Meet The GreenLight Fund, a nonprofit funder that launches nonprofits in Philly to break down barriers to economic mobility

Technical.ly is a free news resource thanks to financial supporters like the GreenLight Fund, which sponsored this article. It was reviewed before publication. Learn more about the GreenLight Fund here.

From the moment a formerly incarcerated Philly resident returns home from prison, they are drowning in debt. 

Saddled with court fees, and often unable to secure employment, housing or transportation, many return to criminal behavior in order to survive. This contributes to a perpetuating  cycle of crime in Philadelphia’s local communities.

To break this cycle, GreenLight Fund Philadelphia and a diverse group of local leaders scouted the country to find a solution. They landed on The Fountain Fund — an innovative, evidence-based nonprofit that provides low-interest loans and financial coaching to formerly incarcerated individuals — which was operating  in Richmond, Charlottesville and New Orleans, but  did not yet have a presence in Philadelphia. 

As part of its unique process, GreenLight Fund provided the financial and strategic support to bring The Fountain Fund to Philly.

“At GreenLight Fund, we work with community members to identify the area’s largest barriers toward economic mobility, scout and vet the best nonprofit solutions, then invest in bringing those programs to Philadelphia,” said Felicia Rinier, executive director of GreenLight Philadelphia. “It’s all very Philly-focused.”

Currently in 13 cities across the country, GreenLight Fund is helping change the way urban areas gain access to community-changing services. The national nonprofit network partners with cities to tackle their most pressing economic and racial inequities. It works to empower change and inclusive prosperity at the local level by matching innovative nonprofit programs with the communities that need them, then provides the funding, on-the-ground support and strategic partnership development required to launch and scale that organization in its new home. 

A key feature of GreenLight’s method is listening to the community. They convene a selection advisory council made up of anywhere from 20-35 local leaders, residents and experts working across different industries, all well-versed in the racial and economic inequities across their region.

The council guides the work in three distinct ways. For the first six to eight months, they meet to get clear on focus areas — which needs are most pressing. Then GreenLight scouts for organizations across the country that can best fill those needs and the council meets again to review five or six options. Then, after thorough vetting of finalist organizations, it meets again to make a selection with the best local fit.

Once a nonprofit is selected, it receives unrestricted funding and strategic support for four years — although, according to Rinier, once in the portfolio, it’s a GreenLight organization for life.

“The money is the least important part,” said Rinier. “We ready the soil for our organizations to get rooted and grow in Philly with the intent to remain here forever. We help them make introductions and connections, think through staffing, develop KPIs to measure growth and work to ensure sustainability and impact for a long time to come.”

Wraparound support so orgs can make ‘an incredible dent’

According to Michael Butler, Philadelphia site director of The Fountain Fund, GreenLight’s on-the-ground support was unlike anything he’d ever experienced.

“I’ve dealt with investors before, but never has one become so closely knit with my team,” said Butler. “When I started, I had no staff. Felicia and Danielle Hughes, GreenLight’s program associate, became my team. They let me do my thing, but they were always close by.”

Rinier and Hughes helped Butler with high level networking, such as scheduling introductions with other local organizations and investors, as well as nitty gritty tasks, like writing job descriptions to build the right team.

“We’ve made an incredible dent in Philly,” said Butler. “We’ve given out over $600,000 in small business loans, housing and vehicles for returning residents, and helped countless individuals gain financial literacy. This wouldn’t have been possible without GreenLight.”

While Greenlight has the entire country as its selection ground, sometimes the right organization is right across the river. 

GreenLight brought Camden-based tech education nonprofit Hopeworks to Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood in 2022 after recognizing the community’s need for workforce development and digital equity. 

Hopeworks uses trauma-informed care to teach youth ages 17 through 26 to do basic coding and design. It also helps students develop soft skills that many of the participants weren’t exposed to growing up, like managing conflict in the workplace or communicating professionally with supervisors. The ultimate goal of Hopeworks is to prepare students for and place them in full-time, high-wage jobs.

“GreenLight did an incredible amount of due diligence to make sure we’d be a good investment,” said Hopeworks CEO Dan Rhoton. “Because of that, we have the credibility to scale, which can be hard to do without a reputable partner like GreenLight.”

Hiring dedicated staff and making the right connections

Some of Greenlight’s portfolio of nonprofits need to build a team from scratch to launch in their new location.

Such was the case for ParentChild+, a New York City-based organization that works in-home with under-resourced families to support parents’ ability to prepare children aged 2-4 for academic success. ParentChild+ was founded by Phyllis Levenstein in the early 1960s when she was asked to develop a program that would decrease the rate of high school dropouts. 

Through her research, Levenstein found the best time to intervene was before children even reached school age.

“I had been working with families experiencing homelessness and wanted to get back into early child development services,” said Malkia Singleton Ofori-Agyekum, now the mid-Atlantic regional director at ParentChild+. “When I saw the posting for this job, I felt it was the perfect opportunity.”

By the time  Singleton Ofori-Agyekum came on board, all of the work required to launch ParentChild+ in Philly — selecting the local advisory board, securing local funders and partners for the organization — was already done. But it was the launch event GreenLight hosted in Center City that opened her eyes to the power of its impact.

“GreenLight brings a certain level of confidence for a new organization in a new city,” said Singleton Ofori-Agyekum. “You’re getting the seed funding, but it’s the connections and reputation that comes with working with GreenLight that makes such a big difference.”

Like the other organizations, GreenLight helped ParentChild+ get off the ground by tapping its connections in the area, helping hire the right staff and quickly finding families that would benefit from its services. Since its Philly launch in 2016, ParentChild+ has worked with GreenLight to open branches in four other cities. 

“Dr. Levenstein was a founder ahead of her time,” said Singleton Ofori-Agyekum. “Parents need these resources and guidance. GreenLight has helped bring them to families all over the country.”

Providing variety in the organizations it brings to Philadelphia is an important part of what the GreenLight Fund does. It’s category agnostic in its efforts; the main goal is to remove any and all barriers toward economic mobility.

“Investing in GreenLight Fund is a sure thing,” Hopeworks CEO Dan Rhoton said. “You will be making a difference.”