RSF Social Finance Announces 2011 Regional Fellows

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) October 12, 2011 - RSF Social Finance (RSF), a non-profit financial services organization providing capital to non-profit and for-profit social enterprises, announced today that it has selected twelve graduate students to participate in its Regional Fellowship Program for the 2011/2012 academic year. 

Graduate students from across the U.S. and Canada applied to participate in this program.   The twelve Fellows will work closely with RSF’s Lending Team identifying prospective borrowers, conducting due diligence, and structuring commercial loans that will become part of RSF’s flagship, $70 million Social Investment Fund. Fellows will also have the opportunity to work with RSF’s Mezzanine Debt Fund which offers subordinated debt to fast-growing social enterprises throughout the U.S.   Ted Levinson, Senior Lending Manager at RSF, described the Fellowship Program as “the most hands-on opportunity for graduate students who want to make a difference in the field of social finance. We have high expectations for these Fellows and intend to recruit interns and employees from this pool.”   The Fellows Program Coordinator is Kate Danaher, a student at Colorado State University’s Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise MBA Program.   Erin Krampetz of Ashoka described the competitive nature of the applicant pool as “an indication of the growing interest in social entrepreneurship at the university level.”   The selected Fellows are:   Victoria Fram – MBA, Stanford University Charis Elliot – MS, Justice Studies, Nonprofit Mgmt, Arizona State University Ana Escalante – MBA, Colorado State University Sky Gao – MS, Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University Burt Hicks – JD, MPS, Public Service, University of Arkansas Daniel Reyes –MBA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Rohini D’Silva – MBA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Peter Freeman – MPA, Nonprofit Management, New York University Jeff Bailey – MS, Nonprofit Management, The New School Sara Burnes – MS, Nutrition, Food Policy and Economics, Tufts University Xinying Tok – MBA and MS, Environmental Management, Duke University Mia Farber – MBA, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill   About RSF Social Finance   Located in San Francisco, CA, RSF Social Finance (RSF) is a non-profit financial services organization dedicated to transforming the way the world works with money. Since 1984, the organization has made over $230 million in loans and $100 million in grants to non-profit and for-profit social enterprises working in the areas of Food & Agriculture, Education & the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship.   RSF's lending capital comes primarily from over one thousand individuals who have invested $1,000 or more in the organization's Social Investment Fund. Investors earn a competitive return on their money comparable to a certificate of deposit while their funds are deployed to leading social enterprises. To learn, more visit www.rsfsocialfinance.org.

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