This mix of funding options represents our own continuum of capital, an investment approach which acknowledges that the types of capital needed changes as an organization evolves. Well-established in traditional investment circles, other social innovation funders are, too, applying the concept in their work. For example, our partners at the MacArthur Foundation last year authored an article on catalytic capital and the importance of collaboration across the existing spectrum of capital. Even so, as a field, social innovation still lacks a robust continuum of capital with the breadth and depth needed to satisfy the growing number of social entrepreneurs seeking funding.

“Social innovators need a spectrum of different investment types over time, each with their own structure, risk tolerance, and return profile. Unfortunately, given the niche interests and varied theses of social impact investors, a social innovator could cultivate hundreds of funder relationships and still not have the breadth of capital options they need,” says Alex Pan, Echoing Green’s senior director of capital. Alex has worked for more than a decade to help fill capital gaps for social entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Echoing Green, he designed, raised, and deployed several multimillion dollar impact investing funds.

Kwami Williams ‘14 with the farm team. Photo credit: True Moringa.

Consider, for example, the journey of 2014 Fellows Kwami Williams and Emily Cunningham. The pair are co-founders of True Moringa, a for-profit venture that helps smallholder farmers in Ghana grow, process, and sell valuable crops such as moringa, which is used in skincare and wellness products. Kwami and Emily utilized the Fellowship’s funding and technical assistance to get their organization off the ground. In 2023 and 2024, having proven the viability and impact of True Moringa’s model, Echoing Green supported them again with a follow-on funding grant that helped the organization scale its pilot of regenerative and organic farming and grow their reach of women farmers from 30 percent to 72 percent.

By the end of 2024, True Moringa had arrived at an inflection point: Its newly regenerative and organic certified products had unlocked over $1M in signed orders and a pipeline of customers worth an additional $3M in revenue. However, despite having planted 3 million moringa trees at the time, and having 5,000 family farms supplying the business, market demand exceeded True Morgina’s installed farm and factory capacity. Even with their commercial success and support from smaller investors, they did not have the flexible capital infusion required to expand their infrastructure quickly enough to fulfill these orders. To fill this gap and realize that potential, Signal Fund made a debt investment in True Moringa. The company was consequently able to triple the number of planted moringa trees to 10 million which will generate $2M in annual recurring revenue. It also doubled its factory capacity and the number of people employed. Equally important and true to Signal Fund’s name, this growth has attracted interest from new investors, unlocking $2M of additional investment.

A True Moringa woman farmer holds a bowl of moringa seeds. Photo credit: True Moringa.

Without a continuum of capital that matched the needs Kwami and Emily had as they scaled True Moringa, all of this growth—including a profound, continual impact on Ghana families and communities — would have gone unrealized. This is exactly the role Echoing Green hopes to play as an intermediary — supporting Fellows throughout their journey, filling gaps where we can, and helping the broader funding community see the immense potential in social innovators. Although there is no shortage of innovative founders, there is a shortage of innovative funding to help them scale.

“Social enterprises like ours are in this missing middle — the proverbial valley of death after you’ve proven your model but can’t access the resources needed to scale,” said Kwami. “I hope that Signal Fund’s investment in us and what we’ve been able to do with it shows other funders how rapidly they can unlock both business and impact growth.”

With lessons learned from our work with transformational Fellows like Kwami and Emily, Echoing Green hopes to be a model for how funders can better support social innovators. No two social entrepreneurship journeys are the same, which only underscores the need for a robust continuum of capital with investors of all types participating.

Just as social change requires leadership from communities most affected by an issue, it will similarly take a community of funders with diverse capabilities to realize the full potential of social innovation.

If you’re a philanthropist or impact investor considering your contribution to the social innovation continuum of capital, we’re always happy to share our thinking. You can reach us at egdevelopment@echoinggreen.org.