catalytic investments, and publishes tools and field-building resources (including work around Project Frame). For founders, Prime is less a cold outbound check source and more a signal that your solution needs catalytic capital and can prove climate impact that markets alone will not fund yet. If you are building a breakthrough climate company or FOAK project that stalls in the valley between philanthropy and commercial capital, Prime is the kind of steward that exists to close that gap.

The Home Depot Foundation is the U.S. corporate foundation associated with The Home Depot, established in 2002. Its current mission centers on improving the homes and lives of U.S. veterans, training people for skilled trades and helping communities recover from natural disasters. Foundation grants should be distinguished from The Home Depot's retail donations, Team Depot volunteer labor and in-kind building materials, even when several forms of support appear in one project. The Foundation reports that since 2011 it has invested more than $650 million in veteran causes and improved more than 70,000 veteran homes and facilities. It has pledged to invest $750 million in veteran causes by 2030 and $50 million in skilled-trades training through Path to Pro. These are organization-reported cumulative investment, improvement and forward-commitment figures, not AUM, cash on hand, independently verified housing outcomes or amounts available in a current application cycle. Its Veteran Housing Grants Program is a genuine public proposal route for eligible 501(c)(3) organizations developing or rehabilitating multifamily permanent supportive housing for veterans. The official page says proposals are accepted year-round, lists three 2026 decision cycles and states typical program awards of $100,000 to $500,000. Because that range applies only to this specialized program rather than all Foundation grants, the database's general check-size fields remain empty; the detail is preserved in eligibility and decision sections.