PRI Profile

The Rainmakers Investment Collaborative (RIC) was launched in the spring of 2017 as a coordinated group of impact investors initiated by Confluence Philanthropy to focus on Native communities, which face significant economic challenges and have limited access to community development finance. RIC was developed to address the lack of investment in tribal communities in the United States, with the awareness that while many impact investors are focused on indigenous populations in geographies across the world, there are few investment mechanisms designed to support Native communities in our own backyard.

RIC selected the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC)—a regional community development financial institution with a long lending history, excellent track record, and expertise in rural communities—as its intermediary partner. In addition to investing in Native communities, RCAC is partnering with other intermediaries to build the capacity of the sector to invest in these communities as well.

Highlights

In 2020, RIC invested in three projects via RCAC. The first loan was made in September 2018 to Major Market, a fresh food and organic produce market in the Zuni Reserve of New Mexico. Other projects include the Native Community Capital (NCC) which received a $500,000 line of credit in 2019 to increase its capacity to lend to Native American business owners and the Silent Hawk Environmental which received a $325,000 line of credit in January to support operations and creation of new jobs for Native Americans.