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Being part of RSF Social Finance makes it possible to engage with money in a new way.

Working with RSF puts you at the center of a growing movement to create financial transactions that are direct, transparent, personal, and based on long-term relationships. Whether you are an investor, donor, or social entrepreneur, our purpose is to help deepen your connection with money and unlock the beneficial impact it holds for you and the world.

Dear Friends,

The big story in 2014: Our success in moving Integrated Capital to the center of what we do.

Background: In collaboration with two generous donors, we launched the RSF Local Initiatives Fund (LIF) in 2012 to meet the growing need for an alternative approach to financing regional food systems. Throughout our history, RSF has had to turn away many impactful organizations that could not yet benefit from a loan, but instead, needed grants or equity-like capital to spur their growth. We have learned that without more flexible capital available, particularly in the early stages of their enterprises, it is extremely difficult for entrepreneurs to build food systems that generate positive social, environmental, and economic change.

The RSF Local Initiatives Fund is a first-of-its-kind philanthropic fund that employs an Integrated Capital approach—one that focuses on the coordinated use of investments, loans, and grants to provide much-needed, flexible capital for entrepreneurs who are building regional food systems and resilient local economies. In the first two years of the LIF pilot, we deployed $2 million to 40 early-stage sustainable food and agriculture enterprises with a focus on technical assistance grants, loan guarantees, convertible notes/equity investments, and place-based Shared Gifting circles; those funds have leveraged well over $10 million in additional financing to date.

In 2014, eleven new donors joined the LIF community, contributing $4.25 million in additional funds. Our objective is for a majority of these funds to “recycle” and be placed into new social enterprises because we anticipate many of the loan guarantees will not be needed (the organizations will be successful in paying back their loans), and some of the equity investments will provide financial returns.

We are moving ahead with what we’ve learned so far, and have created a template for how these Integrated Capital Funds can be structured. The strong demand from both entrepreneurs and donors has affirmed our feeling that the time for Integrated Capital is now, and that this approach can be applied to other focus areas beyond regional food systems. Stay tuned!

Another significant development in 2014: Inspiration and insights we gained from our study of gift.

On the third Wednesday of each month, RSF staff members gather for a collegial ninety-minute “study group”.  Essentially, it is a book club that helps us go deeper into the nature of why we’re doing what we do. For many years, we focused on Rudolf Steiner’s lectures from 1922 on the topic of economics. Last year, we began with Lewis Hyde’s The Gift.

The rich conversations from these monthly study groups inspired Kelley Buhles, RSF Director of Philanthropic Services, and her team to develop a new purpose statement for their work. The RSF Philanthropic Services purpose is: To cultivate giving as the source of economic life. Further, Kelley’s team has stated their intention to “move the field of philanthropy towards a gift economy.”

Of course trusted relationships are the foundation of any highly functioning gift economy. Our hypothesis: If each transaction can become a relationship, then it is possible for a gift economy based on love and mutual respect to emerge.

As idealistic and optimistic as this sounds, we feel there is a shift happening now to support it—from “ego” to “eco”, as Otto Scharmer from MIT has described it. We are witnessing the growth of de-centralized networks, relative to centralized institutions, for example.

We hope you will contact us to share your vision of a gift economy.

Our thirtieth year marked a shift for us in how we conceive of our purpose, and our aspirations have become even more bold for the next generation in terms of what we believe is possible.

On behalf of everyone at RSF, I thank you for the many ways we experience your support and engagement.

All the best,
Don Shaffer
President & CEO

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Social Entrepreneurs

Cris Stainbrook, Founding President, Indian Land Tenure Foundation

Little Canada, MN

The Tanka Fund at the Indian Land Tenure Foundation has received two grants from RSF; $2,500 from the Seed Fund for the production of educational materials and $4,000 from the Windrose Fund for the general program activities.

The Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) was formed as the result of a four-year community-wide planning process initiated by the Northwest Area Foundation (NWAF) in the late 1990s. I had worked on Indian land issues for several years prior to joining NWAF and when the opportunity came to get back to Indian Country, I took it.

I brought with me an understanding of the scope and scale of the goal the community had set—returning all lands inside the original boundaries of every reservation and important sacred sites outside reservation boundaries to Indian ownership, management, and control. With a progressive board of directors and a creative staff, ILTF has become a hybrid community/operating foundation that makes grants, delivers direct services, invests in Indian Country, develops for-profit businesses, and provides information and technical assistance on land-related issues to individual Indian landowners, tribes, and the federal government.

ILTF invested in Native American Natural Foods (NANF), makers of the Tanka Bar and other buffalo products. Together, they committed to creating and managing the Tanka Fund, aimed at increasing the number of individual Indian buffalo ranchers through provision of technical and financial assistance. NANF’s interest in the Tanka Fund is in increasing the amount of Indian-produced buffalo available for the production of NANF’s products and getting more buffalo back into the diets of Indian people. ILTF’s mission interest in the Tanka Fund relates to recovery of on-reservation land and the ability of individual Indian ranchers to operate viable ranching businesses. Along the way, we will work with partner funds to purchase lands and restore prairie ecosystems. In the end, we hope to return buffalo to a central feature of our Indian communities’ diets, economies, and environments and in doing so, truly restore the homelands of our Native nations.

Collaboration with RSF offers the chance to work with funders who understand that it doesn’t have to be just the economics or just the environment or just the health or just the culture, etc. These things are all part and parcel of our Indian communities and a weakness in any one area keeps us from being whole as a community and as individuals.

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Social Entrepreneurs

Michael Heffernan, Principal and Executive Director, Pine Forest School

Flagstaff, AZ

Pine Forest School received a $2.1 million construction loan to expand to its new location in the recently revitalized Fourth Street Corridor where it will be much more centrally located with close proximity to public transportation. 

I have spent my career in education. While I was working as a teacher in Ann Arbor, Michigan, my wife and I became very interested in Waldorf education and I had an opportunity to study Waldorf education with two area Waldorf Schools.

When the opportunity came up for us to move to Arizona to help open Pine Forest School (PFS) in 1995, which was to use a methodology inspired by Waldorf education, we seized the moment and moved our family to Flagstaff. It’s a great place to live and many families move here to attend PFS, which is one of five public charter schools in Arizona using a curriculum inspired by Waldorf principles.

Pine Forest School has had a long wait list for years, particularly for our preschool and kindergarten classes, and we have been unable to offer more spots at our current location due to space constraints. In addition, our existing site is not accessible by public transportation, which prevents many families from considering our school as an option for their children. Relocating to the Fourth Street Corridor opens up many exciting opportunities for PFS and the community we want to serve. The school will be in a more central location with a neighborhood-like setting where children can walk, bike, or take the bus to school. We are moving the younger grades to the new location first this fall, which will allow us to triple the size of our preschool class from 10 to 30 students and add 15 more spots to our kindergarten class!

When we started to consider this project more seriously a few years ago, we contacted RSF and four to five different banks. The vision and mission of RSF deeply resonated with our board, and we felt like the values that RSF stands for were ones we could completely appreciate. We met with RSF’s lending team and fast forward to today, here we are moving into our new campus in August. It has been so wonderful to have a lender with such a personal touch and interest at the heart level for the work we do on a daily basis.

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Social Entrepreneurs

Tim McCollum & Brett Beach, Co-Founders, Madécasse

Brooklyn, NY

In 2014, Madécasse received a $650,000 line of credit to support working capital needs. With the help of RSF’s financing, Madécasse was able to double sales quickly and launch new products with Kroger and Whole Foods.

We fell in love with Madagascar when there in the Peace Corps from 1999 to 2001. While exploring ways to make a social impact in the country, we were focused on one of the ironies of African economies: the continent is rich in raw materials, but it rarely reaps the benefits. That’s because foreign companies buy up Africa’s resources and take them offshore for manufacturing, thus robbing the continent of 95 percent of the value chain. We created Madécasse to upend that model.

Madécasse (pronounced mah-day-KAHS) not only buys cocoa in Madagascar, but also produces and packages chocolate there. When we discovered that Madagascar has some of the last genetically pure cocoa on the planet, we realized that this was how we could make social impact. We knew that by making high-quality chocolate where the cocoa is grown, we could create jobs with above-market wages and provide a much-needed opportunity for locals to develop international business skills. This approach has provided incentives for several educated Malagasy to stay in their country, and created numerous jobs that pay a living wage. And we buy cocoa from 160–200 farmers, most of whom have seen their income jump 60 percent. Madécasse has also helped to preserve 140 hectares of cocoa-growing land, which might otherwise have been deforested for firewood or rice paddies, and partnered with Whole Foods to build a school and wells.

Last year, when we realized we needed additional funding to launch several new products with Kroger and Whole Foods, we approached several banks—and were declined. Not at RSF. They immediately understood our mission and the timing was right. We had met with RSF several years beforehand but at the time we were too small to qualify for a loan. With our sales approaching $4 million, we were at the right stage.

RSF understands the uniqueness of our business model and our funding needs, and they have introduced us to CEOs at larger Fair Trade food companies who were willing to share their experiences. These introductions connected us with talented people who have donated their time to help us avoid mistakes.

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Investors & Donors

Amie Slate

Amie has a Social Investment Note with RSF’s Social Investment Fund. She opened her account in 2002 to better align her savings with her values.

The common ways of working with money in our culture have always seemed off-kilter to me, though I never quite knew why. There was little enough evidence to suggest that another approach was possible. Yet, when I first read about RSF, I knew immediately that this was what I was looking for.

Standard monetary thinking in our culture is based on, and cultivates, pure self-interest. The ideas that lie at the root of this orientation seem incontrovertible to the world at large. But RSF is working with different concepts about life. From these concepts and values, money becomes a fruit of all that is good in human activity on earth. Through profoundly human relationships, money actually becomes a force for good and for brotherhood. RSF has shown in the most down-to-earth, capable, and steady way how these ideas can be put to work with the human being as the key factor. To be able to open an account and participate in such an endeavor was truly an answer to my searching.

The story behind the money I have invested at RSF is that I worked for many years creating visual effects for film in Los Angeles. My RSF account is my life savings. Now, as the film industry in Los Angeles is destabilizing, my savings are making it possible for me to go back to school to study non-profit management and education. That is the path I am following, though I’m not sure exactly where it is leading except to some interesting connections.

Last quarter’s RSF report on excess liquidity came while I was studying modern monetary theory and ancient civilizations. In the ancient era of Mesopotamia, the disasters of the day were irregular catastrophic flooding of the Euphrates River. Their solution was large-scale irrigation, which made agriculture and social organization possible. Talk about managing excess liquidity through innovation! RSF is the right innovator for our time by building a human and sustainable basis for the flow of money. I am profoundly grateful that I get to be a part of it through my investments.

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Investors & Donors

Ariel Nessel

Ariel has a Donor Advised Fund at RSF. He opened the account in 2014 to build a relationship with RSF and to partner with a values-aligned, relationship-driven organization for his charitable giving.

I learned about RSF through Birju Pandya, one of RSF’s Senior Advisors. He shared with me some of the creative ways that RSF approaches finance and monetary capital, and it made me want to build a bridge with a like-minded institution. There are very few in this world.

What really stood out to me about RSF’s work is its commitment to direct, transparent relationships in financial transactions; for example in the quarterly Community Pricing Meetings. RSF connects people to the true value of what our resources can do in the world and puts a face and a name on where we put our money.

My business activities consist mainly of purchasing apartment buildings and giving them green renovations. At a certain point, I realized that I had sufficient financial resources, and it didn’t make sense to work just to add more digits to my bank account balance. I decided instead to give away the profits from all my new deals. I’ve also chosen to invest some of these funds in socially responsible vehicles, and then donate those assets to my DAF at RSF after the investments mature. This allows me to grow my charitable giving while investing in line with my values.

I follow two paths with my giving: harm reduction and joy creation. In service of harm reduction, I give primarily to organizations supporting plant-based eating, which reduces harm to animals, to people, and to the environment. In service of joy creation, I primarily support the work of the Pollination Project, which works with people to ask how they can be of service and how they can express that in the world.

Now that I’ve learned more about RSF, it is my intention to deepen my relationship by opening a Social Investment Fund, which will allow me to participate in the direct lender-borrower relationship that inspired me initially.

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Investors & Donors

Mark Reed

Mark opened a Social Investment Fund account at RSF in 2005 to provide capital for the loans RSF makes to social enterprises. In 2011, he opened a Donor Advised Fund and joined a small group that together made investments through a pilot investment portfolio to enterprises in need of alternative types of financing.

I got involved in community development finance after running an after school program and public housing project overseen by Mission Neighborhood Centers in the Mission district of San Francisco. It was located in the Army Street Projects; the place was dreary and run down. Nearby, the Bernal Heights Housing Corporation, a non-profit developer, built brand new, aesthetic, low-income housing.

It was a new idea to me that an independent entity could come into a neighborhood and create high quality housing for the people that were already there. It was inspiring to see how that worked and I was wondering, ‘how’d they get the money to do that?’ When you’re working with people that don’t have very much, it’s easy to have a mindset that there’s not a lot that’s possible because nobody has any money. This was a formative experience for me.

I first came to RSF as an investor. I liked the format of an “arm’s length” exchange, with a yield, that would deploy my assets in unique and exciting work. Then, I decided to open a Donor Advised Fund at RSF because I had a conviction that there are many good ideas out there that deserve investment, and many of those opportunities are not squarely market rate nor are they purely philanthropic. An example is Corbin Hill Farm. Corbin Hill is trying to sustainably cover its costs by selling products, but it’s got a very firm mission to get those products to low income people. That’s tougher to live through for an investor because you’re probably losing the opportunity to make money in the short term. It’s a great use of philanthropic investment capital.

I inherited my wealth from a family business that has always felt a strong connection to its employees and the communities where it works. It was intuitive for me to seek and expect a way to put my liquid assets to work with a similar sense of connectedness. That’s what RSF represents, in my eyes.

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Social Entrepreneurs

RSF provides social entrepreneurs with catalytic financing to meet their capital needs; and, through a close relationship with us, our borrowers and grantees become part of a larger community working to transform the world and the way it works with money.

Investors & Donors

RSF works with investors and donors to leverage their financial resources for positive social and ecological impact. Our clients value knowing where those resources are being put to work because with that knowledge, comes an opportunity to develop a deeper connection with money.

2014 Social Impact Assessment Highlights

RSF has developed an innovative approach to impact assessment that recognizes the unique character of our role as a transformative intermediary. We have gathered data indicating how our partners, investors, donors, and borrowers, and our staff and board, have been affected through their work with us. We now have five years of data for staff, four for the borrower audit, three years for donors and investors, and one year for our partner audit.

Integrated Capital Approach

Focus Area: Food & Agriculture

Integrated capital is a first-of-its-kind approach to funding social entrepreneurs who are solving complex social and environmental problems. RSF is uniquely positioned to employ this approach—coordinating the use of investments, loans, and grants to provide much-needed, flexible capital for entrepreneurs—because of our long history of financial innovations and experience with direct lending and philanthropy.

The following demonstrates in aggregate how we applied the integrated capital approach in 2014 across enterprises that are building regional food systems and resilient local economies. The Fair Food example in blue displays how the integrated capital approach was utilized to support one particular organization.

Integrated Capital in Action

In early 2014, RSF provided Fair Food a $100,000 line of credit for working capital. To guarantee the loan, Fair Food requested support from their community members and raised $50,000 in RSF Social Investment Fund accounts. RSF provided an additional $20,000 guarantee from the Local Initiatives Fund. The loan enabled Fair Food to do two things: maintain timely payments to farmers and producers in the long-term, and bridge immediate cash flow needs in the short-term. In September 2014, Fair Food participated in a food and agriculture-focused Shared Gifting Circle and was granted $9,900 for its work training and assisting farmers with Group GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification—a cooperative approach to farm food safety that offers an effective and cost efficient means of addressing the needs of small and mid-sized farms.

Overview Operating Funds Financial Highlights

2014 was characterized by growth in many areas: assets, staff, clients, and a deepening sense of the opportunities and importance of our position as a leader in social finance. For the past three years we have focused on building organizational capacity by rounding out all of our teams and providing focused client service, management, and leadership training. The investment in our staff and the value they provide to our clients became very evident in 2014. We increased total assets by 10% to $179 million and grew total revenue by 19% to $24 million. We continued to develop new client relationships and work with our existing clients in new and innovative ways. 1576 investors supported RSF and its social enterprise borrowers by providing $107 million in investment funds, an increase of 5% over 2013. We made $32 million in loans, an increase of 20% over 2013, and $10 million in grants to social and charitable enterprises working across our focus areas of Food & Agriculture, Education & the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship.

The improving economic climate was paralleled by an ever-increasing interest in leveraging financial resources for social and environmental benefit—especially of note in the impact investing world. At the same time, we continued to wrestle with our borrowers outgrowing our capacity to meet their financing needs even as we partnered with other financial organizations to support their success. We have been rethinking the social impact of risk management, as well as forging new links between our current lending and philanthropic programs to leverage our resources in impactful and innovative ways. The need for social finance continues to grow despite the uniquely low interest macroeconomic environment.

One challenge of these circumstances is excess liquidity in the banking system. As a result, most lenders have been forced to become investment managers looking to invest excess cash. We have experienced this with our Social Investment Fund (SIF) and there is a cost to RSF to hold excess SIF funds in this unusual environment, though we made significant progress with this issue in 2014. At the end of 2013, we determined that we needed to increase our base spread by 0.25% (to 4.25%) for the first time since 1991. The increase remained for 2014 as well, and was supported by both our investors and borrowers at each of the four quarterly pricing meetings. We seem to have reached a certain equilibrium between investors, RSF, and borrowers in the Social Investment Fund which will serve us well if and when the economy moves toward an inflationary period. We have maintained competitive rates for our borrowers and investors, and for RSF to remain financially sustainable. We will continue to review our base spread on a quarterly basis, as part of our pricing meeting discussions.

RSF operating revenue is generated from our lending and philanthropic services programs, and also from gifts received. Our existing cost structure will be stable going forward, subject to inflation increases, and we will work with our improved capacity to generate additional revenue, primarily from lending activity. We are focused on increasing our lending portfolio balance by retaining existing borrowers, adding new borrowers, and reducing volatility in the portfolio. We successfully piloted and grew the Local Initiatives Fund through which we implement our integrated capital approach. From the base of gifted funds we were able to leverage grants, loan guarantees, and direct investments to further the development of innovation in local food systems and economies. In 2014, our innovative approach continued to demonstrate leadership in the field of social finance.

Warm regards,

Gary Schick
Chief Financial Officer

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Revenue

Expenses

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

2014 2013 2012
Assets
Cash and Cash Equivalents 27,970,438 28,163,515 20,542,469
Restricted Cash 287,983 366,752 429,899
Loans Receivable – Borrower Funds, net 82,775,079 71,906,582 78,443,790
Investments, at fair value 65,899,170 61,411,635 51,811,590
Prepaid Expenses and other Current Assets 2,038,293 1,365,098 994,351
Furniture and Equipment, net 84,109 116,501 94,408
Total Assets $179,055,072 $163,330,083 $152,316,507
Liabilities and Net Assets
Liabilities
Notes Payable – Investor Funds 107,151,996 101,806,773 89,664,637
Notes Payable – Other 3,554,552 0 1,999,702
Other Liabilities 319,447 111,580 242,508
Total Liabilities $111,025,995 $101,918,353 $91,906,847
Net Assets
Reserve Funds 8,788,470 8,674,700 7,855,399
Philanthropic Services Funds 58,492,423 52,942,615 52,849,887
Temporarily Restricted Pledges 875,000
Mark to Mark on Swap Contracts  (126,816) (205,585) (295,626)
Total Net Assets $68,029,077 $61,411,730 $60,409,660
Total Liabilities and Net Assets $179,055,072 $163,330,083 $152,316,507

 

 

Consolidated Statement of Activities & Changes in net Assets

2014 2013 2012
Revenue, Gains, and Other Support
Fee Income 536,036 879,111 839,036
Net Interest and Investment Income:
Interest Income – Borrower Funds 4,089,559 3,938,714 4,468,071
Investment Income, net 3,105,101 3,190,164 (678,576)
Gifts and Contributions 16,349,481 12,237,053 14,635,328
Total Revenue, Gains and Other Support $24,080,177 $20,245,042 $19,263,859
Expenses
Program Services
Grants made from Programs 9,944,273 11,994,989 8,381,981
Personnel Costs 4,681,954 4,410,916 3,956,968
Interest Expense – Investor Funds and Other 452,229 713,487 937,827
Loan Loss Provision, net 300,000 541,889 1,042,830
Other Projects and Program Expenses 153,180 (322,068) 488,077
Supporting Services:
Management and General 1,931,194 1,903,759 1,153,645
Total Expenses $17,462,830 $19,242,972 $15,961,328
Changes in Net Assets 6,617,347 1,002,070 3,302,531
Net Assets at the Beginning of the Year 61,411,730 60,409,660 57,107,129
Net Assets at the End of the Year $68,029,077 $61,411,730 $60,409,660

*2014 financials are unaudited

Overview Announcement Staff Board of Trustees Culture

RSF is committed to supporting our greatest internal resource—the people who work here. We focus on developing the individual capacities of staff and building a strong organizational culture in order to be of deep service to our clients and community.

Katrina Steffek Appointed as RSF’s New Chief Operating Officer

In July 2014, RSF appointed Katrina Steffek as Chief Operating Officer. In this role she provides vision and guidance to the Client Development, Social Enterprise Lending Business Development, Philanthropic Services, and Marketing & Communications teams. Her position assures that RSF can continue to develop and deliver on its strategic priorities of client engagement, integrated capital, and field building across all programs.

With this promotion, Katrina became the first woman to hold a C-level position at RSF Social Finance. Since joining RSF in 2004, Katrina has played a key role in leading the annual operational planning and budgeting processes, recruiting and hiring current staff, designing RSF’s innovative “people practices” and supporting organizational culture, and working closely with RSF’s Board of Trustees. RSF is fortunate to have her serving in this important capacity. Her experience and knowledge of RSF will continue to deepen the collaboration between RSF’s staff, board, clients, and partners as we work together to transform the way the world works with money.

“RSF’s growth in depth and complexity as a leading social finance organization has also provided opportunities for staff members to take on more leadership responsibility,” says RSF President & CEO Don Shaffer. “Katrina has more than demonstrated such leadership and will bring strategic coherence across programs as COO. This shift will also allow Gary Schick, CFO, to focus and deepen his work as the demands for RSF’s innovative financing capacities grow.”

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Alex Haber
Program Manager, Philanthropic Services
Amy Bird
Lending Manager
Anna Lin-Campbell
Senior Administrative Associate, Executive Team
Carmen Poe
Loan Documentation Associate
Carrie Jones
Business Systems Analyst
Catherine Covington
Manager, Client Development
Cres Van Keulen
Executive Assistant
Dan Dao
Associate, Credit & Portfolio Management
Dave Shong
Lending Counsel
Don Shaffer
President & CEO
Ellie Lanphier
Program Associate, Philanthropic Services
Emily Jones
Accounting Manager
Gary Schick
Chief Financial Officer
Ghion Dessie
Staff Accountant
Jenn Raley Miller
Senior Human Resources Manager
Joe Avenatti
Senior Director, Investments
John Bloom
Vice President, Organizational Culture
John Williamson
Senior Associate, Information Systems
Kate Danaher
Lending Manager
Katrina Steffek
Chief Operating Officer
Kelley Buhles
Director, Philanthropic Services
Lynne Hoey
Underwriting Manager
Mark Herrera
Senior Manager, Client Development
Megan Mendenhall
Communications Associate
Melinda Cheel
Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications
Meredith Storton
Client Development Associate
Mike Gabriel
Lending Manager
Natalia Morozova
Staff Accountant
Nina Maystrovich
Director, Loan Operations & Portfolio Management
Rebecca Newton
Director, Information Systems
Reed Mayfield
Senior Lending Associate
Steven Chai
Loan Servicing Associate
Tammy Childers
Loan Servicing Manager
Ted Levinson
Senior Director, Lending
Tim Green
Senior Counsel, Lending & Compliance
Val Esway
Office Manager
Vickie Yee
Director, Accounting
Don Shaffer
President & CEO
Jessica Rolph
Jocelyn Romero Demirbag
Mark Finser
Chair of the Board
Mark Censits
Mark Retzloff
Neil Blomquist
Rachael Flug
Ron Alston
Sara Ellis Conant
Siegfried Finser

Building RSF’s Culture

Working with finance in a new way begins with working from the heart. How deeply we engage with our clients, our colleagues, and our partners in the field of social finance is our way of leading by example. To accomplish this we work very hard to develop a mindful and heartfelt culture with all staff.

RSF staff members dedicate 10% of their total work time to building our organizational culture and in 2014 spent a combined 7,488 hours on these activities. Our staff have come to understand the value this brings to their day-to-day experience and relationships.

  • Staff Meetings & Retreats: Weekly staff meetings allow staff to share announcements, team highlights, programmatic accomplishments, trainings, trip reports, and appreciations. Retreats offer staff the opportunity to reflect, dig deeper into RSF’s work, engage in team building activities, and plan for the future.
  • Guest Speakers: RSF hosts guest speakers including current clients, partners, and thought leaders, to educate and inform staff about work that is relevant to the field of social finance.
  • Study Group: Monthly study groups for staff to read, reflect on, and discuss the writings of Rudolf Steiner and others who influence RSF’s work.
  • Leadership & Personal Transformation Intensive: The intensive helps staff to develop the skills and capacities of observation, contemplative practice, and working with one’s authentic voice as inner guide—all in service of stepping more fully into personal leadership in a new way.
  • Lunchtime Learning Sessions: Informational sessions on topics such financial planning and meeting facilitation training.