Past Projects
Donate Equity
Donate Equity makes complex giving simple. Its software platform and expert team help nonprofits receive early-stage equity gifts from donors — founders, small-business owners, and early employees who want to give a slice of what they're building long before any sale. We are investors in Donate Equity, and our own AV Foundation has been an early user of the platform.
Growth Loan Fund
The Growth Loan was a non-collateralized loan of up to $35,000 for small-business owners who can't access capital through traditional underwriting. We designed and built it to fill a gap our other work kept surfacing: talented entrepreneurs being turned away not because they wouldn't repay, but because they didn't fit a credit-score box. More than a product, the Growth Loan was a conversation where borrowers speak directly to the loan committee, and confidence in the person carries real weight.
Shelby Park - Louisville, KY
Shelby Park is where Access Ventures began. A small Louisville neighborhood built by German and Irish immigrants around an Olmsted-designed park, it thrived for the first half of the twentieth century and then, like so many American neighborhoods, hollowed out and losing residents and businesses to the suburbs and the interstate, and gaining vacancy, disinvestment, and crime in their place. By the time we began in the spring of 2014, roughly 83% of residents rented, median household income was about 60% below the national figure, and three of every five renters were cost-burdened.
KNOW Homelessness
For many of us, homelessness feels like a problem that is too big, too complicated to address. We wanted to break through that fatigue with human connection, with attention, and with information We found that the common understandings and representations of homeless communities are incomplete.
The goal was to start a conversation.
Samaritan
Samaritan is a mobile-first community built to support people experiencing homelessness designed with the input of people who've been homeless, social workers, developers, and experts in Medicaid and emergency healthcare. Its premise is simple and human: walk with, not by. Samaritan lets people learn the stories of the neighbors they pass every day, fund critical needs, and help create lifelines of hope linking individuals without a home to the social and financial capital they need to meet real housing and health goals.
Leap Fund
Leap Fund takes on the benefits cliff, also called the cliff effect: the moment a worker earns a dollar or two more an hour and, as a result, loses public benefits worth far more than the raise. People end up earning more and netting less. Leap Fund builds the tools, education, and data to expose these cliffs and help people make informed decisions, while pushing for the policy changes that would end them. Leap Fund came to us through the Reconstruct Challenge, winning our 2022 Employment challenge with a Phase 1 and a Phase 2 grant.
Catchafire
Catchafire is a capacity-building platform that helps foundations and corporations go beyond the grant by delivering nonprofits the coaching, technical assistance, and skilled volunteers they need to grow stronger and work smarter. We are investors in Catchafire, and we remain invested today.
Haven Connect
Haven Connect builds software for affordable housing. It gives property managers tools to manage applications and waitlists, and it streamlines the application process for the people trying to find a home. Haven Connect came to us through our Reconstruct Challenge, where it won a Phase 1 grant, and we followed with a Phase 2 investment.
Ethic
Ethic is one of the clearest expressions of our one-pocket conviction because we hold it from both sides. We invested directly in Ethic early, helping the team build out their platform and bring it to market, and we also use that same platform to align our own public equities with the values that drive our mission.