Media Fact Sheet

About RSF

RSF is a San Francisco–based nonprofit financial services organization dedicated to changing finance and financing change. The impact investing trailblazer takes a regenerative finance approach, mobilizing money through investment notes, donor-advised funds, and loans to revitalize communities and ecosystems. Since 1984, RSF has channeled over $1 billion into businesses and nonprofits focused on healthier food systems, climate solutions, whole-child education, and other social and environmental priorities.

Innovating Finance: Leading and Seeding Change

RSF identifies problems and opportunities that aren’t yet on the public agenda and gets the ball rolling on solutions. The organization’s long history of seeding, developing, and modeling new ideas has left an indelible mark on the impact investing and philanthropy sectors. Over the years, RSF:

Popularized integrated capital, a funding approach for high-impact enterprises that coordinates loans, investments, grants, and other financing tools with network connections and technical advice.
Played a crucial role in getting B Corps off the ground, providing seed funding as well as extensive advisory support to B Lab starting in 2006.
Broke from standard interest rate benchmarks in 2009 and established its own rate, RSF Prime, informed by investors and borrowers participating in a community pricing process.
Provided essential early capital beginning around 2010 to food hubs—unsung but critical operations that aggregate, store, process, distribute, or market locally and regionally produced food.
Experimented with Shared Gifting Circles, which give full decision-making authority to community nonprofit leaders, starting in 2011, well before participatory grantmaking was on philanthropy’s agenda—and produced a toolkit to help others use the process.
Helped Organically Grown Company become a perpetual purpose trust—the first in the U.S.—by financing its 2018 conversion to the mission-preserving alternative business structure.
Incubated the Integrated Capital Institute, a fellowship program for financial activists that spun off in 2021 as the Just Economy Institute.

Regenerative Investing, Giving, and Lending

RSF offers an interest-bearing fund for investors as well as philanthropic funds for donors.

Investment

Social Investment Fund: SIF notes directly fund loans to a portfolio of social enterprises. Minimum investment is $1,000 for the 90-Day Note. Other options are the 1-Year Note and 3-Year Note, which offer higher interest rates with a minimum $25,000 investment. See current interest rates here and SIF details in this fact sheet.

Giving

Donor-Advised Funds : Individuals, businesses, and foundations can set up an RSF DAF with a minimum $5,000 contribution. RSF activates DAFs for transformative social, ecological, and cultural change by investing assets for impact. In 2025 it launched its Double Impact DAF program to enable more donors to activate idle funds for impact. RSF DAF holders give actively—in 2024 RSF DAFs had a grant payout rate of 74%, far exceeding the national aggregate rate of 23.9% (according to the National Philanthropic Trust).

Lending

Social Enterprise Lending: RSF lends to social enterprises incorporated in the U.S. or Canada that are working to create long-term social and environmental benefit. The average loan size is $600,000; the range is $50,000 to $5 million. See the list of current borrowers here and borrower impact stories here.