Dear Friends:

It’s been a very exciting time as Barack Obama was inaugurated here in the Nation’s Capitol last week. Many do not realize that his mother, the late S. Ann Dunham, was active in the microfinance field in Indonesia and elsewhere in the 1980s. How fabulous to have a President with firsthand experience of the power of investment as a tool to change the world! 

I am proud to say that, despite this time of great financial instability, Calvert Foundation continues to grow and help communities in need. We closed 2008 with over $215 million in assets and raised $42 million in additional investments – an increase of 33 percent in sales of the Community Investment Note over 2007. We are also pleased to say that our portfolio delinquency levels remain below one percent. This success offers a glimpse of hope in an uncertain market. Investors may be pulling dollars out of stocks and bonds, but they are certainly putting it in to their communities.

While we celebrate these top-line numbers, the real badge of success is in these numbers:

• 14,700 affordable homes built/rehabilitated
• 530,600 jobs created in the U.S. and abroad
• 6,000 small businesses financed

Our country's focus in 2009 will be to rebuild our financial system in a more responsible and ethical way. The year ahead will challenge us all. But through rigorous due diligence and sound underwriting we will continue to foster a responsible balance of financial security and social impact.

Thank you for believing in the empowering nature of credit for underserved communities. As the U.S. and world economies “stand up, dust themselves off, and…remake ourselves,” we hope you will join the investors and donors who have already stepped up and made a commitment to increase their investments for 2009. Helping communities in need is more important than ever.

All the best to you in 2009,

Shari Berenbach
Calvert Foundation President and CEO