Our Mission
The Regional Foundation mobilizes resources to advance racial, social, and economic justice through resident-led community development that builds equitable, thriving neighborhoods across our region.
Our Vision
We envision a region where communities most impacted by inequities have the power, resources, and leadership to shape their futures within just and equitable systems.
Our Core Values
Community: We approach our work with love, joy, and humility; working in partnership with community-based organizations towards a vibrant, healthy region.
Justice: We actively work to dismantle systemic racism and other forms of oppression by embedding fairness, equity, and inclusion into all that we do. We acknowledge how these barriers shape social and economic issues, and we commit to removing them through our work in pursuit of a more liberated world.
Stewardship: We recognize the oppressive origins of our history and use our resources to repair harm and build community wealth. We steward these resources with accountability, long-term vision, and care for our relationships.
Collaboration: We co-create solutions through shared power, authentic engagement, and continuous learning. We listen, celebrate all contributions, and hold ourselves to be reliable and responsive.
Trust: We build trust through transparency, follow-through, accountability, and clear communication — doing what we say and learning openly from our impact.
About the Regional Foundation
The Regional Foundation mobilizes resources to advance racial, social, and economic justice through resident-led community development that builds equitable, thriving neighborhoods across our region. We make investments (grants and loans) across a 62-county region to community and economic development practitioners spanning New Jersey, Delaware and the eastern half of Pennsylvania. Our work is rooted in our core values of collaboration, trust, stewardship, justice, and community. Grantee and loan partners center their work in resident leadership, and our trust-based practices, centering those on the ground doing the work. The Regional Foundation team comprises an Executive Director, a Senior Program Officer and two Program Officers, an Administrative Coordinator, and the Board includes twelve individuals from across the region. The foundation is committed to a learning mindset and building meaningful relationships with organizations across the region and with one another.
Program Related Investments
The Regional Foundation makes impact-first loans, or Program Related Investments (PRIs), by invitation only to nonprofit organizations for select ventures that are designed to support equitable community development.
Investment Size
Investment sizes range based on the loan type. For 2026, the foundation is offering bridge loans between $25,000 – $200,000.
Investment Programs
Previous or ongoing investments:
- Indirect investments are loans that provide capital contributions to community development financial institutions.
- Direct investments are pre-development loans for physical development projects in neighborhoods where the Regional Foundation is already invested.
2026 Investment Programs:
Bridge loans:
- Support organizations in sustaining essential community programs and services by covering delays in government (federal, state, or local) contracts or grant payments that fund programs, services, staff time, or other operating expenses.
Help organizations complete real estate projects while awaiting a specified government grant or contract payment.
Our People
Board of Managers
- Kim Ayers
- Stephen Briggs
- Craig Drinkard, President
- Bob Durkin, Treasurer
- Jonathan Encarnacion, Vice President
- Orlando C. Esposito
- Vandell Hampton
- Ellen Hwang
- Wanda P. Hardy, Secretary
- Pedro A. Ramos
- Nelida Valentin
- Mailee Walker
Staff
Kevin Dow, Executive Director (he/him)
Kevin Dow, executive director of the Regional Foundation, has spent his career in the corporate, non-profit, and public sectors. He has worked extensively in the financial services industry at Wachovia (now Wells Fargo).
Dow was most recently the vice president of operations for the Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia. During the administration of Mayor Michael Nutter, Dow served the City of Philadelphia as the Senior Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Commerce Department. He left the Commerce Department to become Senior Vice President of Impact and Innovation for the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey and later served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Friends of the Rail Park.
Dow is currently on the boards of the AmerisourceBergen Foundation, Fleisher Art Memorial, Harcum College, and Philadelphia Advisory Board for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. He is also a founding member of the Philadelphia Black Giving Circle.
Dow is a native of Philadelphia; he earned a Bachelors’ degree in Finance from Morehouse College and an MBA from Saint Joseph’s University.
Deb Bentzel, Sr. Program Officer (she/her)
Deb Bentzel, Senior Program Officer of the Regional Foundation, is an experienced nonprofit leader committed to creating systems change through collaboration with the goals of building people power and advancing equity. Deb most recently supported the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations in their Member Services department, working with community development corporations and allied organizations from across the city. Before her time with PACDC, Deb spent 15 years in non-profit program development and management, including 7 years with The Food Trust as Associate Director of Community Food Systems where her work focused on equitable food and farming policies and practices on the local, state, and federal levels. Deb also worked in food systems and public health sectors at Fair Food Philadelphia, Harvard University, and the Veterans Administration in Boston. While Deb has a long career in the non-profit and academic sectors, she is also a trained baker, and has worked in several Philadelphia bakeries, crafting pastries and bread.
Deb supports mutual aid and community organizing efforts in West Philadelphia, where she lives. She soaks up time with her nieces and nephews, gardens her little front yard, runs the occasional road race, develops sweet recipes, and is a voracious reader of books. She earned her BS in Biology from the College of William and Mary and her MPH from Boston University.
Isel Otero-Vera, Program Officer (She/Her)
Isel Otero-Vera, Program Officer for the Regional Foundation, brings deep experience in program design and coalition-building to her role supporting the development of an equitable approach that advances the foundation’s strategic priorities across its 62-country region.
Isel joins the Regional Foundation after recently leading The Food Trust’s Farm to Early Childhood Education programs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She facilitated network building, community storytelling and resource sharing initiatives highlighting local food system leaders. Such regional projects included the promotion of local food procurement for school meals, community food vouchers, urban farming supports, policy advocacy, nature-based nutrition, and agriculture education programs.
Prior to joining The Food Trust, Isel coordinated a local food access program in San Juan, Puerto Rico and a sustainable farming entrepreneurship program in Kerala, India.
Isel, an appointed member of the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council, earned a master’s degree in public policy and administration from Rutgers University. She is originally from Puerto Rico and has been living in the city of Philadelphia for over 9 years.
Samantha Mogil, Program Officer (she/her)
Samantha Mogil, Program Officer for the Regional Foundation, is a strategic leader and systems thinker with a passion for resident-driven neighborhood revitalization initiatives.
Samantha most recently served as the Senior Manager of the Ending Hunger for Good program at Philabundance, where she worked across social service sectors and alongside Philadelphia residents to address the root causes of hunger.
Prior to joining Philabundance, Samantha served as the Director of Community Impact at the American Heart Association and as the Manager of Government and Community Affairs at the Share Food Program.
Samantha is an appointed member of the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council, a board member of Food Moxie, and an elected committee person of the First Ward in South Philadelphia. She holds a Master of Science in Nutrition degree from Drexel University, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology degree from University of North Carolina at Asheville, and a Certificate in Community Development from the University of Stellenbosch.
Samantha grew up in Bucks County and has lived in Philadelphia for over 10 years. She is dedicated to advocating for racial and economic justice.
Cassandra Manotham, Administrative Coordinator (she/her)
Cassandra considers herself a dedicated community worker who strives to leave things better than she found them.
Cassandra most recently worked at the University City Science Center as the Commercialization Programming Coordinator to support programs designed for early-stage life science and medtech entrepreneurs, startups, and investors through the Capital Readiness Program and Angel Investor Program.
Prior to joining Science Center, she led the digital equity program at SEAMAAC connecting hundreds of immigrant and refugee families from over 20 different language groups with zero to low-cost access to the internet, devices, and digital education. Outside of providing direct services, she strengthened coalitions with immigrant and refugee serving leaders, nonprofit professionals, schools, and internet service providers through workshops and skill sharing to better support getting underserved communities online.
During her time at Fishadelphia, she served as the customer experience coordinator and UX/UI designer. She later developed and managed Neighbor Share, a mutual aid program designed to leverage community power and relationships to subsidize seafood subscriptions supporting Fishadelphia’s mission to make fresh, local seafood accessible to culturally and economically diverse consumers.
Cassandra went to Haverford College and studied English and Environmental Studies by way of the Community College of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia High School for Girls.
Counties We Serve
Pennsylvania
Adams, Berks, Bradford, Bucks, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clinton, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Philadelphia, Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne, Wyoming, and York.
New Jersey
Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren.
Delaware
Kent, New Castle, and Sussex.
News & Updates
Welcome Cassandra Manotham
The Regional Foundation is pleased to welcome Cassandra Manotham as our Administrative Coordinator. In this role, Cassandra will support the day-to-day operations and strengthen the internal systems that power the Foundation’s work with partners and communities.
Take a moment to get to know Cassandra, including what inspired her to join the Regional Foundation.