POWERGRAMS

17 Since its creation in 1989, the Alabama Power Foundation has inspired and created positive growth throughout the state. In recent years, the foundation has built on its legacy of meaningful, targeted support through an emerging strategy called "Impact Investing." This enables the foundation to invest funds providing partners with low-cost capital to support charitable projects. The new strategy to strengthen targeted investment has increased the foundation's ability to grow nonprofits in the state. One of Alabama's recent nonprofit success stories is Opportunity Alabama. Known for its groundbreaking work as a national leader in its approach to investing in Opportunity Zones, or economically disadvantaged communities, Opportunity Alabama has been a key beneficiary of impact investing from the foundation. "We're a statewide organization but have built a national footprint due to the impact investing the Alabama Power Foundation has provided," said Alex Flachsbart, founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama. Seeing the potential in Opportunity Alabama's commitment to growing Opportunity Zones, the foundation provided a catalytic grant that created the capital needed to jump-start the nonprofit. This startup capital inspired follow-on funding that has created more than $300 million in new investment in Alabama – helping support the revitalization of the state's urban and rural communities. Building off the early-stage funding, Opportunity Alabama received program- related investment (PRI) from the foundation, which created the capacity for the nonprofit to build its first fund – the OPAL fund. This fund was formed to invest in real estate projects that target market rates of return and support minority and women-owned businesses in development and management. This approach, along with mission-related investment, "creates a backbone for an organization like Opportunity Alabama to grow and scale," Flachsbart said. Since its founding in 2018, Opportunity Alabama has brought innovative thinking to economic and community development. One example is the Rural Recovery Accelerator, which is a six-to-eight-week community-oriented technical assistance program. The accelerator is designed to help low-income and rural communities build economic resiliency strategies through partnerships at the local, state and national level. This targeted effort defines a "Community Recovery Profile" and a "Recovery Roadmap" offering communities specific resources and a pathway to growth. Opportunity Alabama continues to make great strides with an eye toward powering a better Alabama. Flachsbart said he hopes to "find the next frontier" to support communities. While Opportunity Alabama's growth has been of immense value to the state, Flachsbart is humbled about how his nonprofit and fund have developed but added, "We would not be where we are today without the support of the Alabama Power Foundation." Another success story of the foundation's approach to impact investing is its partnership with Paskho to support job creation in Alabama's Black Belt. During the pandemic, Paskho moved its high-performance, eco-friendly lifestyle apparel from global manufacturing hubs to underserved areas in the United States. Paskho developed "Community-Made Maker Pods" to support domestic job creation and develop sustainable products at fair wages. Gee's Bend, located along the Alabama River near Camden, is world- renowned for its quilting tradition, dating back to the 1800s. The community's legacy of artistic triumphs aligned with Paskho's initiative, and the community is being propelled forward today through impact investing. "The standout to us right now is the successful launch of our pod in Gee's Bend," said Paskho Chief Marketing Officer Andy Butler. "From the time we broke ground building and retrofitting our production facility and distribution center to having roughly 15 seamstresses up and running in under four months was a massive company success: Something that serves as a proof point for other communities across the country." Paskho has leased two properties from the Gee's Bend community; as part of the company's social commitment, it offers open wireless internet access to all within the pod area, helping bridge the digital divide in rural areas of Alabama and supporting economic progress within the Black Belt. Paskho has received support from the Alabama Power Foundation and other partners at the national level for being committed to revitalizing communities. Paskho had a goal of achieving 100% community-made production by the end of 2021. Butler said Paskho has "invested in bringing manufacturing back to the United States as well as ensuring that our production provides high-paying jobs that can lift up communities of need." "Impact investment has allowed Paskho to work with partners that are more closely aligned with our mission while still raising funds that help expedite our growth," said Butler. "This ultimately has empowered us as a business to be more focused on our greater purposes of creating dignified work opportunities, minimizing our environmental impact, all while developing wealth-building opportunities in communities across the country." Impact investing from the Alabama Power Foundation has helped make this type of growth possible by generating positive, measurable gains that strengthen Alabama communities. Both Opportunity Alabama and Paskho – one based in Alabama and the other in New York – share the understanding that there is promise in uplifting Alabama communities. "Impact investing enables us to strengthen our commitment to doing the most good for the communities we serve," said Hallie Bradley, Alabama Power's Charitable Giving manager. "We are proud to partner with organizations like Opportunity Alabama and Paskho, who are helping us power a better Alabama." By Jack Bonnikson Foundation impact-investing efforts making big difference

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