Community Finance Fellowship job in San Diego

Mission Driven Finance is launching the Community Finance Fellowship to diversify talent in our industry—and get capital into overlooked and underestimated communities where it doesn’t usually flow. Five exceptional individuals will be full-time paid members of our team in San Diego for one year starting in March 2020. Designed to give early professionals a strong start to careers using finance as a tool for change, this program will provide fellows formal training and critical on-the-job experience with the full life cycle of making private impact investments.

Why?

We wake up every day looking for ways to build thriving communities by investing in small businesses, social enterprises and nonprofits—particularly by mobilizing capital into those communities that have been overlooked and underestimated by the traditional financial system. This isn’t about fintech and apps. This is about authentic connection and deep engagement with people and place in ways that acknowledge and counteract bias and exclusion.

We must change the face of finance. For us at Mission Driven Finance to find those bold visions and innovative enterprises that aren’t getting capital (but should), we need more people on our team with lived experiences in more communities. We expect each fellow to help us connect with communities and businesses we might not otherwise.

Our fellows will get paid, hands-on experience working in finance to directly create economic power for overlooked and underestimated communities. We want to break that vicious cycle of “you can’t get a job until you have experience and you can’t get experience until you have a job,” especially for our industry. Here, you can learn and grow in a supportive work environment, and move on to your next chapter with great skills to continue changing the face of finance and how capital moves in communities.

Who is Mission Driven Finance?

We are an impact investment firm dedicated to building a financial system that ensures good businesses can access sufficient affordable capital. Built from the ground up with a single purpose—to make it easy to invest in your community—all our funds and structured products are designed to close financial gaps that close opportunity gaps. We work with local and national investors to help them create the impact they want and work with small businesses and communities to help them get the capital they need. Mission Driven Finance was launched in 2016 in San Diego, CA and is a Certified B Corporation.

Who should apply?

This fellowship might be right for you if:

You are:

• Committed to changing your community.
• Eager to learn how finance can power a vision for a thriving community.
• Looking for skills to advance your career path.

You want:

• The world to understand how amazing your community already is, and see its potential to be even greater.
• Your community to be stronger and healthier—and you know that access to capital could help make that happen.
• To learn about how investments can get structured and made.
• To explore new ways to invest to create impact.
• To change the field of finance to better reflect the life you’ve lived and lives you’ve seen in your community. 

You have:

• A desire for action, not just more talk (though dialogue is also important).
• A growth mindset. You are inquisitive, wondering, and ready to explore how to increase deal flow in your community.

Mission Driven Finance is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage all qualified candidates, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, sex, disability, veteran status, or gender identity to apply for this position. We welcome smart people with non-linear/non-traditional experience and educational backgrounds to apply, as well as members of Indigenous communities, people of color, New Americans (immigrants, refugees, asylees), and those with lived experiences in overlooked and underestimated communities.

What would I do as a Community Finance Fellow?

Fellows will support the full life cycle of investing in communities through: 

• Community engagement and research to find new potential investments
• Screening, underwriting, and presenting investment opportunities
• Monitoring, reporting, and communicating about the success of active investments

Fellows will have access to:

• Formal training in impact, management, and financial analysis
• “Learning-by-doing” as key members of our borrower services team
• Broad mentorship through one-on-one meetings with our staff
• Home base projects matching fellows’ areas of interest and aptitude with available opportunities
• Tangible collaborations with our team to put learnings and skills into practice
• Facilitated community of practice to reflect on this experience

What is a fellowship program?

Fellowships are typically short-term opportunities that could last from a few months to a few years, allowing fellows to gain specific professional skill sets and the sponsoring organization to expand leadership in its field. While there are other models where you study independently or get together with other fellows periodically, we’ve designed this program to be full-time cohort-based learning so you can dive deep into the nuances of community finance and learn from our team and from your peers.

What am I committing to as part of the fellowship?

• To be committed to the program for one year, from approximately March 23, 2020 through March 31, 2021.
• To be a full-time paid team member and employee of Mission Driven Finance for the duration of the fellowship, living and working in the San Diego, CA region.
• To be an open and active participant in the cohort with the other fellows.
• To making your community better.

How would I spend my time as a fellow?

We anticipate fellows spending roughly 25% of their time (over weighted to the beginning of the year) in formal learning, reflection, and writing; 50% in learning-by-doing the entire investment life cycle as part of our borrower services team; and 25% in deeper focus projects with 1-2 team members. As this is a pilot program—and you, brave soul, are applying for the inaugural cohort!—this breakdown of time will change. All fellows will have a balance of time with internal Mission Driven Finance efforts, supporting potential borrowers moving through our underwriting and investment process, and interacting with external community partners.

How will fellows be matched to projects?

We will attempt to match fellows to projects and opportunities that best match their skills and interests, while at the same time working to ensure a wide range of experience. You’ll be able to rank work type & impact area preferences in the application. 

What are example projects I might work on? What might I be expected to produce?

All fellows will work on identifying and screening new borrower prospects; underwriting for impact, management, and finance; drafting credit memos to present for formal investment decisions; and surveying/monitoring active borrowers.

In addition to that core work, potential projects for deeper focus include:

• Looking for tools to improve our portfolio monitoring processes
• Improving connections with capacity-building resources for potential borrowers
• Deepening relationships around Islamic finance
• Sourcing & supporting new investments in early childhood education
• Producing our investor and community reports

Finally, fellows will occasionally write and (with support from our marketing & communications team) publish thought leadership blogs to inform the field about investing sensitively with underestimated communities and inclusive leadership development. This can also elevate fellows’ profiles to future employers. 

Benefits