Impact Investing

Impact Investing, Another Tool

About Us

Impact Investing

Impact Investing, Another Tool

About Us

About Us

Impact Investing

Impact Investing, Another Tool

The Impact Investment movement started in community foundations a decade ago. The philosophy is to take investment money and loan it out locally with low interest for a set time period, while making a social impact as defined by the Foundation. Impact investing is another tool for the Foundation that we can use to bring significant new money into the greater Albuquerque area.

We have defined our Social Impact as*:

  • To stimulate entrepreneurial initiatives and economic development
  • To improve the lives of low-income people through the creation and retention of jobs that offer living wages and benefits
  • Availability and access to affordable capital
  • Access to affordable housing
  • To enhance the quality of life through the vitality of the downtown area and other strategic locations.
  • To promote a more vibrant community especially in collaboration with other investors to increasing the leverage factor
  • To promote quality educational opportunities

Metrics will be measured on a deal-by-deal basis. Our expectation is that our investments will be produce social impact in one or more of the following non-exclusive ways:

  • Impact and Sustainability
  • Increase in the number of new private sector jobs
  • Increase in the number of new companies
  • Reduced unemployment rate
  • Increase in the number of loans or investments made to aspiring entrepreneurs
  • Increase in the number of affordable housing units created
  • Attracting other capital
  • Albuquerque’s revitalization
  • Increase in the number of teachers trained
  • Increase in the number of students’ educational/vocational attainment (e.g., degrees or certificates obtained)

Interested donors are invited to pool their resources with the Foundation on Impact Investments. For more information, email nick@abqcf.org.

View the Foundation's Impact Investing Guidelines

If you are interested in discussing an Impact Investment, please complete this pre-screening form. Email your form to foundation@abqcf.org.

*All investments will be focused in the Greater Albuquerque 4-County areas of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia


The Foundation’s Impact Investing Committee continues to pursue local investments that support programs to:

  • Stimulate entrepreneurial initiatives and economic development
  • Improve the lives of low income people through the creation and retention of jobs offering living wages and benefits
  • Provide access to affordable capital
  • Offer affordable housing
  • Provide quality education
  • Enhance the quality of life in the Greater Albuquerque Area

The Foundation's Impact Investments include:

ABQ ID

The investment strategy of ABQid Fund is to make investments in early-stage, high-growth companies, mainly those who participate in an accelerator program operated by ABQid, Inc., a New Mexico nonprofit corporation. The Accelerator has been created on the belief that there is substantial untapped entrepreneurial potential in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area and that training, support and seed investment are necessary to realize on that potential.

Nusenda Credit Union Coop Capital

Co-op Capital is a relationship-based, micro-lending program that aims to widen access to affordable and equitable financial opportunities for lower-income entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color in Albuquerque. Co-op Capital is a unique financing tool - credit reports from potential borrowers are not required; instead, the relationship between the partner organization and the borrower drives the loan approval process. The Foundation’s investment will collateralize the loans. Loans, which would be considered high-risk, currently have a default rate of only one percent. The program was recently named a Top 25 Innovator in American Government by the Harvard Ash Center. Read more about this program in the ABQ Journal.

Homewise Orpheum Theatre

Homewise, a nonprofit organization focused on first time home ownership purchased the Orpheum Theatre Building on Second Street and Coal in Downtown Albuquerque. A low interest loan from the Foundation supported renovations to revitalize the building to include a community classroom/performance space, artist studios, apartments, gallery space and the Homewise Albuquerque homeownership headquarters. The Foundation’s Impact Investment Committee found this project to be an important piece of Downtown revitalization.

South Valley Social Enterprise Center

The South Valley will soon be home to a new economic development project - the South Valley Social Enterprise Center. The Foundation's Impact Investment Committee invested $250K in this project along with six other funders including the Santa Fe Community Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the McCune Charitable Foundation. Read more about South Valley Social Enterprise Center.

Titan Development

Titan Development Real Estate Fund is designed to create development in high growth secondary and tertiary markets. Their strategy is to develop best-in-class assets, lease up to 90% stabilization and sell, returning capital to investors. Their primary asset classes are multi-family, self-storage, senior living and industrial with many projects in NM and the Albuquerque area.

Tramway Venture Partners

Tramway Venture Partners is an early stage fund making equity investments in high return opportunities in health care and the life sciences, primarily in New Mexico. The focus will be business opportunities with products or services that exploit convergent technologies: those that lie at the intersection of physical sciences/ information technology with the life sciences and health care.

Verge Fund

The investment strategy of Verge is to invest primarily in high-growth ventures which have already received investment from a prior Verge fund, or in which one or more of the Principals of the fund have been involved directly on an operational basis. The Partnership will focus its investment activity in four specific high-technology sectors: cleantech/energy, electronics/instrumentation, human factors and software-as-a-service (SAAS).

The Impact Investment movement started in community foundations a decade ago. The philosophy is to take investment money and loan it out locally with low interest for a set time period, while making a social impact as defined by the Foundation. Impact investing is another tool for the Foundation that we can use to bring significant new money into the greater Albuquerque area.

We have defined our Social Impact as*:

  • To stimulate entrepreneurial initiatives and economic development
  • To improve the lives of low-income people through the creation and retention of jobs that offer living wages and benefits
  • Availability and access to affordable capital
  • Access to affordable housing
  • To enhance the quality of life through the vitality of the downtown area and other strategic locations.
  • To promote a more vibrant community especially in collaboration with other investors to increasing the leverage factor
  • To promote quality educational opportunities

Metrics will be measured on a deal-by-deal basis. Our expectation is that our investments will be produce social impact in one or more of the following non-exclusive ways:

  • Impact and Sustainability
  • Increase in the number of new private sector jobs
  • Increase in the number of new companies
  • Reduced unemployment rate
  • Increase in the number of loans or investments made to aspiring entrepreneurs
  • Increase in the number of affordable housing units created
  • Attracting other capital
  • Albuquerque’s revitalization
  • Increase in the number of teachers trained
  • Increase in the number of students’ educational/vocational attainment (e.g., degrees or certificates obtained)

Interested donors are invited to pool their resources with the Foundation on Impact Investments. For more information, email nick@abqcf.org.

View the Foundation's Impact Investing Guidelines

If you are interested in discussing an Impact Investment, please complete this pre-screening form. Email your form to foundation@abqcf.org.

*All investments will be focused in the Greater Albuquerque 4-County areas of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia


The Foundation’s Impact Investing Committee continues to pursue local investments that support programs to:

  • Stimulate entrepreneurial initiatives and economic development
  • Improve the lives of low income people through the creation and retention of jobs offering living wages and benefits
  • Provide access to affordable capital
  • Offer affordable housing
  • Provide quality education
  • Enhance the quality of life in the Greater Albuquerque Area

The Foundation's Impact Investments include:

ABQ ID

The investment strategy of ABQid Fund is to make investments in early-stage, high-growth companies, mainly those who participate in an accelerator program operated by ABQid, Inc., a New Mexico nonprofit corporation. The Accelerator has been created on the belief that there is substantial untapped entrepreneurial potential in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area and that training, support and seed investment are necessary to realize on that potential.

Nusenda Credit Union Coop Capital

Co-op Capital is a relationship-based, micro-lending program that aims to widen access to affordable and equitable financial opportunities for lower-income entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color in Albuquerque. Co-op Capital is a unique financing tool - credit reports from potential borrowers are not required; instead, the relationship between the partner organization and the borrower drives the loan approval process. The Foundation’s investment will collateralize the loans. Loans, which would be considered high-risk, currently have a default rate of only one percent. The program was recently named a Top 25 Innovator in American Government by the Harvard Ash Center. Read more about this program in the ABQ Journal.

Homewise Orpheum Theatre

Homewise, a nonprofit organization focused on first time home ownership purchased the Orpheum Theatre Building on Second Street and Coal in Downtown Albuquerque. A low interest loan from the Foundation supported renovations to revitalize the building to include a community classroom/performance space, artist studios, apartments, gallery space and the Homewise Albuquerque homeownership headquarters. The Foundation’s Impact Investment Committee found this project to be an important piece of Downtown revitalization.

South Valley Social Enterprise Center

The South Valley will soon be home to a new economic development project - the South Valley Social Enterprise Center. The Foundation's Impact Investment Committee invested $250K in this project along with six other funders including the Santa Fe Community Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the McCune Charitable Foundation. Read more about South Valley Social Enterprise Center.

Titan Development

Titan Development Real Estate Fund is designed to create development in high growth secondary and tertiary markets. Their strategy is to develop best-in-class assets, lease up to 90% stabilization and sell, returning capital to investors. Their primary asset classes are multi-family, self-storage, senior living and industrial with many projects in NM and the Albuquerque area.

Tramway Venture Partners

Tramway Venture Partners is an early stage fund making equity investments in high return opportunities in health care and the life sciences, primarily in New Mexico. The focus will be business opportunities with products or services that exploit convergent technologies: those that lie at the intersection of physical sciences/ information technology with the life sciences and health care.

Verge Fund

The investment strategy of Verge is to invest primarily in high-growth ventures which have already received investment from a prior Verge fund, or in which one or more of the Principals of the fund have been involved directly on an operational basis. The Partnership will focus its investment activity in four specific high-technology sectors: cleantech/energy, electronics/instrumentation, human factors and software-as-a-service (SAAS).