Enterprise Community Partners has issued a $100 million bond through its Community Impact Note series, which provides flexible financing to community organizations and facility operators, nonprofits, mission-based for-profits and real estate developers led by women and other underrepresented entrepreneurs. The new bond is the the first certified, women-focused “orange bond” in the US. The housing nonprofit partnered with Singapore’s Impact Investment Exchange, which designed and developed the orange bond designation for bonds that support women’s livelihoods and economic empowerment.
The new note is also the largest in Enterprise’s series and “supports investments that set a critical precedent to dismantle racial and gender disparities in US real estate markets,” the partners said in a statement. “These funded projects are enhancing the supply of and access to affordable housing, healthcare, education, green infrastructure and transit-oriented development.”
Gender smart
Orange bonds are named after the color of the icon for UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 5 for gender equality. Total verified orange bond issuances are just over $230 million. IIX has issued all but $12 million, mostly through its Women’s Livelihood Bond series for rural and low-income women in Southeast Asia. The other $12 million is from the UK’s Near East Foundation, whose $12 million Refugee Impact Bond, issued in 2021, supports refugee livelihoods in Jordan and Syria.
IIX hopes to mobilize $10 billion and impact 100 million women and girls through the orange bond initiative by 2030.
