Impact Guarantees: Building the infrastructure for inclusive capital
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
10-11AM PST • 1-2PM EST • 2-3PM AST
Julia Grady
Executive Director
& Co-Founder,
10C
Allison Gibson
Chief of Staff,
New Power Labs
Eric In
Senior Advisor
New Power Labs
Canada's community lending funds reach non-profits, charities, rural organizations, and underfunded entrepreneurs that conventional banks and large investors will not serve.
These entrepreneurs are not unfundable because their work lacks value. They are often excluded because traditional systems define risk in ways that privilege collateral, institutional track records, and proximity to existing capital networks.
However, for these small-and-medium social finance intermediaries, a single loan default can threaten their viability and their ability to keep lending. That structural fragility is a gap in the infrastructure that supports them.
The Impact Guarantee, co-led by Thrive Impact Fund and 10C and backed by Boann Social Impact and the Social Finance Fund, is designed to close that gap through a pooled loan guarantee facility: a model that spreads default risk across multiple guarantors rather than concentrating it on individual funds.
In this New Power Talk, Eric In, impact investor and New Power Labs senior advisor, sits down with Julia Grady, Executive Director & Co-Founder of 10C and co-lead of the Impact Guarantee to examine what this infrastructure makes possible, and what it takes for foundations, family offices, and governments to become guarantors and help Canada's community lenders channel more capital to the people and places that need it most.
10C is a pledger to Fund Canada, New Power Labs' national initiative to direct $500 million in grants and investments to underfunded and overlooked leaders by 2030.
About the speakers
Julia Grady, Executive Director & Co-Founder, 10C
Working with long-term community benefit as her core purpose, Julia has led 10C through nearly 17 years of innovation, expanding into new project areas and providing a voice for valuable community content – and action.
Julia is passionate about connection, community building, placemaking and demonstrating the linked potential of social finance and social enterprise, as 10C continues to explore locally relevant changemaking projects.
Using design thinking practices, she likes to make connections between multiple problems that might align to possible solutions, and enjoys seeing systems in complex multi-layered ways.
On the personal side, Julia strives for authenticity and prefers deep open-hearted conversations. A confidante of many, she has an ability to help others find their strengths by embracing their unknowns. With decades of experience as an entrepreneur, Julia can assist with the fortitude and self-awareness necessary on an entrepreneurial journey.
Julia loves anything to do with craft beer, coffee and maple syrup.
Eric In, Senior Advisor, New Power Labs
Eric In is the President and Founder of Mapleric Positive Impact, a strategic consulting firm dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs, impact funds, and non-profits in designing impactful growth, financing strategies and strategic positioning. The firm specializes in organizations that generate positive outcomes for people and the planet, drawing on Eric’s experience across healthcare, technology, food, and services, with a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He is currently supporting the design of the Impact Guarantee.
With 17 years as a venture and impact investor, Eric has led over $100 million in investments across 45 private deals, including venture capital, debt, and business transfers. Since 2020, his focus has been on impact investing, building on earlier roles at organizations such as Entrepreneur Venture (SME private investments), Dragonfly Ventures (impact driven single family office), and larger institutions like CIC Capital Ventures, and Fondaction, as well as launching the North American arm of a cybersecurity startup.
Eric actively contributes to the Québec gender lens investing community and the social finance ecosystem. Since autumn 2024, he has provided consulting and training services for investment funds, entrepreneurs, and organizations advancing environmental, health, and societal progress through innovative approaches.
Eric holds a computer science engineering degree from ENSIIE and a master in finance of ESSEC
Allison Gibson, Chief of Staff, New Power Labs