Author Archive

Capital Impact and CDC Small Business Finance logos

New Board Members and Leadership Milestones for Our New Enterprise with CDC Small Business Finance

Earlier this year, we announced the formation of an exciting new enterprise uniting Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance under a single national strategy and leadership team. 

Our vision is bold – to reimagine the traditional tools and approaches that have failed to address systemic issues of inequality and the widening racial wealth gap. We are excited to share the latest milestones in our journey.   

Formal Combination

July 15th, 2021 marks the formal combination of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. Getting to this point took the hard work of all our staff, our board members, the support of community-based partners across the country, and the faith of major donors. I want to thank all of those involved who have worked hard to bring this vision to reality. 

Capital Impact Partners Launches $20 million Diversity in Development Loan Fund and Grant Program in Washington, D.C. to Support Real Estate Developers of Color

First two funded projects demonstrate how initiative creates a pathway for emerging real estate developers of color to enter the industry and positively impact the communities in which they build

(Arlington, VA – July 8, 2021) – Capital Impact Partners today launched its $20 million Diversity in Development – DMV Loan Fund (DiD-DMV), and named the first two high-impact housing and community development projects in Washington, D.C.’s Wards 7 and 8 financed through the Fund.

How Capital Impact and Our Partners Are Catalyzing Finance for Racial Equity

You can also find this content on the Nonprofit Finance Fund website.

Capital Impact Partners and Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF)  are decades-old Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) with long-standing commitments to supporting disinvested communities. In recent years, both organizations have explicitly recognized the opportunity to expand their impact by addressing structural racism, both internally and externally, as they deliver products and services to their communities.

Capital Impact and NFF have come together to form Catalyzing Finance for Racial Equity (CFRE), a collaborative that will engage staff, community-centered organizations, and CDFIs in identifying new ways that CDFIs can advance health justice and better support communities by refining or developing new lending products and processes.

Doctor and woman in consultation

Capital Impact Partners Awarded $1.8 Million through the Treasury Department to Help Communities and Small Businesses Recover From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Grants through the Treasury’s CDFI Rapid Response Program (CDFI RRP) will provide necessary capital for CDFIs to respond to economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in disinvested communities

Arlington, VA (June 15, 2021) The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that Capital Impact Partners was awarded $1,826,265 as part of $1.25 billion in awards to 863 Community Development Financial institutions (CDFIs) to respond to economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in disinvested, yet persevering communities across the country. 

In the First Quarter of 2021, Capital Impact Partners Works to Create Impact Where Communities See Value, Foster Generational Wealth Building, and Expand Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Our Efforts to Put Communities First

Centering our commitment to community-centered value will support hard-working communities to move forward and thrive in the wake of the pandemic

Arlington, VA (June 10, 2021) – After pivoting to face the realities that 2020 laid bare, the first quarter of 2021 for Capital Impact Partners has been about expanding our work to create opportunities for hard-working communities to move onward and upward. Our communities, including communities of color and communities living with low incomes, were hard-hit by the pandemic, as many of our neighbors were already struggling with inequity and lack of opportunities before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Women cook meals in a kitchen

Second Round of D.C. Co-op Impact Grant Supports Region’s Cooperatives

Grants support the growth of four existing and emerging cooperative businesses led by underserved entrepreneurs

Washington, D.C./Arlington, VA (June 8, 2021) — The Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif) and Capital Impact Partners today announced $40,000 in grant awards to four existing and emerging cooperatively owned businesses operated by people of color and/or workers living with low wages through the D.C. Co-op Impact Grant. In its second year, the grant advances community development by encouraging the growth of quality jobs, sustainable businesses, leadership development, and asset building through an equitable cooperative model.

The newly minted worker owners of Ward Lumber

Employee Ownership: The Power of the Cooperative Model to Build Opportunity and Wealth for Worker-Owners and Their Communities

By Alison Powers, Cooperative & Community Initiatives Manager

Co-ops are having a moment. That is to say that cooperatives, which have existed for generations, are currently being recognized for their ability to build economic power for the workers who own them. This point has become more underscored as communities have  been touched by the instability that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused within our health and economic systems, as well as decades of racial injustice. 

Ellis Carr, Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance CEO, and Antony Bugg-Levine, Nonprofit Finance Fund CEO

Where We Go from Here: Opportunities for CDFIs to Center Communities and Drive Capital for Holistic Community Development

This blog also appears on the Nonprofit Finance Fund website. You can read it here.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) were founded as part of the civil rights movement, to make access to capital more equitable for communities living with low incomes, often communities of color. However, despite the work of this part of the financial services industry, disinvested communities still suffer from unequitable capital access and thereby fewer opportunities for wealth building and shared prosperity. New models are needed to re-envision how transformation of community development can work for disinvested communities and develop local solutions to persistent issues.

Capital Impact Partners Awarded $1 million to Manage the Newly Created Nourish D.C. Fund by Mayor Muriel Bowser

Funds will be used to provide technical assistance, catalytic grants, and lending products to support D.C. food businesses and create an equitable food system

Arlington, VA (May 6, 2021) – Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser awarded Capital Impact Partners $1 million to manage the newly announced Nourish D.C. Fund. This fund, part of the $5.2 million D.C. Local Equity, Access, and Preservation Funds (D.C. LEAF) program, aims to support a robust ecosystem of locally owned food businesses in District neighborhoods by investing in BIPOC-owned businesses that otherwise struggle to access capital and also promotes health equity in the city.