NEK Prosperity Fund

The NEK Prosper Leadership Team recently took its first step toward building a Northeast Kingdom Prosperity Fund. The Fund's purpose will be to finance businesses and projects that help NEK citizens become: mentally healthy, physically healthy, well housed, well nourished, and financially secure.

In its initial step, NEK Prosper will partner with Northern Community Investment Corporation (NCIC), to create a Prosperity Fund Initiative to allow broader financing outreach to businesses that do not meet NCIC's traditional risk profile. This step will help the team learn-by-doing as it gauges the needs of the business community for patient, community capital.

Over the past nine months, Local Cap has provided consultancy and recommendations on the Fund's framework, portfolio asset allocation, social ROI tracking and measurement, and funding targets. Our latest deliverable was a process recommendation for NEK Prosper's Advisory Board role to guide NCIC's review and selection of funding candidates. Local Cap will continue exploring next steps with NEK Prosper's Finance Team toward creating a community-scale investment fund that pools investment from accredited and unaccredited individuals, and institutions to finance businesses in alignment with the NEK Prosperity Fund vision.