Our TECH Fund campaign celebrated a new investment from a longtime partner: The Grove Foundation, one of the earliest investors, made an additional $500,000 commitment in Housing Trust’s affordable housing investment vehicle.
“This is a high impact, high leverage investment with a community partner we trust on an issue that is critical to address,” said Rebekah Saul Butler, Co-Executive Director of Grove Foundation. “With affordable housing there continues to be more opportunity than funding, which means even relatively modest amounts of investment are meaningful.”
Saul Butler also indicated the decision to re-invest was made based on the desire to deploy funds in a local CDFI, how well TECH Fund and Housing Trust have held up in the pandemic, and how TECH Fund investments can be leveraged to maximize impact in a region that desperately needs affordable homes.
Founded by Andy and Eva Grove in 1986, the Grove Foundation increased its work over the last few years on impact investing and aligning all of its assets with its mission. The organization has a local focus on safety net issues and works at the regional and national level on issues involving immigrants, civic engagement, reproductive justice and climate.
TECH Fund (Tech + Equity + Community + Housing) was created by Housing Trust in March 2017 to create opportunities for philanthropists and large Bay Area employers to be part of the affordable housing solution. The initial investment from the Cisco Foundation has since been followed by investments from Google, Grove Foundation, LinkedIn, NetApp, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Pure Storage, and Sobrato Family Foundation. So far TECH Fund has raised $117.5 million to help create 3,728 homes across 34 developments. The first grand openings of developments aided by TECH Fund will take place in 2021. For more information or to invest, visit housingtrustsv.org/invest.