Wall Street Without Walls (WSWW) connects capital market institutions and financial products with organizations engaged in community economic development in low and moderate-income communities, both urban and rural. WSWW fills a finance expertise gap in the nonprofit sector by creating teams of volunteer investment bankers. 

Volunteer Expertise is the New Philanthropy

Thanks to the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation, WSWW can offer municipalities, community development financial institutions, and similar for-profit and not-for-profit organizations that serve low to moderate income communities access to financial technical assistance from senior and retired executives through a series of conference calls. The goal of each project is to help a community development organization think through a financing need (usually more than $5 million) and identify the best structures and sources for funding it.

The expertise is provided by their advisory board volunteers, who are senior and retired Wall Street investment banking professionals with backgrounds in Municipal Finance, Real Estate, Corporate Finance, Emerging Markets, and Structured Finance. Volunteers are asked to participate in up to six conference calls in a twelve-month period. WSWW specializes in making the best use of their volunteer’s time – matching their specific career-developed skills with the right community development projects, and insuring that all the volunteers have to do is be on the calls. WSWW takes care of the logistical and research support needs of the projects.

Consulting

The financial technical assistance provided by their conference calls help their collaborators structure their deals and understand the pros and cons of a particular approach. If an organization needs additional guidance, on-the-ground support, or execution assistance, Wall Street Without Walls and their network of consultants can provide custom solutions.

Events and Convenings       

Wall Street Without Walls has trained more than 1,000 community finance leaders in the latest tools and developments in community development finance, such as Mission- and Program- Related Investing. These events bring together senior government officials, banking and foundation executives, and community development practitioners to work on common goals in a win-win atmosphere. 

Partnerships    

Wall Street Without Walls has partnerships leveraging the skill sets of both organizations to advance the field of community development finance. These include the Milken Institute, Federal Reserve Bank System, the Council of Development Finance Agencies, The Disability Opportunity Fund, Opportunity Finance Network, NeighborWorks America, Enterprise, and LISC.

History and Mission

Wall Street Without Walls was created by former Wall Street executive Greg Stanton to provide volunteer investment banking and capital markets services to improve economic conditions in low-and-moderate income communities and to support the nonprofits that serve them. The mission of WSWW is to encourage bankers’ volunteer involvement and support the profession’s responsibility to serve the needs of community development nonprofits and to develop new services and products for the field; such as green finance, micro-finance, healthcare and education.