Introducing CultureBank

CultureBank is a new investment paradigm for the arts. Across the country, social impact artists are inspiring, empowering, and improving our communities. Yet, it has been challenging to bring these powerful projects to scale because traditional arts funding models don’t reward creative entrepreneurship and potential investors are motivated by financial returns on investment (ROI). At CultureBank™, we believe that community impact should be an equally, if not more, valuable metric. If we provide artists with capital from new and unexpected sources, and if we fundamentally change the definition of ROI, we’ll enable more artists to create lasting social and economic change in more communities. Drawing on the best attributes of community banks, social financiers, community development finance institutions, and placemaking organizations, CultureBank makes investments in social impact artists and their enterprises. In exchange for these investments, we make community impact a key form of ROI. CultureBank brings together a diverse group of stakeholders from the arts, civic impact, and financial sectors. Together, they are designing a radical investment model that is sustainable, adaptable and replicable by others.