Alliance Video Series – CEO Conversations: Addressing the Wealth Gap at Scale

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 enterprise at www.investedincommunities.org

CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners recently announced a new alliance between the two companies.

We recognized that we had a special opportunity to create greater change together than we could individually in the communities we serve and beyond. This is an exciting journey we are embarking on and we want to share how the idea of creating an alliance came about and our vision for the future.

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Welcome to the second video of our new series, “CEO Conversations,” where CDC Small Business Finance’s CEO Kurt Chilcott and Capital Impact Partners CEO, Ellis Carr discuss the new alliance.

In this video, the CEO conversations will be revolving around how the two organizations plan to address the wealth gap at scale.

If you haven’t watched it already, check out the first video: CEO Conversations: A New Alliance.

Watch the video, or read the transcript below to hear what Kurt and Ellis have to say about addressing the wealth gap at scale. You can also watch the whole video series here.

 

Kurt:

What we believe at CDC Small Business Finance is that through our programs and our efforts, we really are all about wealth creation and about trying to address the significant wealth gap that we have between majority households and minority households, and particularly in communities of color where that wealth does not exist.

Part of the solution of trying to address that wealth gap is to encourage more minorities to start small businesses. We know that if you start a small business, that that tends to generate more intergenerational wealth. 

CDC Small Business Finance has been at the center of helping minority small businesses start their small businesses. A significant portion of our lending goes to small business startups. Then we combine that with our commercial real estate lending to small businesses, which also is a key part of generating wealth within minority communities. 

Our continuum of programs that we provide to small businesses fits in well with Capital Impact Partners’ mission of addressing the racial wealth gap that we have in this country.

Ellis:

Kurt, I totally agree. I think that our ability collectively allows us to really subscribe to the old African adage around “if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” 

This alliance allows us the opportunity to go further than we could achieve individually. I believe that we have the opportunity to really transform the industry by bringing and leveraging our values, our mission, and our collective capacity to provide support to other community-based organizations, but also to the communities themselves.

That’s one of the reasons why I’m extremely excited about this effort to really come together in ways that we could not accomplish individually in support of addressing the racial wealth gap specifically.

Kurt:

I couldn’t agree more. One of the things that both Ellis and I are really excited about is when you start to look at community development and economic development, and what that looks like in terms of bringing those two systems and approaches together, that’s really what our alliance represents. 

We know in the communities that we care about that they need access to health care, affordable housing, healthy foods, quality education, business opportunities and quality employment. 

Those are the pieces that we can bring together collectively to comprehensively go into these communities while working with community partners who know those communities well. We can make a comprehensive break down of the silos across the community and economic development, and make this happen in a way that has never been done before at scale.

UP NEXT:  WHAT PROBLEMS WE’RE SOLVING

Keep an eye out for our next episode, CEO Conversations: What Problems We’re Solving.