Educational Resources Impact Fund at Maycomb Capital closes flexible, mission-aligned loans to increase access to high-quality instructional materials

The Fund's investors are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Walton Family Foundation

BALTIMORE, Dec. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This week at the Mission Investors Exchange National Conference, Maycomb Capital announced the first loans out of a new, flexible, mission-aligned debt vehicle called the Educational Resources Impact Fund (ERIF). ERIF is one of Maycomb Capital's Custom Strategies and supports nonprofit developers and providers of high-quality instructional materials and aligned supports, particularly those offered as open educational resources. The first two loans were made to Illustrative Mathematics and CenterPoint Education Solutions.

The mission of ERIF is expand access to high-quality instructional materials for more students, particularly those who are Black, Latino, English learners, or affected by poverty. This effort is in pursuit of improved support for teachers to do their work effectively and ultimately better educational outcomes for students. It also aims to test this investment strategy in the market to determine if flexible, impact-aligned debt can help these organization grow and serve more students.

“As a nonprofit, we sometimes struggle to find the capital to invest in products and services whose payoff is years away,” said Dr. William McCallum, CEO and Co-Founder of Illustrative Mathematics. “The loan from ERIF was crucial in giving us the financial stability to compete on the California state adoption process and further our mission of creating a world where all learners know, use, and enjoy mathematics.”

"The Educational Resources Impact Fund effort really grew out of these Foundations' long-standing commitment to working towards better educational outcomes," said Andi Phillips, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Maycomb Capital, who leads its Custom Strategies. "We were thrilled when this group of foundations engaged us here at Maycomb. We worked with them to understand their vision and then leveraged our infrastructure and investment expertise to co-develop the investment thesis, structure the investment vehicle, and ultimately deploy this capital into investments that can really make a difference for teachers and students." She continued, "these foundations are well situated to seed this effort because of their capability and willingness to make flexible, catalytic investments into a pilot vehicle that is trying to do something never done before, both from and impact and financial perspective."

Dr. Lin Johnson III recently came on board at Maycomb to head up ERIF. Dr. Johnson brings deep expertise in K-12 education as well as financial management having served as the Chief Financial Officer for Shelby County Schools in Memphis, TN. He recently completed his doctorate at the Harvard School of Education and focuses specifically on issues related to equity and justice in the K-12 system.

"The recent NAEP scores have uncovered that the pandemic has wiped away decades of learning progress, widening inequities further for our most vulnerable students," said Dr. Johnson. "One of the reasons I am so energized to be leading ERIF, is that high-quality instructional material and professional learning support are important equalizers to ensure learning acceleration, effective classroom teaching, and deep, affirming student engagement for all students, regardless of their racial and cultural identities and zip codes.

The ERIF team is actively seeking out additional borrowers and would welcome the opportunity to hear from nonprofit organizations in the educational resources ecosystem who are looking for a mission-oriented loan to expand their work. Visit our website at maycombcapital.com or email us at [email protected] for more information.

About Maycomb Capital: Maycomb Capital is a pioneering impact investing platform. We provide financing across asset classes to fund strategies and enterprises that transform communities. At Maycomb, we know that the world's problems demand patience, creativity, and an appreciation for complexity. We drive capital toward effective solutions for underserved communities, using data and rigorous analysis to guide our decisions. We identify scalable and sustainable paths to positive change, tackling entrenched social and economic challenges. By harnessing the scale, expertise and risk tolerance of the private sector in service of the public good, we're demonstrating what's possible with mission-focused, flexible capital.

The Educational Resources Impact Fund (ERIF) is one of Maycomb's Custom Strategies, which utilize the infrastructure and investment expertise of the Maycomb team to build custom investment vehicles that address a particular issue area or work in a specific geography. ERIF is a $20 million pilot fund that aims to support nonprofit developers and providers of high-quality instructional materials, particularly those offered as open educational resources. The fund's investment strategy is to provide flexible debt financing to these organizations to diversify their capital sources and enable future growth. The Fund leverages the Maycomb team's deep expertise in providing flexible debt to drive community impact.

SOURCE Maycomb Capital