Our Kansas' communities face challenges of poverty, inequality and health.

Today, we discuss a program that's offering organizations and nonprofits the ability to create long lasting change benefiting vulnerable populations.

Please stay with us.

(♪) Inspire is sponsored by the estate of Ray and Anne Goldsmith, the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation, and the Louis H. Humphreys Charitable Trust.

(♪) Hello and welcome to inspire.

I'm so excited to be here with my lovely co-hosts and sisters, Betty Lou Pardue and Amy Kelly.

And thank you all for being here with us today on this episode of Inspire, we're going to discuss a program that's designed to help local organizations and nonprofits achieve goals designed to help vulnerable communities in Kansas.

We all know we face challenges of poverty, inequality, and health in our communities, and there are many passionate people and places who give their all to help make a positive difference.

Impact investing is a way they can extend their mission here with us today to discuss the details of Impact Investing, a program that puts people and community first.

are Marsha Pope, president of Topeka Community Foundation, and Pam Alexander, a board member for the Topeka Community Foundation.

We're so glad both of you are here.

You, our long time ladies who have helped so much in the Topeka community and surrounding areas.

Marsha, when you hear impact investing, though, at least my mind initially went to okay money, you know, somebody is going to teach us how to invest our money to make an impact.

And in a way, that's it.

But there's so much more to it.

Please explain.

So the Community Foundation has $114 million in assets.

And in the past, all of those assets were given to a firm on the East Coast and invested in businesses in America and around the world, through impact investing, which is different than grantmaking, which is what most people think of when they think of the Topeka Community Foundation.

We're taking a portion of those assets, and instead of investing them in Wall Street, we're investing them in Main Street instead of, the Middle East in East Topeka.

And so we are getting a financial return on those investments and a social return for our community.

I love the social return.

Pam, will you explain that?

Well, I think when, we have these wonderful programs and we see how they are expand and can be beneficial to the community and hit some of the areas where help is needed, like affordable housing.

We have a wonderful program where general is doing, apartments in North Topeka.

You're going to hear about the Habitat for Humanity program, which, is wonderful.

Janice will talk about that.

And then you're going to hear about our newest program, The Heritage Home in Alma, Kansas.

And it's an intergenerational program, with older adults and child care and just how those go together.

And not only are we seeing, it's just excitement to see what's happening in our community.

So, and we have other projects in the pipeline that are, you know, exciting, not ready to reveal yet, but many other programs that we're looking at.

I watched a beautiful video that you all have done with the heritage project that you have in Alma, Kansas that you're helping out with.

How did you decide to go outside of the borders of Shawnee County?

Because I'm sure some people are going to be like, okay, it's the Topeka Community Foundation.

Why are we going outside of Shawnee County?

And that decision wasn't taken lightly.

Previously, when we created this impact investing program.

We knew what we knew.

And so, at the beginning, if someone would have come to us from Alma because they weren't in Shawnee County, they would have been ineligible for impact investment dollars.

We took a look at that.

As an organization and said, people who live in Alma work, shop, do business in Topeka, Kansas.

People in Topeka work in Alma.

So we expand the boundaries of our impact investing to our metropolitan statistical area, which now that allows us to make loans in places like Alma in Wamego and places like that that previously would have been ineligible.

I would like, before we find out all the cool things that you can do, because I think we get into it.

I am curious more about what exactly impact investing is.

Is it a strategy or is it a marketing campaign, or is it an established program to which TCF now is a member?

I mean, how how is that actually put together?

So it's a loan program.

So we take our investment dollars.

We're not bankers.

We don't service these loans ourselves.

But we work with, Network Kansas.

We work with other banks.

In two of our loans.

We're taking a second position on, projects that otherwise would not have moved forward.

The apartments that are being built in North Topeka had secured 70% of the funding that they needed to move forward, and if it wasn't for the Topeka Community Foundation taking a second position on this loan, they would not be being built.

So we are, using these dollars as an investment tool, and expanding the ability that we have to transform our community for our neighbors who need our help the most.

And there are overwhelming needs.

How do you compare it to what you're able to help with?

Well, any idea that comes first comes to Marsha, and it's it's vetted very, very well.

And we have a rubric that we do that talks about geography impact, social return strategies.

And so through that rubric and interviews and site visits, we determine the impact Investing committee along with Marsha, who really chairs the Impact Investing Committee, makes a decision on whether to go forward with that program or not.

So, you know, we like to say that we can handle everything that comes our way, but not always.

So tell us about the different projects that you have invested in so far.

So for for the Habitat, for Humanity, this is very one of the things that we wanted to do when we got into our grantmaking work around the social determinants of health was think about policies and systems and environments that are, preventing our neighbors who need our help the most from accessing the help that they need.

And so, what how can we go upstream and think about policies and environments and systems in our community?

And we knew we could never grant our way to success around that.

So impact investing unlock capital for us to make the kind of change that we wanted to make.

Our first idea came to us from habitat for Humanity around, contract for Deeds on Homes.

So while contract for deeds can be an important and viable business tool, it can also be used in a predatory nature.

And that's what Habitat was finding.

So by partnering with another law firm in our community and the dollars that we gave them, they were able to buy out these contract for deeds and remortgage the home for people so that they were actually buying their own homes.

That has caught the attention nationally and internationally.

And now what our hope is, is that policies will be put in place so that not only will these residents get out from underneath those contracts, but in the future, they would never be allowed to be able to sign a predatory contract for deed.

Wow, this is amazing.

More stories, more.

Well, our next impact investment loan is to a for profit developer who, has a unique model where he provides housing really, to people who otherwise would not be able to get housing.

If you have a felony, many times you're unable to get housing.

If you have a mental illness that might prevent you from having housing.

And what he doesn't.

None of those things impact his ability to sign a lease with you.

And so 24 units of new, efficiency sized apartments are being built in North Topeka.

He's signed a memorandum of understanding with places like the Rescue Mission and Vallejo, and their clients will be the first to be able to move into this, to this new location.

We have just a little bit of time left.

Can you tell about the the person to person contact and what that has meant?

Oh, I just think it's so interesting that we're able to see people and organizations in the community that that we might not see.

I mean, Habitat for Humanity is very visible.

We know about that.

But the apartments in North Topeka, you know, I wouldn't have known about that.

And neither would the foundation had he not come forward.

So it's just wonderful.

And the people in Alma that came to us, the Heritage Home.

So that's wonderful to make those connections with organization or, communities that you would not probably not have the opportunity to do.

So, this has been an excellent discussion, and I want to encourage our viewers, please help the Topeka Community Foundation.

It needs resources in order to continue the good work that you're doing here in Shawnee County and beyond.

So we appreciate everything that you were doing and keep up the great work.

We're going to continue with more right after the break.

So stay with us.

(♪) And we are back to continue our discussion on impact investing.

We are now joined by Aaron Steele, owner of Heritage Home, and Janice Watkins, CEO of Topeka Habitat for humanity.

Aaron and Janice, thank you very much for joining us on inspire.

Now, most of us know what Habitat for Humanity is, so a little refresher of that would be great and that many of us are still new to Heritage Homes.

So if you could explain your organizations.

Yeah.

Habitat for Humanity is an affordable housing provider.

So we really focus on creating opportunities and then opportunities to maintain safe and affordable housing.

Okay.

And the Heritage Home is an intergenerational senior living facility and childcare center in Alma, Kansas.

So we have two home plus facilities, with the capacity of 24 residents.

And then we have a child care on site and we combine the two, to kind of provide opportunities for joy for the seniors and interactions and foster meaningful relationships and such.

So it is fascinating.

See, I just love that we have video of that.

So that's just amazing.

Now, Janice, you know, for those just joining us, tell us about what impact investing is and in relation to habitat for humanity.

Yeah.

Impact investing is really the reason why we were able to start a one of a kind program for Habitat.

So Habitat exists all over the globe, and about a thousand in the U.S.. And so I had went to the Community Foundation and to Marsha and said, I have this idea, let's use our lending arm as Habitat because we're the bank and create an opportunity for people who are an exploitive contract for deeds to refinance into an affordable mortgage.

And I had way too many places.

And they all kind of said, that's absolutely ludicrous.

And until I went to the Topeka Community Foundation, and it just so happened that they were getting ready to start and launch impact investing in the community.

So it was our way to have skin in the game, really, and take the loan portion and then use granted funds to really work with homeowners to create transformational and opportunities and then repairs to those homes.

So I'd like to say that like a one of a kind program started right here in Topeka because of the bravery of impact investing.

I love that and your home.

Please, please tell us more.

Yeah.

So as far as impact investing, we were kind of in our third phase of renovations when they kind of stepped in and helped us, finance that last phase to open up our home to an additional 12 seniors.

And then we're working on our fourth wing, which will kind of just be extra amenities for our seniors, like a salon and a chapel.

And we're looking to maybe do a satellite clinic to bring, primary care to Auburn County.

So, they kind of came in at a time that we, were kind of, expanding and, and helped us to do so, so, so explain the concept, because I grew up with a grandmother and a great grandmother.

So I know the impact that those relationships have on children.

Tell me about this concept.

Did you say that it was in-house, like the seniors actually lived there?

Explain what that does.

Yeah.

So the seniors live there.

We provide 24 over seven care to our seniors, by, you know, qualified nursing staff.

And then we also have a child care on site and the seniors can volunteer in the child care center.

So they have opportunities to do that.

We also have a daily combined activity.

So one of the classes rotates out each day and the seniors can participate in an activity with them.

So depending on the age of the kids it might be, you know, reading a story.

It might be Play-Doh.

It might be and kind of what we found is a senior, if you say let's color together or do play together, that might seem like a childish thing to do, but if you put it with a child.

Yeah.

And so there's so many great things.

And then, of course, we now or I know that the, that generation of people have so much to teach kids.

So and we're kind of lacking on that relationship aspect.

So they're actually engaging with, with each other.

The kids are learning from them kind of developing in empathy and and also just trying to break stigmas of nursing homes for kids as well.

You know, our kids aren't scared of somebody in a wheelchair or somebody that, you know, might look different or have oxygen because they've been exposed to it.

So and then our nursing home is full of joy because there's lots of kids.

And fun.

So I love that.

Okay.

So it's called impact investing.

So it's not in not called impact donations or gifts.

And the term is investing.

So what types of returns can the the community expect from such investments.

I think for us the return has been that we have been able to make three additional homeowners that we would never have been able to serve, and then in addition to that, help another 40 homeowners navigate their legal challenges.

Absent of that, but really, the return on investment is nationwide because our bravery and the foundation's bravery in starting this program, we'll have created 10,000 additional Habitat homeowners by the end of 2026.

So that's 10,000 new homeowners that wouldn't have existed without impact investing.

So the return is pretty spectacular.

I love the fact that, again, the person to person, how you have made people feel valuable, validated, they don't have a stigma.

Are you at least you're trying to overcome any kind of stigma in both ways.

We explain how that is in Habitat.

Yeah.

So individuals that were purchasing on a contract for deed or sometimes called a rent to own, they didn't have equity or rights to their homes.

So they were in a very challenging scenario with housing instability.

So the landlord or the owner could have said at the end of the contract, you're evicted and they've walked away with zero equity or and and inability to really move forward from that.

Because when you sell a home, you take the return and then you purchase your next or you invested into your future.

And so really get into those individuals and saying, we will be that financial institution, we will be that bank, and you are safe with us has just been astounding.

And, Erin, you know, I think as of today, we have the ability to serve 12 more seniors and provide quality, you know, compassionate care.

But of course, you know, that could be, you know, 100 seniors by the end of the year, whatever that looks like.

And for me, it's really just touching and changing lives.

So, and having a place to take your loved one, that's quality and that maybe they want to go to because there's, you know, joy in the home and things like that.

And some of the kids don't have grandparents, you know.

Yes.

And some of them have grandparents that live there.

We have one lady that her two great grandchildren, she sees them every day, you know.

So that's super cool.

So, you know, when you talk about a senior needing to go to a home, a lot of times that can be kind of a negative thing, but for her it's a little bit easier.

Like, hey, you get to see your grandkids every day.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

So is there a waiting list is what I'm going to because I just I just try to jump ahead a couple years.

This it's funny, there is a lot of people that will say, hey when I go that's that's where I want to be.

So we still we just opened our, second wing and we are at seven and our capacity is 12.

So it's building very quickly.

So okay.

And I want to ask another quick question.

You keep mentioning bravery and I totally understand from my perspective how brave it is for organizations and the Topeka Community Foundation to embark upon this project.

Tell other organizations who may be watching today how they can be brave and get involved in something like this that is so impactful.

Yeah, I think, you know, kind of figure out what your idea is.

And there's no idea that I found that's too little or even too big.

And, they've created a great panel of individuals at the Community Foundation that hears these pitches and really will ask you to fine tune them or say, have you thought about this?

I it was a lengthy process, but one that was not daunting at all to kind of say, here's my idea and here's how I've kind of hash it out and have some faith in me to take this forward and thankfully they did.

But really, just putting yourself in front of their panel is really impactful, because there's a lot of different individuals that can share a lot of knowledge with you.

You two are wonderful and I know you're interested.

I hope we love Erin and Janice, and we thank you for joining us today on inspire.

Enjoyed hearing how impact investing has impacted our community members who need your services to thrive in our communities.

Taking a short break, but please stay with us.

Today we're going to talk about reading and signing contracts.

Let's say you want to buy something and hire someone to do some work for you, or rent a venue for an event.

The seller sets a contract down in front of you and you sign it.

But wait, did you read it?

You really need to look over the terms of a contract before you sign.

Usually, a seller has drafted a contract with terms that heavily favor the seller.

It protects him, not you.

If the contract is long or full of legalese that you don't understand, then take it to a lawyer who can look it over and give you the highlights.

It is worth a few bucks.

Let me give you a couple of examples to illustrate why.

Let's say you want to hire someone to inspect your house that you're going to buy.

The inspector is going to charge $200 for his services, and there's often a term in the contract that says something like, if the inspector misses any defects in the home, the inspectors liability is limited to the amount paid to him under the contract.

So the inspector misses a major defect in the foundation.

You buy the home and six months later you find out you need $30,000 in foundation repairs.

You relied on the inspector.

The inspector performed negligently under his contract with you, but the most you can get from him is $200.

Because that's what you agreed to.

My second example happened to me personally.

My daughter was getting married in August of 2020, so in 2019 she and I were shopping for venues.

She finally found the perfect one and they gave us their standard contract to sign to reserve it.

Now, my daughter and I are both lawyers, so we actually took the contract home and read it.

Believe it or not, one of the terms said that the venue had the right to cancel our event at any time for any reason, and if they did, they could keep whatever money we had already paid them up to that point.

In other words, if we had paid 90% of the total cost a few days before the wedding and they had some reason they wanted to cancel this, they could do it.

And we'd be standing there with no venue, no money, and no recourse.

We asked them to change the contract to protect our rights and they refused to do it.

So although we figured the risk was low, that they would cancel on us, we ultimately decided to walk away.

Now, who remembers what happened in March of 2020 that affected weddings and other events scheduled for 2020?

That's right, the Covid pandemic.

They could have held us to that contract until right before the wedding, then canceled our event and kept the money we'd paid them.

Up to that point.

I have no doubt that this same contract has been laid in front of many excited brides, and they've signed it without understanding it's onerous, unfair and unreasonable terms.

So read contracts before you sign.

If you don't want to hire a lawyer to read it for you.

Whatever it takes, make sure you understand what you're agreeing to before you sign.

I'm Glenda Kafer, and I hope I have inspired you to think legally.

(♪) Ladies, what a fabulous discussion we have had today about impact investing, and I'm so thrilled and inspired myself to want to give and to do more.

And just seeing the examples with Habitat for Humanity.

And then you've got the Heritage Homes.

I just, I want to do more.

What were you what were your takeaways?

I mean, for the first time in a long time, I feel hopeful, you know, I mean, because that's we there's not been a lot of that lately.

There's at least it doesn't feel like it.

And and people helping people is, is the best.

And this is what an incredible way to look and see what needs you have in your individual community.

Go to a community foundation or whatever kind of program you have, and address those directly through a way that everybody wins.

I mean, this is a no brainer.

I just think I am.

I'm so excited to have this in Northeast Kansas.

I think it's amazing.

Friends and friends.

It is, it is.

And you can habitat for humanity.

We hear about that all the time.

But I love the fact that we're active here in our neighborhood.

We're active.

So maybe you don't have money to give, but you can volunteer.

Yes.

And so that's amazing.

Contribute to the community.

Yes, yes.

It all comes around.

Yep.

And then, you know, the heritage Home I honestly did not know that that existed.

And I am thrilled to know that of course I always know alma for the cheese.

Awesome.

Which is awesome.

I've seen that in my application.

Just, you know, so I'll be I'll be there.

But for the kids that don't have grandparents or, you know, the adults, it's just there's so much that can be intergenerational that can be learned, and those kids are going to benefit from that as well.

Of course, the the adults, because that gives them joy.

It gives them something to look forward to.

I love the idea of that Easter egg hunt where the kids where they can point to the kids, you know, you know, go find one over there.

You know, I mean, that's that's amazing.

And those kids are going to remember that and they're going to cherish it, I think and I think that I am probably an example of having, you know, a great grandparent and a grandparent living in the home and the impact that that had on me.

And I treasure those relationships, those are my best friends to this day.

And now the opportunity for these kids to be able to have that same kind of tutelage from wonderfully caring people just it makes me feel all misty inside.

I don't want to get emotional, but I just I just love the whole idea of bringing the two groups together.

So I'm really excited for that.

And as far as habitat for humanity, I know several people who have habitat homes, and there would be no where the best for them to have a home and to feel like they are a contributing part of society.

They've got their own space, they're raising their families, and that's a ripple effect, and it's a ripple effect.

You can donate furniture and you can donate furniture.

And I mean, it's just beautiful to know that there's so many positive things going on in this community and beyond and beyond.

Sure.

Well, that is all the time we have for today.

And we want to thank Marsha Pope and Pam Alexander of the Topeka Community Foundation and Erin Steele, owner of Heritage Home, and Janice Watkins, CEO of the Topeka Habitat for Humanity, for joining us today on Inspire.

Now, remember, you can watch this program again at watch.ktwu.org And if you're so inspired to learn more about our guests, find out what's coming up on future shows or get access to additional content, be sure to visit our website.

It's ktwu.org/inspire Inspiring women, inspiring community impact, and hopefully inspiring you on KTWU.

Thank you so much for watching.

(♪) Inspire is sponsored by the estate of Ray and Anne Goldsmith, the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation, and the Louis H. Humphries Charitable Trust.