Marking a Decade of Hustling Harder with Detroiters Toward an Equitable Future
By Ellis Carr, President and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance Ten years ago, Capital Impact Partners received an invitation from the Kresge Foundation to join in an effort to support Detroit as the city was reeling in the turbulence of…
Alliance “Get To Know Us” Spotlight: Brian McEvoy, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary
Our Spotlight series is designed to introduce you to the many people in our new enterprise who are working hard to drive change and create a powerful new voice for communities and small businesses. Earlier this year, we announced the formation of our exciting new…
Focusing on the Root Causes of Inequity: What the Pandemic and Racial Reckoning Have Meant for Community Development Financial Institutions
The last 18 months, lived in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, have opened eyes across our country to the inherent inequities that communities of color and communities living with low incomes experience in all aspects of life. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) have a…
Alliance “Get To Know Us” Spotlight: Raymond Guthrie, Head of Investments
Welcome to another episode of our Spotlight series where we highlight members of our new enterprise between CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners. Earlier this year we announced the formation of our exciting new enterprise that united Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small…
Alliance “Get To Know Us” Spotlight: Natalie Nickens Gunn, Chief Financial Officer
Welcome to our Spotlight series where we highlight members of our new enterprise with CDC Small Business Finance. Earlier this year we announced the formation of our exciting new enterprise that united Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance under a single strategy and…
A Bold Gamble for Building Community Wealth and Assets: A Q&A with Unity Council on the Successes and Lessons Learned from Fruitvale Transit Village
Oakland, Ca. is a vibrant place, a reflection of the multicultural communities within its borders. However, Oakland also experiences poverty, limited social services, and crime, which hold its communities back – particularly communities of color – from achieving their full potential. Over the past several…
2020 Annual Report Letter: Combating the Other Pandemic – Flattening the Curve for Social Justice
By Ellis Carr, President and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance Last year I opened up my Annual Report letter with a reference to COVID-19. While we were still grasping the seriousness of the situation, we could never have realized the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Accountability for George Floyd is Just the Start of Our Fight for Justice for All
By Ellis Carr, President and CEO, Capital Impact Partners, and CEO, CDC Small Business Finance On Wednesday, I woke up still processing the range of emotions I have felt since watching the jury deliver its verdict in the murder of George Floyd. It remains a…
Philanthropy for Outsized Impact: The Power of Program-Related Investments
This blog also appears on the Engage R + D blog. You can find it here. How can foundation dollars be more powerful in a time of crisis? As COVID-19 continues to disproportionately impact communities that have long experienced economic disinvestment, many are asking how…
Capital Impact and CDC Small Business Finance Align Operations Under One CEO to Transform How Capital Flows into Disinvested Communities (Blog)
We are excited to announce that Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance are formally coming together to launch a transformative new enterprise and innovate how capital and investments flow into historically disinvested communities to advance economic empowerment and equitable wealth creation. Leveraging our…
To Our AAPI Community: We Stand with You
By Ellis Carr, President and CEO At Capital Impact Partners, we condemn the recent and ongoing acts of violence against our Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, and are fervently opposed to any language or thoughts that justify or lend themselves to such terrible acts.…
VIDEO: Fresh Take – A Conversation about the Power of CDFIs to Expand Economic Power and Inclusive Growth
In February, our President and CEO Ellis Carr sat down with the Greater Washington Partnership’s CEO J.B. Holston for a conversation about economic power and inclusive growth in disinvested communities, and the role that Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) play in transforming communities nationwide into…
Alliance CEOs – Opinion: Equitable revitalization critical to Detroit’s future (Detroit News)
Ellis Carr is now the president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. Kurt Chilcott, formerly president and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance, has transitioned to Board Chair of the combined organization. We invite you to learn more about our new…
In the Face of COVID-19, One Detroit School Meets Its Community With the Services It Needs
Since COVID-19 began, times have been incredibly trying for many across the country. Schools and teachers have been particularly hard-hit, having to figure out what education looks like in this new reality. It has been grueling, the hours have been long, and all of this…
Bringing Food Closer to Home: Evaluating Five Years of Building Inclusive Food Systems with Michigan Good Food Fund
By Mary Donnell, Technical Assistance Manager Five year ago, we and several organizations saw the need to expand inclusive food systems and access to healthy food for communities across Michigan. We know the importance of having access to healthy food within close proximity of home.…
The Next 100 Days for Equity and CDFIs: Reflections on the Biden-Harris Administration
By Ellis Carr, President and CEO Last week, we witnessed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris take the oath of office, signaling a new administration. It is a historic moment for our country. VP Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is…
Addressing the Housing Crisis: Preserving Vital Affordable Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area
This blog was published about the Bay's Future Fund in partnership with LISC Bay Area. Find information about this development on the Bay's Future Fund website. By Andrew King, Senior Origination Loan Officer Given the dual perks of beautiful, historic homes and close proximity to…
How Unequal Investment in Detroit Led to Programmatic Solutions to Affordable Housing: Stay Midtown
By Ashlee Cunningham, Senior Specialist, Housing and Community Development In Detroit, long-term disinvestment in the city’s neighborhoods has led to unequitable barriers to opportunity. Systemic racism and disenfranchisement limited opportunities for many Detroiters, more than 80 percent of whom are Black. That has kept many…
Alliance Video Series – CEO Conversations: Moving Beyond the Status Quo
Ellis Carr is now the president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. Kurt Chilcott, formerly president and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance, has transitioned to Board Chair of the combined organization. We invite you to learn more about our new…
Alliance Video Series – CEO Conversations: Disrupting the Distribution Channels
Ellis Carr is now the president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. Kurt Chilcott, formerly president and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance, has transitioned to Board Chair of the combined organization. We invite you to learn more about our new…
Partner Q&A: Supporting California Community Health Centers Pivoting in the Face of COVID-19
With the COVID-19 pandemic still impacting communities across the country, particularly communities of color, the work of community health centers and clinics (CHCs) is more urgent than ever. Community health centers have worked extremely hard to meet the medical needs…
Alliance Video Series – CEO Conversations: Redefining the Paradigm
Ellis Carr is now the president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. Kurt Chilcott, formerly president and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance, has transitioned to Board Chair of the combined organization. We invite you to learn more about our new…
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, local independent grocers double down to feed their communities
By Mary Donnell, Program Manager, Michigan Good Food Fund The grocery business is more competitive than ever. Even in normal times, much of the market share is taken up by the big-box players. But in the face of an unprecedented pandemic, local, independent grocers are…
Podcast: Everything Co-op Interview about Capital Impact’s 2020 Co-op Innovation Award
By Alison Powers, Cooperative & Community Initiatives Manager In early 2020, Capital Impact Partners, in partnership with the National Cooperative Bank, awarded a total of $100,000 to three awardees, - ChiFresh Kitchen, The Guild, and the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative – through its Co-op Innovative…
Alliance Video Series – CEO Conversations: What Problems We’re Solving
Ellis Carr is now the president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. Kurt Chilcott, formerly president and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance, has transitioned to Board Chair of the combined organization. We invite you to learn more about our new…
As Crises Deepen Inequity, CDFIs Act as a Counterforce in Order to Build Community Assets
By Diane Borradaile, Chief Lending Officer For generations, systemic racism has kept many people of color from achieving even a basic standard of living, which includes social services that help communities thrive. As we wrote in the first of our series looking at the repercussions…
