How RSF is Changing Finance and Financing Change
Few financial institutions can say they’ve spent more than 40 years reimagining what money can do. California-based financial services organization Regenerative Social Finance (RSF) has done exactly that – evolving over decades of work to build a model that is driving regeneration through capital investment.
RSF’s mission is to “change finance and finance change,” with a vision of building a world where all capital is regenerative – healing rather than harming, replenishing rather than extracting, and prioritizing the well-being of all over the wealth of a few. Within this broad mandate, regenerative agriculture and food have emerged as critical areas of focus.
Modern industrial farming relies on extractive practices that degrade ecosystems, contribute to climate change, worsen water scarcity, and drive biodiversity loss, while leaving farmers at the bottom of supply chains, often struggling with persistently low incomes. The impact is profound: agriculture is responsible for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, 72% of global freshwater withdrawals, and the degradation of one-third of the world’s soils. At the same time, food systems deliver both overabundance and scarcity – 40% of food in the U.S. is wasted even as poor nutrition persists globally. To sustain both people and the planet, the future of food production must be regenerative and capital has a key role to play.
“Agriculture and food sit at the intersection of so many systems—economic, environmental, and social,” explains Kathleen Paylor, RSF’s Vice President, Impact Investing and Philanthropy. “When we change how capital flows into food and agriculture, we’re not just financing crops or supply chains; we’re financing livelihoods, soil health, cultural preservation, and community resilience.”
RSF invests in enterprises across the regenerative food and agriculture system that are actively reversing these trends. These enterprises promote biodiversity, restore soil health, reduce waste, provide fair pay to farmers, and bring healthy, sustainable food to communities. By financing this transition, RSF aims to help build a food system capable of nourishing everyone while regenerating the natural resources it depends on. This work supports not only ecological resilience but also the livelihoods of farmers and communities, ensuring long-term access to nutritious food and a healthier planet for future generations.
Changing Finance
RSF is changing the face of food systems investment in two ways: by centering capital allocation strategies that fund enterprises that are building regenerative outcomes and by regenerating the invested capital. The capital they allocate is relationship-based and values-driven, making it more regenerative than traditional capital.
“At RSF, we believe capital can be a living system—one that circulates resources to strengthen communities rather than extract from them,” Paylor explains.
Many of RSF’s investors are drawn to the way the firm is reimagining what finance can look like. Paylor describes “They’re not just looking for returns; they’re looking for relationship, meaning, and impact. We work directly with borrowers and investors to build trust and shared understanding, tailoring financial structures to meet real needs. Our approach allows us to extend credit to enterprises that traditional finance overlooks. RSF’s approach to financing goes beyond merely avoiding harm, and actively seeks to create measurable positive social and environmental outcomes.”
She adds that RSF practices transparency in pricing and decision-making. This helps ensure that capital flows in alignment with purpose rather than purely with profit. “In essence, regenerative capital restores balance—between risk and reward, between people and planet, between finance and the common good.”
The company has created multiple pathways for capital allocators to mobilize money for positive change. The mechanisms they use include loans funded by investment notes and donations and the development and management of donor advised funds (DAFs).
RSF’s Social Investment Fund provides loans that help businesses and nonprofits address the world’s most urgent challenges. Individual and institutional investors, both accredited and non-accredited, can purchase notes with as little as $1,000. In addition, the firm also offers Broker Notes on online brokerage accounts with a minimum investment of $25,000.
Philanthropic donors can direct donations to the Catalyst Fund which is also used to provide loans to social enterprises. The firm is able to leverage every dollar donated to this fund to generate $40 in impact.
Donors also have the option to establish donor-advised funds at RSF. A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) is like a charitable investment account. It’s a giving vehicle that lets you set aside money for philanthropy, get an immediate tax deduction, and then recommend grants to nonprofits over time. Uniquely, RSF offers its DAF clients the opportunity to “double their impact” by investing their funds into the Social Investment Fund until they’re ready to grant them out. Will McAnemy, Senior Director of Communication at RSF, shares, “That way, instead of sitting idle (a major issue with DAFs), they activate their money for impact… twice!”
The fruits of these strategies include over $250 million in loans to nearly 200 social enterprises and in 2024 alone, RSF provided more than $27 million in financing to 17 regenerative food and agriculture enterprises.
Financing Change
While evolving new approaches to finance, RSF is also driving agriculture and food systems change by finances mission-driven nonprofits and businesses around the globe.
Its sweet spot lies beyond initial start-up or angel investments, investing in enterprises that have already received initial investment and providing debt financing ranging between $100K to $5 million.
Within their food & agriculture portfolio, the firm invests in enterprises that fit into the following categories:
- Regenerative farming operations
- CPGs that source from regenerative farms
- Platforms and companies that fund the farmers and food companies – they call this the “Funding the funder” model
Here’s a closer look at some of RSF’s investments.
Regenerative Farming Operations:
Established in 2009 by Ethan and Sarita Schaffer, a young couple passionate about sustainable agriculture, Viva Farms now operates 119 acres across Washington. The nonprofit’s mission is to “empower aspiring and limited-resource farmers by providing bilingual training in holistic organic farming practices, as well as access to land, infrastructure, equipment, marketing, and capital.”
RSF first partnered with Viva Farms in 2012, providing a $50,000 loan to build a farm stand—planting the seeds of a trusted, long-term relationship. In 2017, Viva sought to expand its incubator model into an AgPark and purchase 45 acres but lacked land and collateral, at that point RSF stepped in with a creatively structured $315,000 loan. By bringing in a foundation donor from its Food and Agriculture Collaborative to guarantee the balance, RSF designed an integrated capital solution that made the incubator possible.
Today, Viva Farms is helping a new generation of farmers establish viable businesses while stewarding the land. Farmers in its programs gross more than $26,000 an acre, compared to roughly $1,000 an acre for many conventional farms in Washington’s Skagit Valley. The difference speaks to both the demand for local, organic food and the power of capital to unlock regenerative opportunity.
For Viva Farms, RSF’s relationship-based approach to finance has made the seemingly impossible possible—turning barriers into breakthroughs and enabling farmers to thrive while regenerating land and community.
CPGs that Source from Regenerative Farms:
Sana Javeri Kadri founded Diaspora Spice Co. in 2017. From the beginning, she was determined to build a spice trade that was the opposite of its colonial roots: equitable instead of exploitative, regenerative instead of extractive, delicious instead of dry and dusty.
A key part of Diaspora’s more equitable model is paying farmers fairly, up front, and on time. Sana explains: “We give [farmers] a 30% advance before the harvest comes in, when they have the most upfront costs. We give them another 30% when the harvest comes in, and then we give them the final 40% when we receive the product. That is a very tough cash position to constantly be in. But it is also the most equitable way to run our business.”
To support this model, RSF provided Diaspora with a $150,000 line of credit in 2021. However, Paylor explains that because of Diaspora’s structure and early stage of growth, they were asset-light. To make the loan possible, RSF leveraged a portion of its Catalytic Impact Pool—a pool of philanthropic capital granted by donors who share our mission. The funds were used to provide credit enhancement to RSF’s line of credit in support of Diaspora’s operations.
“This creative use of blended finance allowed us to finance Diaspora, demonstrating what “changing finance” truly means in practice,” says Paylor. “The result was catalytic. Diaspora was able to expand its sourcing to new communities of farmers, using RSF’s working capital to ensure they could pay those farmers up front.”
Diaspora has returned to RSF as a financing partner, steadily increasing their line of credit over a four-year period with an expanded lined of credit to $750,000 in 2022, and an additional $100,000 in 2024. This financing has enabled the company to continue paying farmers in full upfront – while fueling the company’s steady growth.
Funding the Funder:
Sometimes the best way to serve the mission to make capital regenerative is by funding other impactful funders. That’s what RSF did when they funded Mad Capital in 2023. Mad Capital is a private debt finance firm founded by Brandon Welch and Phil Taylor that supports farmers who are transitioning to organic and regenerative farmers.
In 2023 RSF issued a $5 million credit facility, which Mad Capital used to provide loans to farmers in the Midwest and High Plains. The obstacle Mad Capital seeks to unlock is the regeneration by providing transitioning farmers with flexible capital that fits the financial realities that farmers face during a three-year transition period. This type of financing removes some of the barriers that conventional farm debt can present to farmers trying to do things differently. For example, repayment terms that allow for more grace during the transition when costs can be higher and crops aren’t yet receiving premium prices.
“You can’t fix a broken system with broken financing,” said RSF CEO Jasper van Brakel back in 2024. “Mad Capital is ensuring that organic farmers have the same financing opportunities as conventional farmers and doing it in a way that can start to fix the food system—with financing that takes the same regenerative approach as the farmers it supports.”
Outcomes for Borrowers and Investors
Each RSF investment demonstrates the diverse ways RSF is expanding regeneration, changing the way regeneration is financed, and creating positive ripple effects across the system.
For borrowers, RSF offers access to debt capital that is flexible, relationship-based, and rooted in values. Entrepreneurs who may struggle to secure conventional loans can find in RSF a partner who understands both their financial realities and their social or environmental mission. The result: businesses that grow sustainably while deepening their impact.
For Investors, RSF provides the opportunity to align money with mission. By investing with RSF, individuals and institutions can channel their capital toward enterprises that regenerate soil, strengthen local economies, and transform food systems—while also earning a financial return. Investors gain confidence not just from repayment data, but from the tangible, measurable impact of the enterprises they support.
“We hear consistently that our investors value the transparency of knowing where their money is going and the tangible stories of change that come back from our borrowers,” says Paylor. “Some have told us that being part of RSF’s community of stakeholders feels like being part of a living ecosystem—one where their capital is actively working to heal systems and communities, not just accumulate wealth. They see their investment as a vote for a different kind of economy—one that measures success in terms of regeneration, not extraction.”
Together, with its borrowers and investors, RSF is proving that finance can be a tool for regeneration. When money flows in service of life—rather than extraction—it doesn’t just fund businesses; it seeds resilience, equity, and hope for generations to come.
More details on how to invest can be found on the RSF website.