IMPACT INVESTMENTS

We make impact investments in organizations creating dignified economic opportunities for people experiencing poverty. Impact investments involve expected social returns as well as modest financial returns.

While we intend for our impact investments to reach people in extreme poverty, we also invest in organizations reaching people under the local poverty line. Up to 8% of our portfolio is allocated for impact investments.

Partners

Best of Waste recycles biodegradable waste into cleaner and affordable burning cooking fuel (briquettes) for the urban and peri-urban poor and middle class in Kampala, Uganda. Briquettes are energy efficient, burn longer, and are easy to store.  They emit less smoke compared to traditional firewood and promote better health outcomes. Best of Waste also produces and sells energy-efficient stoves. Using local waste to produce briquettes, Best of Waste improves income for waste collectors while keeping the waste out of landfills. The company creates jobs for briquette makers, distributors, and supply chain workers. 

We invested $6,000 into Best of Waste’s effort to expand their working capital and procure additional production equipment to build their inventory for larger clients such as schools and restaurants. 

“Managing waste at the household level greatly reduces the pressure on the landfill as well as the negative effects on the environment. At Best of Waste, we empower waste pickers at the landfill, women, and youth in the community with skills in making sustainable cooking fuel out of waste generated from households, markets and farms. This has created a livelihood for them and has reduced reliance on wood fuel that is detrimental to forests.” - Betty Z. Kaddu, Best of Waste

Cru Chocolate is an artisan chocolate company and certified B-Corp. Cru Chocolate works directly with farmers across Latin America to source fresh, high-quality cocoa, which is then transformed into chocolate drinks and other cocoa-based products. Cru Chocolate supports farmers with access to small scale equipment and education.  

The company initially made chocolate in small batches in a kitchen workshop. 3rd Creek Foundation made a loan of $10,000 to Cru Chocolate in 2022 to support increased production capacity.

Divine Chocolate is the world’s first and only Fairtrade and B-Corp certified premium chocolate company that is co-owned by cocoa farmers. Driven by a mission to fight exploitation in the cocoa industry, Divine champions the needs of farmers to improve their lives and to build a sustainable and fair world. Kuapa Kokoo, a Fairtrade cocoa cooperative with over 100,000 members in Ghana, owns 20% of Divine Chocolate and therefore, receives 20% of Divine’s distributable profits. Farmers benefit from the Fairtrade Minimum Price, the Fairtrade Premium, and Divine’s investment in farmer-led initiatives in adult literacy and numeracy, labor rights, gender empowerment, and sustainable agricultural practices that empower farmers and their families to thrive and prosper. Divine is not only a Fairtrade leader, but also a multi-year honoree recognized as “Best for the World(TM): Community” by B-Corporation certifiers.

In 2020 and 2023 3rd Creek Foundation made a $25,000 and $40,000 short term loan respectively to Divine Chocolate USA to support inventory and working capital needs. 

Ecofiltro is a social enterprise dedicated to empowering families in rural Guatemala to access clean, safe water. The company produces a ceramic water filter made from the natural materials of clay, sawdust and colloidal silver. This combination is recommended by various health institutions as an effective way to eliminate bacteria and means the filter can be used with water from lakes, rivers and ponds.  

Ecofiltro has distributed over 700,000 water filters across Guatemala and is aiming to reach 1 million families by 2025.  

3rd Creek Foundation made a $30,000 short term loan in 2022 and a $40,000 short term loan in 2023 to Ecofiltro. These loans supported the company’s expansion of their factory.

Imara Tech is a Tanzanian, youth-led company that empowers smallholder farmers with locally made, productive-use technologies that dramatically reduce time and labor for activities such as post-harvest threshing. Imara Tech's main product is the Multi-Crop Thresher (MCT), an affordable, portable, mechanized thresher that is up to 75x times faster than manual methods and can reduce post-harvest losses from 5% to 2%. Customers can mount the MCT onto the back of a motorbike and offer it as a service to farmers during the harvest season, enabling them to pay off the MCT in under one season.  

Imara Tech manufactures equipment locally and works with agricultural shops, field officers, and partner organizations to provide sales, distribution and repair services to smallholders. To date, Imara Tech products have reached over ten thousand smallholder farms across Tanzania.

In 2020, 3rd Creek Foundation loaned $20,000 to Imara Tech for developing solar-powered agri-processing machinery for avocado, grains, and peanuts, which will help the company to reach more farmers by establishing new clean energy powered businesses in rural off-grid areas. In 2022, 3rd Creek Foundation made a $15,000 loan to Imara Tech to support working capital. This was a co-investment with Arthur B Schultz Foundation.

WARC is a social enterprise with a mission to uplift subsistence farmers of Africa out of poverty. Warc enables farmers to access the best available machinery, practices, and technical advice so that they can apply regenerative agricultural practices in Sierra Leone and Ghana. Warc-trained farmers joining Warc’s Service Delivery Unit increase their income by increasing the number of crops in a year, expanding farmland, increasing yields, and unlocking better selling prices through a guaranteed market.  Warc has demonstrated how three farming seasons are possible in Sierra Leone without irrigation, with crop rotation and shifting the crop calendar. Warc has supported over 2400 farmers to overcome subsistence, created 300 rural jobs, and added more than 5000 acres under regenerative agriculture.
We loaned $20,000 in 2020 and $25,000 in 2021 to expand their enterprise in Ghana. The current investment supports expansion in Upper West Ghana to reach 20,000 farmers and improve agricultural practices on over 9,000 hectares of farmland over three years with a consortium of private and non-government partners. 

"The 500 million farmers in Africa can sequester 5 gigatons of carbon into their soils for centuries to come. They can mitigate climate change, while feeding an ever-increasing world population, transitioning from being the forgotten billion to the world’s climate heroes. We are proud that 3CF shares our beliefs and continuously support us on this mission." - Emiliano Mroue, WARC Group

Nature’s Nectar is a Zambian honey company dedicated to the growth of sustainable livelihoods for beekeepers while protecting the local ecosystem. Recognizing the detrimental impact of traditional honey harvesting techniques on the natural environment, Nature’s Nectar shifts beekeepers to a new style of hive that safeguards indigenous trees and is less disruptive to the bee colony. Nature’s Nectar guarantees a market for the honey, ensuring a sustainable income for beekeepers.  

To date, Nature’s Nectar has distributed 24,000 beehives and reached over 2400 beekeepers. This has resulted in an average income increase of 22-28%.  

We loaned Nature’s Nectar $35,000 in 2024 to support working capital needs.

Water Access Rwanda is a social enterprise committed to eradicating water scarcity in Rwanda and its neighboring countries. It provides durable and affordable technologies such as water filters and pumps, and borehole-fed micro-grid water networks for durable access to water. They have provided over 90 million liters of clean water saving 4 to 6.5 hours per household, the time that would otherwise have been spent fetching water. They have drilled over 115 boreholes and established 340 managed water access points and 10 farmer irrigation systems providing clean water to 132,000 households and businesses across East Africa. Through a set of unique solutions designed for households, communities, and private businesses and farmers, they ensure the water is affordable, reliable, and always safe.

In 2020, we lent $10,280 to upgrade water access points in Ishwya and Nyarubande communities, increasing access to clean and affordable water in both communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

" Safe water is a basic need, and because of it, many mothers wake up early to carry enough of it for their families. At Water Access Rwanda we believe everyone deserves clean and safe water in a convenient way, and this should also be possible for those living in rural Africa. We are excited to prove over different projects that indeed safe piped water access is a right that can be enjoyed in Rural Africa through better technological interventions. "- Christelle Kwizera, Water Access Rwanda

Whole Forest works with communities in Ecuador to protect the health of the Chocó rainforest - one of the world's most biodiverse and vulnerable rainforests. They provide strong financial incentives for conservation among local communities, namely jobs in forest management and manufacturing that offer 6 times higher pay than alternative employment opportunities. Through sustainable forestry, harvesting only a few trees per acre every 20 years, Whole Forest lowers its carbon footprint and keeps the rainforest intact. In addition to forest management, Whole Forest completes wood drying and product manufacturing. The company markets carbon-negative, aesthetically pleasing products such as hardwood flooring, wall tiles, and tables to end consumers. Whole Forest is also a key supplier of balsa wood, a material used in the construction of wind turbine blades. The company has developed an effective market-based approach to conserving critical rainforest habitat.

We loaned $15,000 to Whole Forest in partnership with Beneficial Returns to expand their product line into hardwoods via long-term leasing of forestland from local families. The loan also supported obtaining Forest Stewardship Council certification.

"Whole Forest proves that business, conservation and community wealth don't have to be competing concepts." - Ted Levinson, Beneficial Returns

Working Capital for Community Needs (WCCN) creates opportunities for access to microfinance and services to improve the lives and communities of the working poor in Latin America. As an impact investor, WCCN partners with over 20 microfinance institutions and supports small entrepreneurs across 10 countries in the region with microfinance loans, enabling them to grow their businesses and create job opportunities for others in their communities.

By 2022, WCCN and its partner institutions had served over 435,000 borrowers, 66% of whom were women and 61% based in rural areas. 63% of these borrowers had no access to traditional financing. Beyond microfinance for entrepreneurship, WCCN partners provide access to social services, and have reached 392,000 people with access to healthcare, financial literacy classes and youth programming. 3rd Creek Foundation made a $25,000 loan to Working Capital for Community Needs to support financial inclusion in Central and South America.

Young Mountain Tea works directly with tea farmers in India and Nepal to create organic tea for the specialty tea market. The traditional model of tea growing had left tea workers in Nepal and India dependent on the owners of tea estates to meet their primary needs, resulting in huge urban migration as workers left to seek better opportunities.  

The company now works with 2000 farmers across Nepal and India. With Young Mountain Tea, farmers are owners and earn as much as 4x the industry average for their product. 90% of these farmers are women, who are experiencing financial independence for the first time, and are able to invest into their children’s education, new farming tools and food.  

3rd Creek Foundation made a $25,000 loan to Young Mountain Tea in 2023 to support working capital needs. 

Past Partners

SMILING MUSHROOM (Nam Tuoi Cuoi) is a Vietnamese company that produces healthy mushroom products. Under the terms of the investment, founder Pham Hong Van is committed to achieving several social performance metrics including job creation for people coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, enhancing employee benefits, and improving environmental practices such as reduced water and energy usage. As of June 2018, Van had already created 8 jobs, augmented the benefits offered to her workforce, and reduced energy usage by 40%. 3rd Creek Foundation invested in Smiling Mushroom in 2017 in collaboration with the Thriive Impact Investment Fund. 

"I believe that a business can create positive impact to people, society, and environment and only when a company does that, they can grow big and sustainably. In Smiling Mushroom, we empower and give meaningful opportunities for self development to disadvantaged people, particularly women." - Pham Hong Van, Founder & CEO

Anza was founded on the belief that innovators will transform Tanzania. Anza provides them with personalized and strategic capacity building, affordable capital, and access to relevant networks. Through the Anza Accelerator, Anza Hub, and Anza Capital, Anza Capital, Anza meaningfully assists to grow businesses that create more jobs and provide life improving products or services to low income Tanzanians. The Anza Growth Fund (AGF) is the lending arm of Anza Capital and provides affordable and flexible financing to help clients maximize their growth and impact potential.

One beneficiary of 3rd Creek Foundation’s AGF investment is Jibu Tanzania. Jibu sells affordable, packaged drinking water to the low-income market in Arusha. Currently, for the 90% of Tanzanians who don’t have access to clean, bottled drinking water, the primary options are boiled water, untreated water, or point of use filtration - all of which are less convenient and safe than Jibu water. Bottled water competition (Coke, Nestle, and local bottlers) focuses almost exclusively on selling to the top 10% of the population. Meanwhile, Jibu’s decentralized and low-cost operating model allows them to sell clean, safe drinking water affordably to the neglected bottom 90% of Tanzanians.

For more than 25 years GreenWood has worked with artisans in Honduras and the Peruvian Amazon to produce high-quality wood products from well-managed forests. Greenwood trains woodworkers to use appropriate tools and technologies, and connects their products to good markets. The goal is to return as much value as possible from every harvested tree to the folks who depend upon - and help sustain - some of the earth’s most endangered forest resources.

In 2005 GreenWood launched a community forest enterprise in the harvest, production and export of high-value Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) in the remote Sico-Paulaya Valley of Honduras. Working with three local agroforestry cooperatives, GreenWood acts as an intermediary in the procurement of low-interest loans from philanthropic foundations. These funds have enabled all three groups to purchase efficient sawmills, which they now own and operate, and help to underwrite ongoing costs of production. In 2019, 3rd Creek Foundation lent $10,000 to support the Miraveza Cooperative through some delays with the year’s harvest. With the delivery of two containers of mahogany in the next few weeks, this 15-year enterprise will have generated the export of more than 250,000 board feet of mahogany from managed community forests, leading to total gross sales of approximately $1.75M. More than 90 percent of that wood has been sold to Taylor Guitars and other leaders in the U.S. guitar industry. And an estimated 65 percent of sales (more than $1M) has been returned directly to the communities and local cooperative members.

ESSMART GLOBAL is a company that delivers life improving goods to the rural poor in India. Essmart constitutes a network that makes the connection between innovative technology such as agricultural tools, solar lights and reading glasses with existing small-scale retail stores. Using sophisticated logistical software and strategies, Essmart manages the distribution and provision of education and after-sales service needed to provide those living in poverty in rural India with technological products that can enhance their productivity, savings, and quality of life.

Since 2013, Essmart has equipped 1,300 stores with over 110 catalogued products that have raised the shops’ revenues by up to 40%. As of April 2018, the company has reached over 120,000 people, increased over 22 million hours of productivity, and helped customers save over 50 million rupees.  

NAM THANG LONG is a Vietnamese social enterprise which manufactures unique life vest backpacks for schoolchildren. Backpacks help children to transport their materials to and from school and often give them a sense of pride in their studies. By also operating as life jackets, Nam Thang Long's backpacks go a step further to prevent the incidence of childhood drowning. Unfortunately, childhood drowning is prevalent in Vietnam and other countries during rainy season, when children have to cross rivers to get to school, and lack the ability to swim. Nam Thang Long was part of the Thriive Hanoi cohort in 2010. This was 3rd Creek Foundation's first impact investment, which we made in partnership with the Arthur B. Schultz Foundation.