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San Francisco's Filipino Cultural District Keeping Hope Alive After a Tough Year

Oscar Perry Abello

May 18, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

“UNDSCVRD SF," funded by the SOMA Community Stabilization Fund and produced by the nonprofit Kultivate Labs, is a night market held once a month from July to November that features a range of Filipino vendors. There were over 35,000 attendees in 2019 and it generated $300,000 in sales. It also serves as a testing ground to select businesses for Kultivate Labs’ SEED Accelerator Program and grantees for the SOMA Fund. The former provides bootcamps and one-on-one support for Filipino-owned businesses that are located in, or would like to be located in, a permanent space within the SOMA cultural district.

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How to Start (and Run) a Bank That Puts People and Planet Over Profits

Oscar Perry Abello

May 17, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

San Francisco-based New Resource Bank was launched with environmental sustainability lending as its niche. But it pursued easier profits for a time, risking its survival and mission until a new CEO turned its fortunes around with a laser focus on the original mission, bolstered by learning its borrowers' businesses intimately. The bank doubled in size and merged with a larger bank, making itself a model for mission-driven lending in such businesses as solar, wind energy, and organic foods – and by attracting institutional depositors and investors as interested in social change as they are in profits.

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‘Solar For All' Brings Clean Energy to Low- and Middle-Income DC Residents

Ambika Chawla

May 14, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

An initiative to bring solar power to public housing in D.C. is helping residents of Jubilee Housing. Community solar, which shares the electricity generated amongst multiple households, makes solar energy an affordable option. Solar credits can provide a significant relief to households that need it most.

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How going solar is helping U.S. schools save millions

Nikolay Nikolov

April 29, 2021 |

Mashable |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

School districts in the United States are switching to solar power to save money on utilities and sell extra power back to the power grid. They use the savings to increase teachers' pay and upgrade facilities like buses and computer labs.

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College Accounts at Birth: State Efforts Raise New Hopes

Patricia Cohen

April 27, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oklahoma

SEED for Oklahoma Kids is a statewide effort to help newer generations climb the educational ladder and build assets. Parents are offered $1,000 in their newborn's name and set aside in a college savings account, destined to be used for pursuing college or trade school education. The concept of the program is not unique to Oklahoma. Other states like Nebraska, Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania, and more have implemented similar programs. "Automatic enrollment in a saving program, with the ability to opt out, turns out to have a much higher participation rate than relying on individuals to take the initiative."

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Crypto power: Can solar boost cheap, green homes in S.Africa?

Kim Harrisberg

April 22, 2021 |

Thomson Reuters Foundation |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: South Africa, Cape Town

Watergate Estate is working on two issues in South Africa: affordable housing and renewable energy. The housing development is installing solar panels for its residents that are being bought by people all over the world using cash or bitcoin as a way to offset their own carbon costs. Not everyone agrees that gated communities like this are helping to fight social inequalities, crime, and unemployment, but about 470 people bought solar cells for the apartment complex and some residents say they feel safer in their community.

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Pedal power: How bicycles can change lives

Richard Kenny

April 20, 2021 |

BBC |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Zambia

Onyx Connect sprang from the imagination of one entrepreneur who saw how poor roads and poverty made bicycles the only practical alternative to walking great distances in southern Zambia. Onyx sells sturdy bikes with a monthly payment plan that makes them affordable but also gives bike owners a personal stake in maintaining their own investment, instead of just having it donated to them. Bikes have given girls greater access to education and farmers more income because they can deliver fresh milk or other goods more often, more quickly, at greater distances than before.

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Is Seaweed The Key To Carbon Offsets?

Teresa Carey

April 17, 2021 |

Freethink |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Maine

Running Tide Technologies, a shellfish hatchery in Maine, is betting on kelp forests as a way to store carbon deep in the ocean and sell that carbon to corporations looking to combat climate change and offset their own emissions. The startup is growing mini-farms of kelp on biodegradable floats and after a few months, they sink to the seafloor. More research is needed to see if it works, but they already have about 1,600 floats adrift in the ocean and the e-commerce company Shopify is the first to buy carbon offsets from them.

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Rivers of Milk, Islands of Prosperity

Lyudmila Maslova

April 13, 2021 |

Transitions Online |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Ukraine, Andriyivka

A dairy cooperative in Ukraine has brought jobs to farmers in the region and allowed them to work together to sell their milk on the market. An international nonprofit helped the Andriyivka Prosperity cooperative get off the ground. While villagers were skeptical of joining at first, and there are still challenges with operating the cooperative, there are 129 members that sell their milk. “The cooperative has halted the extinction of the village, allowing young people to stay in their homelands and have jobs and a livelihood,” says one of the villagers.

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This Real Estate Co-Op is Looking for Investors Who Want to Put Community First

Oscar Perry Abello

April 13, 2021 |

Next City |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

The 2012 federal JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) took some time to gain traction, but in recent years it has democratized the financing of worker-owned co-ops and other community-based entities that ordinarily would be frozen out of capital markets. By making possible what is called a direct public offering, the law has made it easier to finance businesses that promise greater social benefits than just profit maximization, by opening investment opportunities to a more diverse and egalitarian mix of investors.

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