24 Feb Walden Mutual Bank
Walden Mutual Bank
Interview with Charley; President & CEO of Walden Mutual Bank
Jen: How was Walden Mutual Bank Created?
Charley: Back in 2013 I started Walden Local, a brand of local, sustainable meat. We had grown to be a really amazing and impactful company, but in building that supply chain, it became clear there was an opportunity for a lender focused on sustainable food & ag, as all of these farms and businesses we worked with seemed to have trouble getting loans. With the rise of interest in impact investment, it also felt like there was an opportunity to build a brand around a different sort of deposit offering – one that offers a specific, tangible and local impact. Especially when I realized where our dollars were going when placed on deposit with the big banks!
Jen: How are your investment funds catalytic in a way that is different from other funds?
Charley: Our business is itself intended to be catalytic from a structural perspective, as the first new mutual bank in a generation. A mutual is effectively a cooperative. This enables us to truly integrate mission and impact from a lending and relationship management perspective – and to create permanent strategic alignment around this approach. It is intended to remove the incentive for the bank to be sold to some global megabank, and empowers a democratic and diverse group of stakeholders represented by our corporators with the governance rights of the organization.
Our borrowers – those we’re investing in – are building a more sustainable and resilient food system in the region, which has important ecological, economic and cultural implications for the community, but also important climate implications.
Jen: Can you describe how you use integrated capital to do your work?
Charley: The Bank is building a network of like-minded folks to support borrower businesses, including our board, our corporators, and our depositors… in a sense, reconnecting depositors and borrowers in the way that banks might have 200 years ago.
As a mutual, we are ultimately owned by our depositors. This provides alignment around stakeholder management and gives our impact model teeth from a governance perspective. It also allows us to truly focus on building an institution for 100+ years, rather than a liquidity event.
Ultimately with our borrowers, our goal is to progress hundreds of organizations forward on the spectrum of sustainability and holistic stakeholder management, rather than a “do less harm” approach
2021 Staff including (from Left to Right): Christina Johantgen, Joe York, Kelsey Cahill, Jackie Charron, Debbie Morin, Charley Cummings.
Jen: How do you address racial justice, income inequality, and/or gender justice through your products and services?
Charley: We are really focused on lending to rural areas that have typically been underbanked by existing institutions. We are also actively seeking the types of borrowers that have been historically underserved, by partnering with a lot of other organizations in the region.
We also put our borrowers through a rigorous annual impact review process, which allows us to hold ourselves accountable to progress on an aggregate basis to stakeholder results across our entire asset base. Banks can be powerful advocates for change in this regard, if they can truly integrate impact assessment into their governance structure.
Jen: Can you share with us an example of an investment?
Charley: Our borrower partners span the entirety of our local food ecosystem here in New England and New York. Some recent examples include a generational transfer and revitalization of a local berry farm, a producer of fresh ground local flour, and a pet food / treat business that upcycles previously wasted products from area farm and food businesses. We are big believers in local farmers and producers, but also the alternative forms of infrastructure to get their products to market, including emerging brands, manufacturers, and distributors. With the help of our community of depositors looking to align their banking with impact, our hope is that we can help to lower the cost of capital for borrowers, to enable a more vibrant and sustainable local food system.
Jen: What do you tell people who think your fund is risky?
Charley: Since we’re a bank vs. a fund, at this point we’re looking for FDIC insured deposits, so there is no risk.
In the long term, our objective is to seed a more resilient, sustainable and just food system – first here in our backyard. We intend to reinvent the mutual model – a proven and age-old model for organizing a bank – with a best in class team, modern technology, and a truly integrated approach to impact from the start.
Geography: New England and New York (although we accept deposits from anywhere in the US)
Year Founded: 2021
# of Investments: 10+
# of Investors: 250+ (donors, funders, supporters, investors)
Funds Raised: >$24,000,000 since inception
What’s on Charley’s Mind?
Book: ‘The Overstory’ by Richard Power
Song: ‘Under The Sea’ which I’m currently learning to play on the piano
Podcast: Currently none, but hopefully have more time for podcast listening in the future!