Stories

South Carolina

  • Community Economic Development in South Carolina: Our History, Our Progress, Our Future

    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...

    Bernie Mazyck
  • Community Economic Development is Social Justice at Work

    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...

  • MRBF opposes LGBTQ religious exemption to equal opportunity clause

    The administration is poised to make it easier for employers to discriminate against LGBTQ people, those seeking reproductive care and women. The Department of Labor has proposed a new rule to grant federal contractors a broad religious exemption to the equal opportunity clause, which would put more than 11.3 million Americans who already suffer from high rates of poverty and workplace...

  • Making the Invisible Visible: the State Priorities Partnership

    Last month, Executive Director Justin Maxson delivered remarks at the State Priorities Partnership 's Summer Leadership Institute. SPP is a network of more than 40 independent, nonprofit research and policy organizations across the country, coordinated by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities . They equip lawmakers, journalists, advocates, nonprofits and the public with research and...

    State Priorities Partnership
  • For Love of Humankind: A Call to Action for Southern Philanthropy

    We are issuing a clarion call to Southern philanthropic organizations to respond to the manic drumbeat of anti-immigrant rhetoric and cruelty coming from the White House. This month began with a mass shooting targeting the Latinx community. Days later, massive raids tore apart hundreds of families and destabilized Mississippi communities but levied no consequences for the corporate leadership...