NFF Receives $22 Million Grant from MacKenzie Scott

NEW YORK, October 8, 2024 – Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) has received a $22 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. It is the second grant NFF has received from Ms. Scott and will deepen NFF’s long-term impact and near-term support for nonprofits led by and serving people of color.  

“Our aspirations are big: to advance community wealth and well-being, build more just and anti-racist financial systems, and fuel the nonprofits providing critical services in our neighborhoods,” said Aisha Benson, President and CEO of NFF. “These ambitious goals require collaboration, innovation, and action – and significant flexible support like Ms. Scott’s grants.” 

Nonprofits are subject to inequitable and inefficient funding systems that can make it harder to deliver on their missions. NFF and others are working to change these systems; this work takes a long time and is hard to get funded. Large, unrestricted gifts are essential to sustaining systems change work, as well as supporting direct services by local organizations, to ensure communities have what they need. 

As a 40-year-old community development financial institution (CDFI), NFF has a track record of deploying more than a billion dollars, as well as consulting and advocacy work, on behalf of nonprofits in areas including affordable housing development; community ownership of assets; education and youth development; arts and culture; health; and more.  

“We believe that community development can be a powerful force for justice and racial equity, and we’re thrilled and thankful for the opportunity to put this gift to work on behalf of the nonprofits we serve,” said Benson. “We’ve worked in partnership with community nonprofits over the past four decades to build strong, trust-based relationships that help nonprofits put their plans into action.” 

Ms. Scott’s first gift helped NFF to enact its strategy and pilot new ways of engaging with community nonprofits and responding to emerging needs. It also contributed to NFF’s Social 
Innovation Fund, allowing NFF to self-fund consulting work for high-impact groups such as The 
Black Equity Collective and Asian Pacific Community Fund.  The current gift will allow NFF to expand this market-tested work and invite additional support to further grow results. 

Many of the social and environmental issues NFF addresses are growing in scale, and NFF is actively seeking additional partners and investors to expand its response. This grant will help NFF to:  

• Deliver working capital to ensure nonprofits waiting on delayed government payments can keep their doors open and pay their employees. This is an acute problem for human services providers in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other areas where nonprofits provide essential services but are constantly pushed to the financial brink while waiting for months for payments on services they’ve already delivered. NFF and others are advocating for substantive reforms, and in the meantime, addressing an urgent cash crunch.  
• Deliver responsive consulting to organizations that request support but don’t have funders able to sponsor NFF’s work on their behalf. This can include scenario planning, building financial resilience, evaluating funding strategies, facilitated peer learning, and more.  
• Expand NFF’s environmental justice work in communities that disproportionately experience the negative impacts of climate change and pollution. This includes providing supportive consulting and tools to organizations leading this work, and funding community-driven projects that address climate change and pollution in underserved areas.  
• Expand financial innovations that support community ownership of assets, because when nonprofits own property they can protect against extractive development and predatory investors. Ownership of assets allows communities to build collective wealth, retain power and control of resources, and increase jobs and services that drive thriving local economies. 

“We are innovating from a solid base of experience and infrastructure, and are tremendously grateful for this gift and the confidence in our approach,” said Benson.  

About Nonprofit Finance Fund
Nonprofit Finance Fund®️ (NFF®️) is a nonprofit lender, consultant, and advocate. For more than 40 years, we’ve worked to strengthen nonprofit organizations and improve the way money flows to social good. We believe that alongside others we must build a more equitable and just social sector, and are committed to helping community-centered organizations led by and serving people of color access the money and resources they need to realize their communities’ aspirations. As a community development financial institution (CDFI) NFF manages a portfolio of over $375 million. Since 1980, we have provided over $1.2 billion in financing and access to additional capital in support of nearly $4 billion in projects for thousands of organizations nationwide. To learn more, visit https://nff.org.