“Ujima's model harkens back to ancestral practices like lending circles and practices that allowed us to take care of each other.” — Kerry Bowie.
Can you share how you first got involved with Ujima?
Kerry Bowie: I probably met Nia before Ujima officially existed; I think I met her at a policy conference. Around that same time, I had also crossed paths with Deborah Frieze from Boston Impact Initiative and Lucas Turner-Owens, one of Ujima's early fund managers. I remember attending an Ujima convening because I was a part of Boston's entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. So when I eventually joined the investment committee, it was a natural fit.
Can you share a bit about how your work on the Investment Committee connects to your broader background as someone with experience in technology, finance, government, and business?
So, the most relevant experience I have comes from my work at the Majira Project, which works with small businesses and startups to cultivate founders, companies, and communities of color through entrepreneurship. I really understand a lot of the challenges that small business owners face, and I'm excited about Ujima's model of doing business. Especially when we think of investment in our communities, historically, if you're not an accredited investor, you really can't make investments in these companies.
Ujima's model harkens back to ancestral practices like lending circles and practices that allowed us to take care of each other. Part of why I stopped working in state government was because of the large racial wealth gap that we have in Boston, so you can't catch up by doing things the "normal way." You have to shake up the system, and that's why I'm really excited to be a part of Ujima's Investment Committee.
What's your personal investment philosophy when it comes to making socially responsible investments for yourself?
I'm a little bit biased because my background is in the environment. So I like to live at the intersection of climate, entrepreneurship and, diversity, equity inclusion. So, ideally, I'm gonna want to be investing in things like energy efficiency, clean energy, food, and water because that's what my background is. But my investment philosophy, more broadly, is focused on creating wealth that allows the next generation to be able to take some risk[s]. The only way I think that happens is if we support some people with companies that steadily grow. And not necessarily “hockey stick growth,” but with some demonstration of healthy growth over time. So we can help that entrepreneur go from one to two to three retail locations, and we know they'll give back and invest in their communities.
What do you imagine for the future of the Ujima Fund?
So far, there's been some amount of figuring things out, and gradually our investment pace has ticked up as we learn. I'm excited about how we can move through our investment pipeline faster so it doesn't take us as long to deploy the next one million dollars. I'm also excited about the prospect of bringing on new people. I've been on the Investment Committee for a while now, and it's important to bring in fresh blood and allow others to learn from this process.
What's really cool about our investment committee is that we're ultimately just making recommendations to voting members – they ultimately decide what to invest in, not the committee. But because our process is so transparent, voting members learn a lot along the way about risk, returns, what to look for in investments, and how to make those decisions. We need more knowledgeable investors in the world, and this is part of that. I want to see more projects like Ujima across the country working to democratize investment one city at a time.
Kerry and his Msaada firm partners help organizations tackle social, economic, and environmental problems with a focus on strategy, management, operations, and design. Prior to co-founding Msaada Partners, Kerry acquired extensive experience as an environmental engineer and manager during nine years with Texas Instruments and more than eight years with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Broadly, Kerry’s background spans state government, technology, finance, and business. Kerry holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Michigan, respectively, as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Kerry lives in Somerville, MA with his wife, Sherri-Ann, and two young daughters.
“But you don’t just need capital; you also need to know the community is behind you, and that’s what Ujima’s voting members provide.” — Pat Tomaino
Can you share how you first got involved with Ujima?
Pat Tomaino: I worked for about ten years in the sustainable investing field, and I realized that there was such a vibrant community of people in Boston who are trying to build wealth in Black and brown communities by redirecting capital to the people who need it most. So back then, I was trying to learn from groups like Ujima and folks like Aaron Tanaka and from the work I was doing in the green investing space. Eventually, folks within Ujima saw I had some expertise in pushing companies to improve their practices in human rights and the environment and thought I’d be a good fit for the investment committee.
Can you share more about how your work on the Investment Committee connects to your broader educational background with experience in politics, finance, and the labor movement?
I’ve lived in Boston for over 20 years, ever since I came here for university. Over the years, I’ve worked in the labor movement in Boston, in progressive politics, and in public media. So I know just how many things have to fall into place, politically, socially, and culturally to make an endeavor like Jazz Urbane Cafe, for instance, happen in this city. The same is true for other companies in our portfolio, and I have a huge appreciation for what these entrepreneurs are doing and how much they benefit from Ujima’s ecosystem.
Because if you’re trying to open a new restaurant or start an apparel brand, access to capital is the critical element that Black and brown communities have been excluded from over generations. But you don’t just need capital; you also need to know the community is behind you, and that’s what Ujima’s voting members provide.
Boston is a city where a lot of exciting cool projects don’t get the oxygen they need to develop, and that’s where Ujima comes in: by helping working-class residents of color leverage their power to support these projects.
Ujima encourages people to think of themselves not just as investors or consumers but as residents with a stake in their neighborhoods and in each other.
What’s your investment philosophy regarding making socially responsible investments?
When it comes to making responsible investment decisions, I focus on social issues and the way that companies treat their workers. I also value the opportunity to invest in companies that are unionized and have a big union presence. I’m not interested in investing in companies with poor labor practices. As a teacher, I’m fortunate to have a pension plan that is managed by the teacher’s union and their trustees, so I trust that process. But that’s not always the norm for other employees.
I’ve worked for many companies at this point that try to manage investments for people in a socially responsible way, and I’ve become a bit jaded by it. I worry that an overreliance on green investing pulls people away from direct action because people think, “My money is clean, so I’m all set,” and they don’t feel the need to make change in their communities.
Ujima is a great response to this mindset because, through the investment process, people are encouraged to track where the wealth currently resides in their communities and think about how to direct capital to places where it historically hasn’t been. Ujima encourages people to think of themselves not just as investors or consumers but as residents with a stake in their neighborhoods and in each other.
What do you imagine for the future of the Ujima Fund?
I’m so excited to see our portfolio businesses continue to flourish and prove that our investment model is a crucial service in our community. For some of the businesses just getting started, it’s cool to see every additional investment they’re able to make in their work, in part, because of the community’s vote of confidence.
Hopefully, we can close more investment votes and encourage other asset owners and cities to do the same. We can’t keep going down the path we’re on as a civilization where capital gets allocated only according to what will generate profit. Most of all, I look forward to Ujima proving that you can invest wisely with an ethic of care for the future and what’s needed for your community.
Pat Miguel Tomaino is a member of the Ujima Fund Investment Committee and a tenth-grade history teacher at Boston Green Academy in Brighton. He is honored to teach students from across our city, helping them become inquisitive citizens and strong writers. Prior to his teacher training at Boston College, Pat worked for nearly a decade in the green investing field as a sustainability analyst and shareholder activist.
Most recently, he was the Director of Socially Responsible Investing at Zevin Asset Management in Boston. Pat has also worked as a public radio producer on WBUR’s Open Source with Christopher Lydon and as a policy researcher for progressive causes in Massachusetts, such as Elizabeth Warren’s 2012 senate campaign and the 1199 SEIU healthcare workers’ union. A graduate of Harvard College, Pat lives in Brighton with his partner Mary Claire and their canine friend Piper.
“When it comes to the Ujima Fund Investment Committee, the biggest overlap that I see with our work at CoEverything is the democratic and participatory process aspect. [...] Just like our work on the Investment Committee, we’re moving at the speed of trust.” — Miriam Gee
Can you share how you first got involved with Ujima?
Miriam Gee: The first time I ever heard about the solidarity economy was back in 2017, I believe. Me and my partner at the time were working at a worker cooperative, and he brought me on board as a worker-owner. As I transitioned into this new leadership role, I attended an event in downtown Boston, and some of the early founders of Ujima were there, along with solidarity folks across Massachusetts.
There was a woman speaking who defined the solidarity economy in a simple but profound way. She said, “The solidarity economy means that when I am well, you are well.” It made me realize that when we all have enough, we can all take care of each other. Not everything must be a capitalist transaction or an exchange looking for exponential growth.
Up until then, I had never really thought about financing, funding public projects, and decision-making at that level before. After that, I attended Ujima’s neighborhood assemblies and volunteered on different projects before joining the Investment Committee. When I first joined, I knew there would be a lot of learning along the way because I’m not a technical assistance provider the way that LEAF or the Boston Impact Initiative was in the beginning. I’ve since learned so much about alternative financing and lending, which helps me understand our client’s needs at CoEverything.
Can you share a bit about how your work on the Investment Committee connects to your broader background in community-focused development and design?
So I’m a co-founder of CoEverything, a worker-owned cooperative. We have three worker-owners and usually hire one or two other temporary, seasonal interns through a grant program. We say that our mission is to bring more cooperative and community projects to life. That could look like helping people with architecture and design, helping people with real estate development, consulting, a fundraising plan, a website, or even teaching workshops to stakeholders like neighbors and community members to make a decision. We do a wide range of work.
When it comes to the Ujima Fund Investment Committee, the biggest overlap that I see with our work at CoEverything is the democratic and participatory process aspect. Working in cooperation with other people and collaborating is really where we work best. So we tend to partner with existing grassroots community organizations to help them bring their projects to life where we ourselves are not necessarily the boots on the ground, doing the everyday organizing, but they are. So when clients bring us in at CoEverything, we have this overlap with mission and values to cooperate on. Just like our work on the Investment Committee, we’re moving at the speed of trust.
I’d love for our CoEverything projects to be able to seek funding from Uima, and so far, one of our projects has. We’re the architect for the new Dorchester Food Co-op. So as a member of the Investment Committee, I had to recuse myself from the investment analysis of DFC.
CoEverything has also collaborated on a few Ujima projects, like the 1463 Dorchester Ave crowdfunding campaign. In support of this affordable rental housing project, right in Fields Corner, we led workshops for Ujima members during the last Ujima Real Estate Assembly.
We eventually raised over $140,000 in this Small Change campaign from over 80 individual investors. More than 50 of them were from Massachusetts, and more than 40 of them were from Dorchester, which was our target audience. From there, we took a cue from Ujima and nominated people who invested in the project to a project oversight committee through a nomination process. There was a community listening session for the project oversight committee, and the elected committee members helped to select the retail tenant that went into the ground floor space of the building, which is now called Words as Worlds, co-created by Porsha Olayiwola [and Bing Boderick]. So it’s a great overlap of artists and community members in Ujima’s ecosystem.
What’s your personal investment philosophy when it comes to making socially responsible investments?
I use a giving plan template that someone from Resource Generation shared around back in the day. So this giving plan is broken down into three categories: people, prosperity, and [the] planet. I try to donate whatever money I would have made from having it invested somewhere else, spread across these three categories. I usually make these donations by the end of the year, and it’s very self-directed. When I hear about exciting work happening in the ecosystem, I consider making a donation and investing that way.
What do you imagine for the future of the Ujima Fund?
I’m really excited about this idea of an online real estate investment platform for Ujima, which Nia and other staff have explored. One of the challenges with real estate projects is that you need so much more money in order for it to make a difference. The Ujima Fund right now is $5 million, but what if one day it was a $25 million fund to fund real estate and infrastructure needs like community-owned solar, for instance? With a larger fund, we’re able to make many different types of investments.
Miriam Gee is, in a word, a powerhouse. No cubicle could contain her dynamic personality, her quick-witted intelligence, her collaborative design skill, her way with people, or her energetic pursuit of better stewardship of the planet. If you need something done, send Miriam to do it. A CoFounder of CoEverything, Miriam is passionate about architecture and development and its potential for building community. She is committed to the triple bottom line and excels in project management and community engagement. Miriam is an active board member for Boston Farms Community Land Trust and was the licensed architect at Placetailor and co-founded Build Lightly Studio - where she taught community-driven design/build courses in the U.S. and abroad.
“I used to believe in the "Five C's of Credit," which are: capacity, collateral, conditions, capital, and character. Lately, I tend to lead with 'character,' which I think makes all the difference.”
— Julia Parker
How did you first learn about Ujima and get involved in our work?
Julia Parker: I was working at a CDFI (community development financial institution) in Boston, and I ran into Johnny Charles, who worked at Ujima at the time. He mentioned the Ujima loan review committee and asked me if I wanted to join. I said, "Well, let me do some due diligence first," because that's my thing. I looked into what Ujima had going on, and I was just blown away. I was really excited for the possibility of having some hand in creating such a community-focused investment fund.
What strategies do you use as a committee to mitigate financial risk while still achieving the fund's investment objectives?
I came up with the risk rating system that we currently use for the Ujima Fund. So Ujima uses what's called the "risk framework and methodology matrix," and it covers several areas of due diligence, including business owners, community engagement, business model, our portfolio composition, as well as legal compliance.
Each of these factors can be categorized as either low, medium, or high risk. So an example of low risk in the business owner's category would be having neighborhood-based hands-on experience in a particular business area. The medium risk would mean having hands-on experience from the Greater Boston area [but not within the particular] business area. The high risk might mean they have limited experience in and around this business area or managed but never performed well in this business area.
These factors work together to allow us to assess the risk associated with an investment in a particular firm or company. So the overall risk rating is anywhere from one to five; a risk level of five is an investment that we would not recommend for the investment committee. On the credit memos for each investment, you'll find these risk ratings. To date, our Ujima Fund portfolio does skew heavily toward the food service industry. But that's partly because those are the most difficult loans to get approved. The Investment Committee chooses to make these conventionally "difficult" loans because no one else in the community is doing that for Black and brown people. Restaurants are one of the most expensive businesses to get off the ground, particularly in Boston, and some of the hardest to secure funding for. We see community-focused restaurants come to Ujima because there is no other place for them to go.
What inspired you to pursue a career in investment management and focus on socially responsible investing?
So I call myself a community-based lender. I started out at a small community development enterprise, making loans anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000. I was able to really see the impact of those microloans. It sort of felt like being a dreamcatcher because you literally make people's dreams come true by providing access to capital. Particularly for Black and brown people, capital has always been a hurdle to success in the business field.
Access to fair credit is another hurdle. But access to capital especially is a key feature that prevents us from starting and growing our businesses. To be able to put capital in the hands of Black and Brown people and get that money into the community is extremely impactful. I take that very seriously. I went to business school in order to make larger loans and make more impact among small business owners and entrepreneurs. I love that in my day job, I can lend up to $10 million, but I can be on the Ujima Investment Committee and lend, you know, between $10,000 and $250,000 to UGBA members. I appreciate that scale and the level of impact that you can have on one business owner.
Based on your long career in the field, what do you consider to be your investment philosophy?
I used to believe in the "Five C's of Credit," which are: capacity, collateral, conditions, capital, and character. Lately, I tend to lead with 'character,' which I think makes all the difference in terms of how funds are used, how they'll impact the community, and the chances of repayment. Every dollar we lend out is one that can't go to another business, so we take repayment very seriously, and the borrower needs to take that very seriously as well.
What do you envision for the future of the Ujima Fund?
I hope that the fund becomes evergreen, continues to grow, and help members of the Boston community.
To that end, are there any new strategies or tactics that you're thinking about employing in service of that future?
I think our loan conditions are pretty innovative; we do not take the collateral. And that's a good thing, I think. Because collateral is another factor used against Black and brown businesses. Most bankers will only lend based on the "Five C's of Credit," but these factors can be extremely skewed and biased against Black and brown people because of systemic racism. So, when you do an uncollateralized loan, you really are lending on character and faith that the business will use those funds as intended and that they will repay that loan.
What is the most fulfilling part of the investment committee's work for you?
There's nothing better than being able to sign a check for an entrepreneur. When we operated in person, we had what was called "check day," where you shake the business owner's hand and give them the physical check for the loan. There's nothing better than handing over that check or clicking the button on that ACH payment, which is what we do now. Wow, I love that.
Julia Parker expresses her passion for community investing through financing and supporting Black and brown-owned enterprises through debt capital and equity financing. She is focused on justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) investing for mission aligned endowed institutions. She is a community based lender, and is currently the Chief Lending and Impact Officer at Appalachian Community Capital.
“In the life of a founder, you often want to make improvements, change the world, and make your mark. But you really need support to be able to do that.” — Keeana Saxon.
Can you share a bit about the need for an endeavor like Kidogo and how it got started?
Keeana Saxon: I have a seven-year-old daughter, and in order to limit her screen time, I did not allow her to watch a lot of TV before she turned about two and a half. At that point, I noticed a couple of tropes and habits that TV show creators employ, and one of them is the use of the color black and other dark colors juxtaposed against white or light colors. Black and dark colors are often characterized as evil, and the white and light colors are attributed to heroes. Then the protagonist dominates and triumphs over a darker character. We need to be a lot more mindful of the impact that these anti-Black images have on our children.
Children learn about colors very early, and they learn associations very early. By the age of three or four, they understand there's a hierarchy, and discrimination can happen very early among kids in elementary school. One day, I was sitting in church, and the pastor said that if you see a problem and you're praying about it, sometimes you're the one who is supposed to address the problem. Don't wait for somebody else to do it.
So that's how Kidogo Productions started. I and a couple of creators from my church got together, and we started by creating a nursery rhyme. We published our early content on YouTube and Facebook and saw a wave of positive comments. Then we participated in pitch competitions and business accelerators to try and get more funding.
We've started working on an app that streams great content, which we define as content that centers Black excellence and Black joy across the diaspora. And it's not just passive content to watch; we also want children to interact with and learn from the content. Children watch more than four hours of media a day, so interactive engagement is important to us. We think of it as a loop where we bring children onto the app, they enjoy the content, they engage with our content in person (through games, live events, and partnerships we're building)n and then they return to the app.
What excites you most about being a member of the Ujima Good Business Alliance?
The word I keep coming back to is "community." In the life of a founder, you often want to make improvements, change the world, and make your mark. But you really need support to be able to do that. I now understand the adage, "If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together." So through the alliance, knowing there are people who can offer technical assistance allows me to finally release some of my anxiety about whether I'm making the right decisions in the business.
I also like that the UGBA acknowledges that social enterprises like Kidogo can be profitable. People often think we're a nonprofit entity because they think in our effort to celebrate diversity, we won't make much money. The business piece of our work has not always been accepted by the mainstream and by white people, so it feels nice to be seen as a business that does good work and meets its financial goals.
What are you and the Kidogo team most looking forward to in the next few months?
Just today, it was announced that I'd be speaking at TEDx Roxbury, so that alone is a huge accomplishment for me! I'll be speaking about the light versus dark color bias in children's media and how harmful it is.
We're also partnering with BAMSFest, so we'll have activities for kids at that three-day festival. The week before that, we'll be at the Hyde Park Juneteenth Festival for the second year, offering some kids' activities. Finally, we're planning the first of a touring series of concerts featuring musicians from across the African diaspora who create music for kids. So we have lots of exciting events coming up!
Kidogo Productions is an early-stage tech startup with big dreams for the world's kids. Kidogo is building a community of parents, caregivers, educators, and community organizations that believe in celebrating the diversity of the African diaspora. The Kidogo team works hard to ensure that children can play and learn safely whether online or in-person.Their seminal product is Kidogo TV, which offers curated content, interactive activities, and live events that affirm and uplift Black people and characters.
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INVESTMENT PIPELINE
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track the progress of Ujima’s investment plans, lists, and votes.
FINANCIAL DASHBOARD
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INVESTMENT PIPELINE
Visit our Investment Pipeline Status page to
track the progress of Ujima’s investment plans, lists, and votes.
FINANCIAL DASHBOARD
For additional updates and information on the Ujima Fund, visit our Financial Dashboard.
DONATE
Donate to Ujima’s general operations.