Ceniarth 2020 Annual Report
Download our full 2020 Annual Report
Introduction Letter from Our Directors
For the impact sector, and particularly for impact-first investors like us at Ceniarth, 2020 was a year that demanded our full attention and action.
How do we possibly begin to succinctly summarize 2020? It was a year that the world was brought to an unimaginable standstill by the COVID-19 virus and shaken to attention by impassioned calls to address racial inequalities that were exacerbated during the crisis.
In April of 2020 as we all struggled to come to grips with the scope and impact of the pandemic, we laid out three guiding principles that we would follow in hopes of remaining true to our mission through these challenging times.
First, we vowed to stay in our lane as a provider of impact-first capital deploying money via the funds and enterprises serving vulnerable communities that we have long supported. We knew that this form of capital was needed before the pandemic and that it would likely become even more scarce. We executed on this promise making over $31M in new commitments across 22 transactions.
Second, we wanted to ensure that we were building bridges to somewhere. We acknowledged the brutal reality that many enterprises would not be able to survive the economic fallout of the year. Consequently, when we provided emergency funding – for example, our support of businesses seeking Payroll Protection Program (PPP) money in the US – we did so via intermediaries such as community development finance institutions (CDFIs) that were well positioned to offer technical assistance and to help enterprises make best use of the capital.
Finally, while others made lofty claims that the crisis would drive a fundamental realignment of our economic and social systems, we were less optimistic choosing to stay focused on using the year to strengthen the relationships that would help us tackle a world of continuing inequality. We launched the Ceniarth “What Can I Do Now?” webinar series to help co-investors identify new funding opportunities and continued to seek new networks and channels to expand the pool of available impact-first capital.
As we release this report, we are still in the throes of a global crisis with no definitive end in sight. While we cannot predict the future, we can stand ready to continue using our capital to support resilient, high-impact funds and enterprises that are bravely and tirelessly weathering this storm.