Announcing the 2013 RSF Seed Fund Grantees!
by Ellie Lanphier
Every spring, RSF provides small gifts to seed new initiatives that offer innovative solutions in the field of social finance, or address issues in one of our three focus areas.Thank you to all of our individual investors, donors and staff members who make the RSF Seed Fund possible!
Introducing the 2013 RSF Seed Fund Grantees:
Rising Sun Energy Center is a leading green workforce development and retrofit services organization located in Berkeley, CA. The Seed Fund grant will support Rising Sun Energy Services, a project that provides highly subsidized energy efficiency audits and retrofits to moderate income home owners in Richmond and Berkeley. Rising Sun Energy Services employs graduates from the non-profit’s Green Energy Training Services program. A successful pilot program was completed in the summer of 2012, which employed 17 graduates and retrofitted over 120 homes.
Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), in Oakland, CA, was founded by two attorneys, Janelle Orsi and Jenny Kassan, to provide the essential legal tools to support a transition to localized, resilient economies. SELC seeks to educate communities about the possibilities and limits of creative economic solutions such as cooperatives, community-owned enterprises, cohousing, urban agriculture, barter and local currencies. They also advocate for laws that clear the way for more sustainable and equitable economic development. The Seed Fund grant will support new pathways to financing for small farms through Direct Public Offerings (DPOs). SELC believes that DPOs could be an effective financing strategy for beginning farmers, as DPOs enable farmers to publicize opportunities to make micro-loans or equity investments in their farms. To test their theory, SELC will manage all legal compliance paperwork for a beginning farmer with the hopes of creating tools to enable others to replicate their work.
Calypso Farm & Ecology Center is an educational, working farm near Fairbanks, Alaska whose mission is to promote local agriculture and environmental awareness through hands-on education in farming ecosystems. The Seed Fund grant will support their Farmer Training program, a residential, experiential program focused on providing the skills and confidence necessary to embark on starting a small farm. Participants learn how to become self-reliant farmers by working alongside practiced farmers through the entire growing season and gain first-hand experience in marketing their produce through operating a CSA, running a farm stand, and selling to local restaurants.
