Throughout business school and a career in banking, Contact Fund founder Mark Reed remained intrigued by his earlier work in community development. He believed community development corporations, social service organizations, and other neighborhood based economic development organizations provided low income individuals and families with real opportunities for self-sufficiency. A family business liquidity event in 2005 provided the capital to establish a loan fund dedicated to NYC nonprofits.
Using his capital as equity and borrowing against it from friends and family, Mark employed traditional credit analysis methods to lend to NYC nonprofit organizations. Use of debt requires a financial discipline that can foster a level of organizational sustainability.
Ultimately, Contact Fund is based on a very straightforward concept: private investors would be willing to invest their capital in local NYC neighborhoods while also receiving a financing return if there was a simple, low risk way to do it. Contact Fund is committed to fostering a community of private investors who share similar values.
Since 2005, Contact Fund has raised more than $5 million in additional capital from individual investors. Contact Fund made its first loan to Acción - New York in 2005 and has since made 57 other loans.
In February 2013, Contact Fund and SeaChange Capital Partners formed an alliance to enable better access to mission-driven capital for New York City’s frontline nonprofits working in low income neighborhoods. Contact Fund’s portfolio, investors, and governance remain intact while SeaChange provides strategic and administrative support in executing Contact Fund’s plan. Together, SeaChange and Contact Fund have formed a second pool capital oriented to large foundations making Program-Related Investments in New York City.
THE TEAM
In February 2013, Contact Fund and SeaChange Capital Partners formed an alliance to enable better access to mission-driven capital for New York City’s frontline nonprofits working in low-income neighborhoods. Contact Fund’s portfolio, investors, and governance remain intact while SeaChange provides strategic and administrative support in executing Contact Fund’s plan. Together, SeaChange and Contact Fund have formed a second pool capital oriented to large foundations making Program-Related Investments in New York City. For additional information on this effort, please contact Taj Tabassoom at ttabassoom@seachangecap.org.
John leads SeaChange Capital Partners with overall responsibility for grantmaking, lending, and advisory services. He also explores new ways that SeaChange might help nonprofits explore or complete sensible transactions while at the same time offering attractive, leveraged opportunities for funders.
John joined SeaChange in 2008 in the hope of putting his transactional skills and finance experience to use for good. Although SeaChange has evolved a great deal over the intervening years, he is as excited as ever by what we do and feels privileged to work with entrepreneurial colleagues and committed funders to help nonprofits — from the largest “battle ships” to the smallest, grass-roots organizations — do their vital work. John came to SeaChange by way of a mid-life Masters in Philosophy and Public Policy at the London School of Economics. Prior to LSE, he was a partner at Warburg Pincus (a global private equity firm) in New York, Tokyo, and London; a software engineer in Tokyo; and a management consultant at Oliver Wyman in New York. In addition to his work at SeaChange, John serves as a trustee of the Putney School, the Brooklyn Heights Association, and the John Jay College Foundation. John grew up in Canada but moved to the United States to attend Princeton where he got an engineering degree and met his wife. They have four grown children and live in Brooklyn where he is the goal-keeper for Heights FC.
Taj leads SeaChange's lending and investment activities, overseeing Contact Fund and The New York Pooled PRI Fund, both of which lend to New York City nonprofits, as well as The New York Impact Opportunities Fund, an impact investment vehicle that makes equity and credit investments. Prior to joining SeaChange, Taj worked in JPMorgan Chase’s credit risk and emerging markets groups. Taj initially gained exposure to nonprofits through consultancy work and volunteer board positions, the most recent with Women’s World Banking, where she advised the organization on the launching of micropension products for low-income women in India. She began her career working at Basel Asset Management, a hedge fund of funds. Taj holds a Master of International Affairs in Economic Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Baruch College. She sits on the board of the Vita Life Story Club, a nonprofit that seeks to promote healthy aging and reduce social isolation amongst older adults.
Minji supports SeaChange's lending and grantmaking activities. Prior to joining SeaChange, Minji worked in the M&A group at SMBC Nikko Securities America. She began her career as a Development Associate at Association to Benefit Children, a New York City-based nonprofit that provides early childhood education, family preservation services, and mental health care services to underserved children and families. In Korea, where she was born and raised, Minji led a national student-run volunteer organization called 2for1 that supports North Korean defectors in South Korea and China. Minji holds a BA in Sociology from Princeton University and an MPA with a concentration in Social Impact, Innovation & Investment from NYU Wagner. She is proud to be part of the 10th cohort of the Samsung Scholarship and is a former fellow of Princeton Project 55 and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.
Alex is SeaChange’s Director of Operations, overseeing the organization’s policies and processes for governance, strategy, administration, logistics, communications, and technology. Alex also serves as the Secretary of SeaChange's Board of Directors. Prior to joining SeaChange, Alex worked as a litigation paralegal and pro bono legal specialist at Proskauer Rose LLP, a private law firm based in New York City, where he focused on directly representing and facilitating access to justice for low-income individuals, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Brown University, where his studies focused on American racial dynamics. Alex is a lifelong New Yorker with immense passions for mental health & wellness, disability justice, and gender equity.