Gary Community Ventures

"Ownership has arrived and it is a very important part of impact investing." -Jim Sorenson, Sorenson Impact #SOCAP24 placed Ownership Investing firmly on the map as a key strategy for impact investing. Building on the groundwork laid by investors, practitioners, and nonprofit leaders, Ownership Investing and the Ownership Economy are gaining momentum across the country. A big thanks is due to moderator Smitha Das of World Education Services and panelists Brian Boland of Delta Fund, the aforementioned Jim Sorenson and our own President & CEO Santhosh Ramdoss for leading this important conversation. Thanks is also due to SOCAP Global for bringing this conversation to its central stage. Emily Williams, our Director of Partnerships, captures 4 key takeaways from SOCAP24 on the Ownership Investing movement, which you can read here: https://lnkd.in/gNFTKnPB

Are you a working professional with 10+ years experience eager to change the face of leadership in Metro Denver? Know someone who is? Apply or nominate them for our Piton Fellowship Mid-Career Cohort by Dec. 13! With a strong focus on racial equity, diversity and inclusion, the Mid-Career Cohort is an 8-month experience that focuses on supporting business, policy and philanthropic professionals on their leadership journeys. We’re so proud to call Graciela Gonzales, Denise Suarez, Justin Toomer, Rene Gonzalez, Alejandro Fuentes Mena and Anistasia Bills members of our growing Piton Network of alumni, and we’d love to have you join them! Apply and nominate here: https://lnkd.in/e3rFxNBK 

The Ownership Economy is no longer just a concept — it’s a movement. And this movement is coming to the #SOCAP24 stage in San Francisco TODAY, Oct. 30, at 10:45 a.m. PT! Our President & CEO Santhosh Ramdoss will be taking the stage with Smitha Das of World Education Services, Brian Boland of the Delta Fund and Jim Sorenson of the Sorenson Impact Group to explore bold strategies for reshaping wealth creation, building shared prosperity, and using ownership as a powerful tool to close the wealth gap. If you're joining the SOCAP Global festivities in the Bay Area, we'd love to see you there!

Our own Nicolle Richards will be joining New Private Markets at their North American Impact & Transition Investor Summit next month. Specifically, Nicolle will be speaking on the role DE&I plays in investing decisions, which is something our team at Gary remains deeply committed to. Fellow panelists will include Kenneth Saffold of o15 Capital Partners, Pamela Pavkov of TPG NEXT and Daryn Dodson of Illumen Capital. If you're interested in joining Nicolle at the summit from Nov. 12-13, you can use the discount code ImpactNA24_Speaker for 10% off your delegate pass. Learn more, and register here: https://lnkd.in/gDbgafuR

We're excited for our own Zach Martinez to appear on tomorrow's free webinar from the housing experts at the NYU Furman Center. The discussion will center on publicly driven housing development models. Specifically, the panel will focus on 9 cases spanning 8 states in which state or local governments act as developers, investors or long-term owners to drive government-led housing development. Zach will be discussing the tenant equity vehicle and equity funding model at the heart of Proposition 123 here in Colorado, which our team at Gary has been proud to play a role in passing and implementing. The webinar will be co-hosted by Claudia Aiken, Hayley Raetz and Tony B. with the NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab, and we're honored to have Zach join a panel of experts that include: - Matt Bedsole with the City of Atlanta - Emily Gallagher of the New York State Assembly - Marc Jahr with Forsyth Street and the New York City Housing Development Corporation - Zachary Marks with Maryland’s Housing Opportunities Commission Learn more and register to join the live session here: https://lnkd.in/emGKe7UV

Gary is thrilled to announce $900K in grant funding this week that will be distributed to the following 10 partners in support of their work to engage multilingual learners and increase family affordability through tax credits. 📚 Adams 12 Five Star Schools 📚 Ensemble Learning & DSST Public Schools 📚 Jeffco Public Schools - Colorado 📚 Littleton Public Schools 📚 Rocky Mountain Prep 💰 Adams County Health Department in partnership with Arapahoe County & Jefferson County Public Health 💰 African Leadership Group 💰 Denver Asset Building Coalition 💰 Servicios de La Raza 💰 United Way of Pueblo County Approximately 40% of the grantees are new partners to Gary and 50% are led by those with racially diverse backgrounds or have significant (greater than 50%) racial diversity on their leadership teams or boards. We are honored to partner with these organizations to realize a vision of Colorado where every child has the opportunity to grow up healthy and reach their full potential!

“ESOPs are one of the few remaining ways that workers can build wealth — real wealth — over time." - Ramona Rodriguez-Brooks, Membership Director at the The National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). Colorado has taken the lead as the most employee ownership-friendly state in the country, unlocking millions in benefits paid out to employee-owners by ESOPs in the most recent year. We were thrilled to sponsor the Colorado Employee Ownership Office’s Employee Ownership Month Celebration, an incredible gathering of employee-owned businesses, advocates, partners, and service providers all united in their conviction to grow the employee ownership ecosystem and create a more equitable economic future for Coloradans. Catherine Toner of Gary's Impact Investing team provided brief remarks about Gary’s commitment to supporting the employee ownership movement and helping Colorado families achieve greater economic mobility. Accompanying her remarks, we were pleased to share an excerpt from our upcoming documentary “Restoring an American Ideal: Wealth through Employee Ownership,” highlighting real stories of employees at employee-owned businesses in Colorado. Congratulations to all the evening’s honorees, who are championing the employee ownership movement as a solution to wealth building: Douglas Dell, Kerry Siggins, Vectra Bank Colorado, Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center (RMEOC), Center for Community Wealth Building, Sky Blue Builders, LLC, and Community Language Cooperative. Thank you to the Colorado Employee Ownership Commission and Colorado Employee Ownership Office and Matthew Licina for hosting and bringing the Colorado employee ownership community together. #Colorado #Denver #EmployeeOwnership #OwnershipInvesting

The ownership investing movement continues to grow, and we were thrilled that our own Santhosh Ramdoss was able to be a part of this stirring Sorenson Impact conversation on the subject, alongside Jack Moriarty, David Jette of Homium, Malini Ramanarayanan Moraghan of Essential Owners Fund and Todd Leverette of Apis & Heritage Capital Partners.

We're excited to have our own Smit Naik appearing on this Headstream Innovation panel tomorrow, where he'll speak about the importance of bringing youth voice into investing decisions. The broader discussion will focus on how funders across the spectrum of capital can help scale digital innovations in our approach to supporting youth mental health. Learn more and register here: https://bit.ly/HLHWebinar

We're thrilled to see PadSplit coming online for Denverites thanks to Atticus LeBlanc and team. For one low weekly price, PadSplit members get a private room with furniture, utilities, internet and laundry usage. There's no minimum credit score needed to apply, members don't have to sign long-term leases and they're able to build their own credit score in the process. Meanwhile, owners who list their properties on PadSplit can find easier pathways to long-term tenants and be assured that those tenants go through a rigorous safety screening process. Thanks to our own Catherine Toner for continuously seeking out opportunities like PadSplit that are using innovative approaches to increase available, accessible and affordable housing options.