Raymond Guthrie Joins Arnold Ventures to Lead New Impact Investment Focus on Affordable Housing

HOUSTON, TX (Jul. 23, 2024) — Building on the philanthropy’s existing impact investing work, Arnold Ventures is launching a new program team that will focus on impact investing for housing affordability. To lead this effort, Arnold Ventures has hired seasoned impact investor, Raymond Guthrie, as its first executive vice president of impact investing, effective immediately. With his extensive experience in impact investing, philanthropy, and international development, Guthrie leads the organization’s investment strategies to ensure struggling Americans have access to affordable housing that provides their families with dignity and stability. 

About 1 in 4 renters spend more than half their income on rent – money that cannot be spent on healthy food, health care, education, or other important needs. As a philanthropy, Arnold Ventures is able to fill the gaps left by the public and private sectors, providing much-needed dollars to help fund the construction of new housing for extremely low-income families and address shortages in the market. Impact investing is a key way that Arnold Ventures helps find sustainable, scalable solutions to America’s most pressing problems – taking on higher risks and lower returns than the market will bear to spur meaningful and long-lasting change. 

“Housing affordability is one of the most pressing problems facing our nation, and we at Arnold Ventures are committed to ensuring that all Americans have access to a safe, stable, affordable home,” said Kelli Rhee, Arnold Ventures president and CEO. ​“Raymond is an important addition to our leadership team. His experiences in impact investing will open new opportunities for us to support evidence-based solutions that make a real difference for hardworking families.” 

Arnold Ventures’ approach will focus on making direct equity investments into established, underrepresented developers and high-impact affordable housing projects to increase production of multi-family and single-family affordable housing units in key target regions. 

Guthrie has nearly two decades of experience in this field. Prior to joining Arnold Ventures, he was chief investment officer and head of capital deployment at a leading national community development finance institution that invests in housing, health care, education, and small business loans for underserved communities. Throughout Guthrie’s career he has overseen and executed approximately $1.8 billion in impact investments across domestic and international funds with leading philanthropic organizations. He earned his law degree from Howard University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami. 

“I’m excited to join Arnold Ventures to address the root causes of America’s housing affordability challenge,” said Guthrie. ​“Stable and affordable housing is the foundation for educational, health, and economic opportunities, and through our work we hope to increase the volume of new housing construction and preservation, while also inspiring additional lending from other philanthropic funders.” 

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Arnold Ventures is a philanthropy that supports research to understand the root causes of America’s most persistent and pressing problems, as well as evidence-based solutions to address them. By focusing on systemic change, AV is working to improve the lives of American families, strengthen their communities, and promote their economic opportunity. Since Laura and John Arnold launched their foundation in 2008, the philanthropy has expanded, and Arnold Ventures’ focus areas include education, criminal justice, health, infrastructure, and public finance, advocating for bipartisan policy reforms that will lead to lasting, scalable change. As signatories of the Giving Pledge, the Arnolds have committed to giving away most of their wealth during their lives.

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