Mission Investing

Putting Our Capital to Work Alongside Our Grants

Closing New Jersey’s racial wealth gap takes more than grantmaking. We believe philanthropy can and should leverage all of its resources toward impact. That’s why the Foundation has adopted a total-asset strategy: one that seeks to deploy every dollar we hold, not just our grants, in service of our mission.

Our approach is organized around three interconnected pillars.

Total Portfolio Activation Our public and private markets portfolio is the Foundation’s largest pool of capital. Rather than treating those assets as a financial engine separate from our mission, we are committed to investing them in ways that align with our values and goals. We are working in partnership with Bivium Westfuller, a full-service provider of mission-aligned Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) solutions, to pursue investment performance in alignment with, not at the expense of, our values. Our goal is to move 100% of our endowment toward mission- and values-aligned investments. That means going beyond making sure our investments do no harm, to actively seeking investments that support our mission. Additionally the Foundation is exploring how to leverage our role as a shareholder to engage and advocate for policies and actions that foster the kind of world that is aligned with our values.

Impact First Investments At the same time, we are converting a portion of our endowment into an engine for impact through Impact First Investments: loans, guarantees, and other investment structures that unlock capital, expand our reach where grants fall short, recycle principal for future mission work, and draw in outside funding partners. These hyper-local investments allow the Foundation to deploy capital into New Jersey communities. They address affordable housing, homeownership, small business finance, and access to capital in places that traditional markets often pass over. We also seek opportunities to pilot initiatives that de-risk investments for other funders and capital providers. As a place-based foundation actively engaged with its communities, we have a unique opportunity to source and fund innovative solutions grounded in local understanding and needs.

Grants Grants remain a key form of support for the Foundation, funding the organizations, advocates, and leaders driving systems change in housing and economic mobility across the state.

Together, these strategies form a coherent whole: aligned capital markets investments alongside hyper-local investments and grants directly in the communities we serve. Our program and investment teams work in close coordination so that grant dollars and investment dollars advance the same strategy rather than operating on separate tracks.

We are deliberate about how we deploy this capital. Every prospective investment is assessed against a consistent set of criteria: mission alignment, breadth and depth of impact, specific need for our funding, durability of impact commitments, potential to leverage additional capital, and a clear, intentional view of risk-adjusted return. Our investment strategy in pursuit of impact will also always remain balanced with long-term financial sustainability for the Foundation.

Recent Impact First Investments

Chicago TREND A catalytic impact investment supporting an innovative real estate model that enables residents in historically disinvested neighborhoods to become co-owners of local shopping centers. By shifting power and enabling community members to share directly in financial returns, the model helps build long-term, place-based wealth and strengthens local economies in Black and under-resourced communities.

Esusu An investment in Esusu, the largest rent reporting company in the U.S., seeks to build credit access and economic mobility for renters through on-time rent payment reporting. Nearly 50 million Americans lack a credit history, cutting them off from economic opportunity. Unlike homeowners making mortgage payments, renters every year make some $1.4 trillion in payments each year that don’t get tracked. The Dodge Foundation’s investment in Esusu will allow them to scale their services, including across New Jersey, to ensure that renters are able to build credit and build wealth. 

CIS Portside II A $500,000 loan supporting the rehabilitation of 169 affordable housing units in Elizabeth, with 50 additional units in the design phase. The loan is expected to help unlock more than $30 million in traditional lending and HUD funding, and carries a 4% interest rate to be repaid by an established developer. This is an example of how a Dodge Foundation investment can leverage significant additional capital toward affordable housing.

Hudson County Improvement Authority An investment in an ambitious, first-of-its-kind social housing model in New Jersey, supporting a mixed-income development on county-owned land with permanently affordable units and union labor. Structured as a senior unsecured loan with a low interest rate, the investment is designed to demonstrate a scalable model for social housing that other counties and municipalities across the state can adopt.

Inquiries about this program should be directed to questions@grdodge.org.