Mr. Daniels co-founded SCF in 2007 and served as the Secretary on the Board of Directors from 2011-2019. He is currently an active Board Member.
Belden Hull Daniels is internationally recognized as one of the founding pioneers of global Social Impact Investing, especially in low income communities and emerging markets around the world. For nearly a half century, as founder and President of Economic Innovation International, Inc., Mr. Daniels has helped to build more than $183.2 billion of privately capitalized equity and long-term debt in 113 Social Impact Funds in 46 North American states and provinces, and 21 countries of Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
In partnership with Deborah La Franchi, founding Principal of Strategic Development Solutions (the SDS Group), these “Triple Bottom Line” Social Impact Funds listed below produce [1] a risk-adjusted market rate of return for private investors; [2] social impacts, and [3] environmental benefits.
Belden Daniels (CEO and Controlling Entity) and Deborah La Franchi (President and COO) together manage the $522 million National New Markets Fund (NNMF), employing federal New Markets Tax Credits to create jobs and wealth in low income communities in the US through nearly 40 investment projects. With income generated by NNMF, they also jointly created Sustainable Communities Fund (SCF), a nonprofit foundation undertaking pioneering initiatives in community development finance in this country and overseas. Belden also serves as a Fund Advisor for the $38 million American South Real Estate Fund that is operated by Deborah’s company, Strategic Development Solutions to spur regional revitalization in America’s deep South.
With Steven Klein, founding Principal of First Infrastructure, Belden Daniels has helped build or restructure 20 state development finance authorities in 17 states with more than $75 billion in capital invested over the past 37 years.
Belden Daniels is also a Senior Advisor to Deborah La Franchi and Steven Klein, partners in the Development Finance Group (DFG). DFG and the Great Lakes Capital Fund have created two Michigan enterprises: Develop Michigan, Inc. (DMI), a development finance organization (DFO), and the Develop Michigan Real Estate Fund I, a $60 million private equity social impact investing fund.
Belden Daniels is also an attorney and former international banker in Asia. He taught graduate students in economic development finance at Harvard and MIT for a decade in the 1970s and 1980s.