[BCMA] The Metcalf Foundation: Social Finance for the Arts

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

Hello,

My name is Barbara Adagblenya, and I am a Senior Analyst at Nordicity
<https://www.nordicity.com>. I would like to share news of an opportunity
that may interest you.

The Metcalf Foundation, in collaboration with the Ontario Arts Council and
the Canada Council for the Arts, wishes to better understand the
opportunity to activate social finance in Canada’s cultural sector. While
there are many forms of social finance, all of it is some form of repayable
capital, often at favourable rates, with longer repayment periods, or a
greater tolerance for risk. *We are reaching out to* *canvas your interest
in exploring the potential for such financing for your work*.

Amidst growing awareness that funding for arts and cultural activity is
increasingly insufficient and unsustainable, we know that new sources of
capital are required to shore up overall resource bases, new operational
capacities, activities, markets, and earned revenue lines. Most arts
organizations, however, have not yet been exposed to the social finance
opportunity, and/or the requisite capacity for investment readiness by
which to leverage it effectively.

The question remains: What role can social finance play within the
preservation and strengthening of Canada’s arts and cultural institutions?

*The Study*
As an action research project, its objective is to:

   - Assess how arts and cultural organizations perceive and understand
   social finance, including its relevance to their operations and capacity to
   participate;
   - Advance peer-led financial literacy, management capabilities, and
   impact storytelling through peer-learning opportunities;
   - Enable potential access to actual loans for these organizations.

For *financial asset holders, private and corporate donors, and public
agency funders*, the project represents the chance to explore approaches
and tools to engage in mission-aligned investment, and to share learnings
with other investors.
Through the genesis, rolling out, and ongoing observation of live repayable
investments in the arts, the study will recommend the developments
necessary to position social finance among the sources of support for arts
in Canada. We are seeking a collaborative path forward between the supply
of funding, the demand of arts institutions, and the work of brokering
agencies to bring them together. If successful, the outcome of this
exploration will spur the growth and uptake of future impact investment
tools for arts and culture in Canada.

*The Call for Action*
At the outset of this work, Nordicity and its project partners are seeking
to hear from arts and cultural organizations in Canada:

   - With ambitions to scale up projects which have high quality artistic
   value and a positive impact on society;
   - With infrastructure or technology investments that have their own
   asset value or solid cash flow returns;
   - With project concepts believed to be ‘investment-ready’, where support
   in building capacity to access social finance would be welcomed;
   - Where social finance support may supplement other sources of public or
   private grants/donations.

For select interested parties meeting investment readiness conditions, we
will endeavour to support social finance development and matchmaking
exercises over the next several months. If social finance arrangements
investors come to pass, the recipient organizations will be expected to
contribute to a monitoring and reporting process for the purposes of the
action research project.

Please [click here
<https://ca1se.voxco.com/SE/?st=ytOgWRLsI5IlZocd7oHaL%2FSjdTaQXFEXDbyQm%2Bc2oeU%3D>]
to
express interest in participating in the *Metcalf Impact Investing for the
Arts Action Research* *Project.*

Please feel free to contact should you have any questions about the
opportunity.
Thank you

Best regards,
*Barbara D. Adagblenya *
*Senior Analyst* | *Nordicity*

1187 Odlum Drive | Unit 102
Vancouver, BC V5L 3L7
Mobile: +1 604 401 9301

www.nordicity.com


*I respectfully ackn**owledge that I live and work** on the traditional,
ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including
the x**ʷ**m**ə**θkw**ə**y**̓ə**m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and S*
*ə**l**̓**ílw**ə**ta**ʔ**/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.*


*Nordicity collaborates across different time zones. Please do not feel
obliged to reply straight away as I understand that you will reply during
the hours you work. *
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