Today, over 150 community foundations are place-based impact investors and scores more are looking for ways to get started. Why? Community foundations hold a unique position from which they can support the impact investing field; their deep community roots, their diverse and representative community governance, and their multi-stakeholder asset structures allow for strategic and catalytic investing that reaches partners and places not accessible to most investors. This Pre-Conference is an opportunity for community foundations to gather, share, and learn about their unique take on impact investing. The Pre-Conference will feature sessions on community impact, sources of funds within a foundation, staffing and resourcing impact investment programs, and strategies for engaging and collaborating in local investment ecosystems. By the end, participants will walk away with workplans for implementing or improving their own impact investment programs in service of their communities and their institutions.

For beginners, the convening offers:

• An introduction to impact investing that centers community foundation experience and practice.roduction to impact investing that centers community foundation experience and practice.
• An array of examples from community foundations like yours that are years into implementing impact investing programs.
• Connections with coaches and resources that can help you take your next steps into impact investing.sting.

For intermediate and advanced practitioners, the convening offers:

• A forum to discuss place-based impact investing with peer community foundations that tackles your unique opportunities, needs, and challenges.to discuss place-based impact investing with peer community foundations that tackles your unique opportunities, needs, and challenges.
• Connections to a growing community of practitioners that can discuss, collaborate, and gather in the future.
• An opportunity to strengthen our collective practice in support of community impact.