At Baltimore Community Foundation, we champion investments that generate a positive return—socially and financially—right here in our community.
Impact investing channels capital into initiatives that offer a financial return, but also contribute significantly to community well-being. When you give to the Invest for More fund, or designate capital from your Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) to be used for impact investing, that money goes into our impact investing pool, where it’s dispersed across Baltimore through low-interest loans or lines of credit. As those loans mature, the funds and interest are returned to the Invest for More program, where they’re leveraged to support the next round of high-impact initiatives.
When you give to Invest for More, your gift is multiplied and amplified year after year—and Baltimore grows better and stronger because of it.
positively impacted by Invest for More initiatives in 2025.
deployed or committed to affordable housing, mixed-use commercial & residential spaces, green energy, and more.
As of 12/31/2025
generated positive financial returns alongside visible social and economic progress.
FY2025
collaborate with BCF to accelerate positive development.
As of 12/31/2025
created, rehabbed, or preserved in 2025 through Invest for More initiatives.
created, rehabbed, or preserved in 2025 for use by Baltimore residents and visitors.
Every year, we commit a portion of endowed assets to impact investing programs. These initiatives and projects create affordable housing, mixed-use commercial and residential spaces, green energy infrastructure, and more. We also leverage non-traditional impact investment opportunities that have the potential to foster inclusive economic growth, such as small business loans for women-, minority-, and locally owned enterprises, and micro credit-building loans for new immigrants and refugees.
By collaborating with the organizations actively pushing for stronger communities and inclusive economic growth—and energizing new ones along the way—we’re accelerating the prosperity of this vibrant region.
Learn more about the Impact Investments we’re currently investing in—and how these initiatives are reshaping Greater Baltimore:
Accessible loans for local small businesses
Revitalizing a community landmark to re-energize the local economy.
Providing new financial opportunities for immigrants and refugees.
Refreshing community spaces without displacing residents.
Loans and entrepreneurial support for social enterprises
Discounted solar power and new wealth-building opportunities for local residents
Supporting scaling
businesses
Creating and enhancing spaces for learning, shopping, and gathering
Low-cost housing and wraparound services
Restoring much-needed multi-family housing across Baltimore.
Empowering better outcomes for youth and their families.
Placing local, diverse talent in vital professional positions.
Learn more about the Impact Investments we’re currently investing in—and how these initiatives are reshaping Greater Baltimore:
Driving inclusive economic growth through stable, affordable housing.
Supporting scaling businesses.
Accessible loans for local small businesses.
Empowering better outcomes for youth and their families.
Discounted solar power and new wealth-building opportunities for residents.
Affordable housing in Baltimore's Pen Lucy neighborhood.
Low-cost housing and wraparound support services.
Providing loan capital to community facility projects.
Placing diverse local talent in vital professional positions.
Loans and entrepreneurial support for social enterprises.
Supporting early-childhood education.
Providing new financial opportunities for immigrants and refugees.
Revitalizing a community landmark to re-energize the local economy.
Expanding housing opportunities, including for Morgan State students.
Restoring much-needed family housing across Baltimore.
Refreshing commmunity spaces without displacing residents.
Impact Investing has expanded opportunities, strengthened communities, and generated lasting impact across Baltimore. Learn how our program has evolved and what we’re looking forward to.
In honor of Black Business Month, Baltimore Community Foundation revisits its partnership with Ignite Capital. Read our Q&A with Jay Nwachu, President and CEO of Innovation Works and Ignite Capital, on impact investing and empowering Baltimore’s Black entrepreneurs.
BCF’s $1 million impact investment to support AHC is helping to transform Baltimore’s neighborhoods by supporting affordable housing, economic mobility, and sustainable community development.
Help us pave the way to an even more vibrant and economically inclusive Baltimore, where residents have safe, clean, and green spaces, locally owned businesses find big success, and everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Here’s how you can get involved today:
Invest in Baltimore and amplify your local impact by giving straight to BCF’s Invest for More impact investing program.
Allocate a portion of the capital in your DAF to BCF’s Impact Investment pool to support projects that drive social and financial returns.
Open a donor-advised fund impact investing fund and co-invest with BCF to extend the impact of every dollar.
Baltimore is a city of incredible opportunity—but making that opportunity accessible to all requires intentional investment. These Invest for More stories show how strategically resourcing communities, local small businesses, refugees, and residents in need is transforming Greater Baltimore—one safe, clean, vibrant, and green space at a time.
Baltimore’s strength shines through its people, neighborhoods, and ideas. The Baltimore Community Foundation builds on that strength every day through grantmaking, investments, and partnerships.
The Lexington Market revitalization project transformed an underutilized Baltimore landmark into a vibrant space for commerce and community.
BCF’s impact investment in the IRC-CEO helps refugees, low-income individuals, and families get the financial services and support they need.
For co-investing questions, contact Johann De Castro at 410-332-4171, or by email here.
For investment proposals, reach out to investformore@bcf.org
As a regional leader in large-scale, subsidy-driven affordable housing development, AHC Inc. creates housing across the affordability spectrum to help improve Baltimore’s population challenges and economic status.
In 2023, Arctaris held an active portfolio of three loans to Baltimore-based small businesses totaling $1M. Through its small business support efforts, Arctaris created or preserved 278 full-time or equivalent positions.
Baltimore Community Lending (BCL) provides loans to small businesses that are unable to access traditional bank loans, but bring jobs and investment to underserved communities. In 2023, BCL held an active portfolio of 115 loans totalling more than $9.6M, and supported 99 small businesses in Baltimore City and County. Of those businesses, 80 percent are Black-, Latino-, or Asian-owned, and 54 percent are women-owned.
In collaboration with Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore’s Promise is launching a new career readiness program that includes certification offerings, in-school internships, and more for students and young adults that plan to enter the workforce directly after high school. In 2024, BCF has committed to a 1-year revolving line of credit that will enable BP to access $2M of reimbursement-based public grants.
The Climate Access Fund (CAF) is a green bank that finances community solar projects in low-income communities. In 2024, CAF started a community solar project on the rooftop of the Henderson-Hopkins School in East Baltimore. That project is expected to provide approximately 180 East Baltimore households earning less than 80 percent of the median area income with subsidized, renewable energy.
Community Solutions is a national housing developer and advocates for improving local homelessness services networks. They launched their first Baltimore based project called Mayflower Apartments. The property provides 64 units of affordable housing in the Pen Lucy neighborhood of Baltimore.
Enterprise Community Development (ECD) is the affordable housing arm of Enterprise Community Partners, a national community development financial institution. ECD operates 22 affordable housing developments across Baltimore City and Baltimore County and works with local nonprofit partners to provide resident-directed wraparound services in their communities. ECD is in ongoing pre-development for 204 new or rehabbed units of affordable housing.
The Enterprise Community Loan Fund provides loan capital to community facility projects. ECLF has invested $116MM and bridged New Market Tax Credit (“NMTC”) deals worth $134MM in Baltimore City and Baltimore County projects since the fund’s inception.
Equity Talent Solutions (ETS) provides the payroll and other back-office services for most Baltimore Corps co-employer sites, enabling government agencies and nonprofit organizations to participate in Baltimore Corps that would otherwise pass due to the complexity and cost of integrating co-employees into their internal human resources systems. In 2024, BCF has committed to a 1-year revolving line of credit that will help ETS bridge a recurring monthly cash flow gap between when payroll services must be rendered and when they are compensated by host sites.
Ignite Capital is a new loan fund and sibling organization to Innovation Works, a business incubation program supporting diverse social entrepreneurs from across Baltimore. In 2023, Ignite Capital held an active portfolio of 30 loans totaling more than $1.4M, and supported 22 social enterprises seeking profits and social impact. All supported social enterprises are Black-owned or -led, and 60 percent are women-owned or -led. All have made good business commitments to create social impact.
Improving Education (IE) supports early-childhood education through their All-Children Ready and Bedtime in a Box. The program supported 957 students in the 2024-25 school year, including 25% of all Head Start students in Baltimore City and 4 schools with pre-kindergarten classrooms and growing by the year.
The International Rescue Committee - Center for Economic Opportunity (IRC-CEO) specializes in making micro-loans to immigrants, refugees, and other low-credit/credit-thin borrowers. In 2023, IRC-CEO held an active portfolio of 71 loans to local New Americans and other no- or low-credit individuals, totaling more than $306,000. IRC-CEO also issued 48 credit-building loans—micro-loans that help New Americans and other individuals establish a positive credit history.
The Lexington Market project is a co-led initiative driven by Seawall and Baltimore Community Lending to revitalize the landmark space while honoring its long history of diverse entrepreneurialism. In 2023, the fund held an active portfolio of 19 loans totaling over $1.1M and supported 12 small businesses operating at Lexington Market. All of the supported businesses are Black- or Asian-owned, 75 percent are women-owned, and 83 percent are owned by residents of Baltimore City or Baltimore County.
MCB Real Estate is a real estate developer whose work extends across Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, Washington, DC, and Illinois, with most of their projects based in Maryland. Some projects they’ve led are Yard 56 in Bayview, The Fitzgerald in Mount Vernon, the Assembly at Clipper Mill, The Blvd at White Springs in Nottingham, to name a few. In 2025, they completed construction and opened a student housing apartment called Enolia Apartments which primarily serves the student body of Morgan State University.
In 2023, RBC Access Capital Fund capitalized mortgages for nine households earning less than 80 percent of the median area income. RBC also financed 166 units of affordable multi-family housing.
ReBuild Metro works with residents and community-led organizations in East Baltimore to revitalize homes, commercial spaces, and community spaces without displacing people. In 2023, ReBuild completed rehab on four previously vacant homes. ReBuild is in ongoing pre-development for a 109-unit multifamily affordable housing project and a 45-unit scattered site rental housing project designated for Johnston Square Elementary School teachers and staff. Two community amenities, including a rehabbed light manufacturing facility and a new community green space are also in pre-development.
The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) invests fresh capital into high-impact projects that preserve, renovate, and/or create new residential, commercial, community, and school spaces in Baltimore. In 2023, TRF closed five new loans totally $14.7M, financed 331 units of multi-family affordable housing, and financed more than 36,000 sq. ft. of commercial real estate.
Propel Baltimore III, a fund of TCP Venture Capital (TCP), addresses the critical need for more early-stage capital in Baltimore City, encouraging more entrepreneurial activity in the city through investments in commercial ready, technology companies.
Donor Services Officer
Donor Services Officer
VP of Philanthropy
Contact Dara Schnee, VP of Philanthropy, for a confidential, in-depth consultation about these and other giving options, tax benefits of each and how they can help to achieve your financial and charitable giving goals.
If you need assistance with Donor Central, please fill out the form below or call (410) 332-4171 with any questions you have and we will respond as soon as possible.
BCF Community Investment Team is here to help. Please fill out the form below with any questions you have and we will respond as soon as possible.
Contact John Gilpin at jgilpin@bcf.org to request hard copies of our Personal Estate Planning Kit. Please provide your mailing address and how many copies you would like.
Visit our planned giving website to find additional tools and resources to help your clients.
We have a nearly 30-year history of offering grants to resident-led groups and community projects in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. These grants give residents the resources they need to accomplish a small project, get more people involved, and encourage the next generation of neighborhood leaders. We also fund programs that support the development of leaders of all ages who are working to improve their neighborhoods and schools. Our support is intended to help identify, activate, inform and network leaders. And finally, we believe when schools and neighborhoods team up to improve their school and community, meaningful and lasting change can be made. We are interested in funding proposals in which the students and adults in schools collaborate intentionally with community residents, neighborhood associations, and other individuals, groups, and institutions in the area surrounding a school.
We believe that attracting and retaining effective and diverse school leaders is a key lever for change in Baltimore’s educational landscape, and so we fund school leadership development efforts at the district and individual school level. We are interested in funding proposals that focus on principal coaching, mentoring, peer networking, wellness/self-care, as well as pipelines that identify and develop new leaders. We will also continue to support efforts that build a culture of appreciation and encouragement for school leaders.
Our on-line application system provides applicants with a portal to start a new grant application or to continue updating an application already in process. Please be sure to select the “Save and Finish Later” button when you are finished working on your application in order to save your current session’s work. At any time during the application process you can select the “Contact Us” button in the top right corner of the screen and you will be able to send an email to the Baltimore Community Foundation staff with specific questions.
To be considered for funding, proposals must be submitted through the online application portal, however, we provide a PDF version of the application along with other useful forms here for your reference:
When you are ready please select one of the following options:
I have not applied for BCF funding online in the past.
Select this option if you have never used our website to apply for a grant from BCF.
I previously applied for BCF funding online in the past.
Select this option if you have applied for any of BCF’s grants using our website. Your profile may still be in our system and you may login using your account.
We have allocated funds for two geographical areas that bookend a crucial corridor on the Westside of Baltimore City: Howard Park /Forest Park area (served by Calvin Rodwell Elementary Middle School and Liberty Elementary), and Reservoir Hill/Penn North area (served by Dorothy I Height Elementary). In these three schools and their surrounding neighborhoods, we will support projects and activities designed to make the communities safe, clean, green and vibrant; and improve the quality of the schools. Some projects may be neighborhood-focused, some school-focused and others collaborative projects between the schools and their respective communities.
High quality early childhood education has a lifelong effect on students. Through our Early Learning grant program, we are interested in system-wide early childhood education proposals that will help Baltimore City and County’s youngest learners, and their families, get the start they need. Nonprofit organizations that offer programs and/or services to Judy Centers are encouraged to contact the centers directly to explore partnership opportunities.
Director of Planned Gifts
410-332-4171 ext. 132
Communications Officer
410-332-4171 ext. 181
Executive Director
Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Charitable Foundation
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