Diversity in Commercial Real Estate Takes Center Stage
2020
The Diversity in Commercial Real Estate Virtual Summit brought together more than 450 attendees from across the United States to hear a discussion of issues and topics of interest and impact to those engaged in diversifying the commercial real estate industry. Capital Impact’s Equitable Development Initiative was recognized as a leading program supporting people of color pursuing a real estate career.
Minority Business Leaders Award | Ellis Carr: His Passion is Investing in Community
2019
In 2019, Capital Impact’s CEO Ellis Carr was named to the Washington Business Journal’s prestigious Minority Business Leaders list. This profile piece looks at Ellis’ wide ranging career and passion for social and racial justice. “Capital Impact is the perfect nexus of using my core competency in finance and my passion for community. [It] brings those two worlds together in a really nice way,” notes Ellis in the article.
Bringing Community Development Lenders Back to their Civil Rights Roots
2019
Based on a panel discussion at the annual SOCAP conference, a gathering of 3000 social impact investors, this article looks back at the civil-rights roots of the CDFI industry. Based on interviews with leading CEOs, including Ellis Carr, the article explores the challenges and opportunities facing CDFIs as they work to stay true to those roots while maintaining financial viability.
The $500 Million Plan to Ease the Bay Area Housing Crisis
2019
The availability of affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area is a crisis for many residents across the region. To help reverse this trend, Capital Impact was asked to join the Partnership for The Bay’s Future, a $500 million initiative led by Chan Zuckerberg and other key funders. Our shared goal is to stabilize housing for 175,000 families within the next five years.
New Loan Fund to Boost Minority Entrepreneurs
2019
With funding from JPMorgan Chase and the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, Capital Impact was tasked with launching the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund in Washington, D.C. Together with our lending partners, including the Washington Area Community Investment Fund, the Latino Economic Development Council and Harbor Bank of Maryland, we are helping minority entrepreneurs get access to low-cost loans to jumpstart their enterprises.
Op-Ed: Battling Inequity in Food Systems with Entrepreneurship
2019
Communities of color have fewer opportunities in the food economy than whites, resulting in a variety of detrimental impacts, including illness and exacerbation of the racial wealth gap. In this Op-Ed, Capital Impact’s Olivia Rebenal explores how historical inequities have created this situation. She also illustrates a variety of promising initiatives that are being employed to unleash the power of minority entrepreneurs.
The Making of an Equitable Community Development Loan Product
2019
Over our years of working in Detroit, we have provided more than $200 million in financing to support projects that deliver social impact. However, we also learned that a majority of that financing went to white developers despite the city’s population being 79 percent black. This article describes how Capital Impact, with a grant from the CDFI Fund, is working to create a new loan product that will support a more equitable distribution of its financing efforts.
Why this Nonprofit Lender is Shifting its Focus to Detroit’s Neighborhoods
2019
When Capital Impact began working in Detroit in the early 2010s, its focus was to grow density in the urban core of the city with a focus on supporting communities of color. While that work continues, this article explores our strategy to move out into the surrounding neighborhoods to help stabilize and grow those communities.
A Black-led Food Co-op Grows in Detroit
2019
Through its Michigan Good Food Fund, Capital Impact invests in high-impact food projects and provides technical assistance across the state. As Olivia Rebanal, Capital Impact’s Director of Inclusive Food Systems, notes in the article, “we prioritize our work with food cooperatives because we feel the model allows for the creation of quality jobs.” One such investment includes support for the Detroit People’s Food Co-op, an African-American business cooperative.
NMTC Giving Meals on Wheels San Francisco Room to Grow
2019
New Markets Tax Credit, a program of the U.S. Treasury’s CDFI Fund, is designed to help attract private capital to support community development efforts. This article illustrates how Capital Impact used NMTCs to facilitate the financing of a Meals on Wheels kitchen in San Francisco—even though it is one of the most expensive U.S. cities in which to build. This support will help the program provide more than two million meals to needy residents.
