In 1994, the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations was established by four local community development corporations to advance the interests of their industry. But the state’s community economic development industry truly got its start when residents rallied to help each other rebuild after devastation. The organization has since renamed itself South Carolina...
All too often, economic development excludes community members from the decisions affecting where they live, strains local resources and siphons financial returns to outside developers with no accountability to the community. There is a better way, one that provides communities with the infrastructure and support they need to access capital, address their needs, grow thriving businesses, build...
With her retirement on the horizon, MRBF Deputy Director Gladys Washington delivered the keynote address to the Greater New Orleans Funders Network 's annual convening on October 22, 2019, which happened to be her birthday. Her remarks are as follows:
Thank you for having me here today for this convening of visionaries working toward a better Louisiana. The unity among...
This article originally appeared as a blog post by Virginia Community Capital.
In 2016, Fahe, a regional Network, financial intermediary, and CDFI, received $50 million in loan awards from the USDA Community Facilities Relending Program to pursue its mission: ending persistent poverty in Appalachia. Among its numerous initiatives, Fahe sought to build several...
As we have been wading deeper into our learning about racial equity and trying to advance opportunity through all aspects of our work, it became apparent we needed some kind of equity tool – a consistent mechanism to guide our thinking about the effects of our actions, from the grants we make to the ways we describe our work. To set about creating this tool, we drew expertise from some of the...
