harp-weaver LLC

06/04/2026

As the need for more place-based solutions grows due to current tensions in our capital markets. Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) hold key roles in local markets by stabilizing, bridging, funding, lobbying, advocating, and crafting reforms for local solutions, on top of their core focus of community-based lending for redevelopment.

This huge expansion of work for CDFIs, a financial structure that came to be in the late 1960s under the Fair Lending Laws, growing into a national structure in 1994 to create a democratized version of capital access in response to the risk-rating system created in the 1930s.

Philanthropy holds many tools to offer catalytic collaboration in this moment of social change. We are in a new economic transformation, almost 100 years later, and CDFIs are burdened with the community development needs for place-based regeneration. Philanthropy can be impactful by dropping “what financial tool is preferred” to a “problem first posture” based on local community needs.

How does philanthropy “invest deliberately in the intermediaries that make place-based change”?

Read the article to learn more about the shift in a philanthropic posture to build place-based solutions that matter:

The Kresge Foundation's Aaron Seybert on why the expanding role of CDFIs means philanhropy should change its approach to place-based investing.

05/27/2026

Chestnut Hill Community Association hosts the longest-running free outdoor concert series in Philadelphia! As a local business, we sponsor events that bring the community together, so mark your calendar to join us on July 8th to hear Pastorius Park Concert: The Michael Allman Band.

harp-weaver LLC Thank you for sponsoring the July 8th Michael Allman Band Concert! We appreciate you!

05/21/2026

Last week, at the Total Impact Summit, hosted by Impactphl, one thing became clear: the future of community investment cannot simply be transactional. It must be relational if we want to build long-term prosperity through investments, infrastructure, and ownership.

Here are our key takeaways from the front lines of place-based investment:

🤝Trust Local Wisdom — Knowing that partnering with communities means trusting them

🔋Confront Power & Cost — Being candid about who holds power and the unintended costs on communities

🎼 Orchestrate Capital — Places don’t lack talent or imagination; they need systematic orchestration, not episodic investments

🪢 Share Knowledge - Insights belong to the field, hoarding data is a form of failure, we all learn together.

Check out our latest blog post for a deep dive into the insights, challenges, and candid conversations that shaped this year’s summit. https://www.harp-weaver.com/post/insights-on-orchestrating-the-future-of-place

05/12/2026

After the "State of the City" panels on Philadelphia's Past, Present, and Future speakers, we attended The Pew Charitable Trusts' event on Future Cities and Place-Based Philanthropic Investment, where Rip Rapson, CEO of The Kresge Foundation, shared that philanthropy can play different roles based on the circumstances of a community. He asked important questions, including how philanthropy takes risks, engages across sectors, helps convene power within the community, and builds capacity within the organizations they partner with.

With years of experience in collaborative philanthropy and supporting place-based initiatives, harp-weaver knows that combining partnership, trust, and cultural adaptability is what builds the catalytic relationships that economic mobility needs to thrive. It is exciting to see this philanthropic partnership initiative rise in Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, April 28, The Pew Charitable Trusts will host a live webcast featuring two panel discussions: one on the current state of Philadelphia and how it...

05/07/2026

Last night, dozens of women gathered at Night Out With Meaning (now in its 16th year) to hear Leslie Newbold share the tender story of how she created Willpower Foundation. Driven by the sudden loss of her son taking his own precious life, Newbold created the Foundation to empower young people to use their inner strength to survive tough times.

The Foundation recognizes that young people – whose brains are still developing – need the supportive space to identify difficult feelings and the tools to navigate these challenges. Programming, grounded in research and shaped by real-world experience, specifically addresses how young people can pause, regulate, make choices with intention, and respond from a place of clarity.

Newbold’s heartfelt message, courage, and desire to educate and empower young people and their caregivers moved us, inspired us, and challenged us. We are grateful for the opportunity to hear her story.

Learn more about her work: https://www.willpower-foundation.org/

05/01/2026

Many of our clients take on meaningful social impact with youth across health, workforce development, and the arts. This month, the 17th annual Greenfield Youth Film Festival celebrated youth filmmakers from across Greater Philadelphia and the incredible films they created across a wide variety of genres. An academy-style awards night, the Festival celebrated these students through public recognition and awards for their films, developed throughout the year. The finalized versions, shown to an appreciative audience, demonstrate the importance of supporting students so they develop confidence and inner courage to dream their own possibilities. In this case, to make what they imagine through film.

04/15/2026

Join us on May 6th to hear a story about building Willpower through the strength within you.

Register by Friday, April 24th, to hold a seat for this Night Out With Meaning >> https://www.harp-weaver.com/night-out-with-meaning

02/12/2026

Please welcome our other new team member, Nadav Carmel!

Nadav serves as the Financial Manager for several of harp-weaver's clients. He comes to us with a master's degree in Arts Administration with certificates in nonprofit accounting and bookkeeping, and has an extensive background in nonprofit operations

Welcome Nadav!

Learn more about him and the rest of our team: https://www.harp-weaver.com/about

02/03/2026

Congratulations to the winners of the Social Innovations Journal's Social Innovation Awards! harp-weaver LLC serves as a supporter, and founder and principal Teresa Araco Rodgers helped give the Social Investors Award to Philly BOLT.

Learn more about the 2026 recipients and how they are driving impact in Greater Philadelphia: https://www.philadelphiainnovationawards.com/

01/27/2026

Congratulations to the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Charisse Pearlina Weston, a visual artist whose whose work contends with the interplay of violence and intimacy through repetition, enfoldment and concealment. She will be honored at the annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize dinner in April. Learn more about her work: https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/arts-and-entertainment/2026/01/charisse-pearlina-weston-named-2026-greenfield-prize-recipient

harp-weaver LLC is proud to provide foundation management services to the Greenfield Foundation, which sponsors the Prize. Learn more about the Prize and its impact in this post by Trustee and Foundation Manager Jill Greenfield Feldman: https://www.harp-weaver.com/post/the-hermitage-greenfield-prize-where-art-meets-social-impact

We are proud to announce the recipient of the 2026 HERMITAGE GREENFIELD PRIZE (HGP) — visual artist CHARISSE PEARLINA WESTON. In addition to a residency and Fellowship at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Weston will receive a $35,000 commission to create a new work or collection of art.

The 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize jurors are IAN ALTEVEER, Beal Family Chair of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts; ALISON GASS, Founding Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco; and LARRY OSSEI-MENSAH, independent curator and co-founder of ARTNOIR, a nonprofit supporting artists, curators, and cultural workers.

The brilliant 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize finalists are MELISSA JOSEPH, LILY KWONG, and PATRICK MARTINEZ, who will each receive a Hermitage residency and $1,000 stipend. Congratulations to all!

HermitageArtistRetreat.org