Summary
Second Year Of Funding In Partnership With Morgan Stanley Will Aid 24 Organizations In Local Small Business And Housing Development Work
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has awarded Field Empowerment Fund grants to 24 community organizations as the second cohort of grantees under the 18-month program.
“Our members know best what specific programming will deliver the greatest impact on building the Just Economy in the communities where they work every day,” NCRC President and CEO Jesse Van Tol said. “The Field Empowerment Fund was developed to honor that local expertise by increasing organizations’ capacity. It was a joy to see so many strong applications come in. I hope that the financial services and philanthropic communities will step up to ensure that we can continue this type of high-impact work in the same way Morgan Stanley did over the past two years through the Field Empowerment Fund.”
Together with the prior year’s fund awards, the newly announced grants mean that a total of 54 community groups will benefit from the Morgan Stanley-supported $5 million Field Empowerment Fund. The program provides unrestricted grants to NCRC members to help advance racial equity in low-wealth communities through affordable housing, small business support and housing counseling. The earlier round of grant awards was also targeted to organizations focused on promoting COVID-19 economic recovery in historically underserved communities.
The latest awardees are:
CALIFORNIA
California Reinvestment Coalition (San Francisco, CA)
Initiating Change in Our Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation ( Los Angeles, CA)
Pacific Community Ventures (Oakland, CA)
Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation (Los Angeles, CA)
FLORIDA
African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs (Orlando, FL)
Black Business Investment Fund (Orlando, FL)
Community Reinvestment Alliance of South Florida (Miami, FL)
GEORGIA
ACT! Albany Community Together Inc. (Albany, GA)
ILLINOIS
Chicago Community Loan Fund (Chicago, IL)
IOWA
Iowa Community Capital (Des Moines, IA)
MASSACHUSETTS
CommonWealth Kitchen (Boston, MA)
Lawrence CommunityWorks, Inc. (Lawrence, MA)
MICHIGAN
Metro Community Development, Inc. (Flint, MI)
MINNESOTA
Rondo Community Land Trust (St. Paul, MN)
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund (Newark, NJ)
NEW YORK
Pratt Area Community Council, Inc. (Brooklyn, New York, NY)
PENNSYLVANIA
The Food Trust (Philadelphia, PA)
Lower Marshall-Shadeland Development Initiative (Pittsburgh, PA)
TEXAS
Avenue Community Development Corporation (Houston, TX)
WISCONSIN
Couleecap, Inc. (Westby, WI)
Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council (Milwaukee, WI)
WASHINGTON, DC
City First Enterprises, Inc. (Washington, DC)
Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED) (Washington, D.C.)
Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif) (Washington, D.C.)
Selection criteria focused on organizations that had strong proposals for implementation of innovative, high-impact programming that could be scaled effectively to promote racial equity at the local level. Awarded amounts vary and are for an 18-month period. Many awardees intend to use the funds for capacity building, loan capital and operational support.
“I have never been more proud of the collective body of work from our members. We received an overwhelming outpouring of interest in this fund and explicit plans detailing their community needs. We remain deeply committed to helping our members and the communities they serve recover from COVID-19 and build capacity in affordable housing, small business and housing counseling,” said Ibijoke Akinbowale, Director, Community Impact at NCRC.
For more information about the Field Empowerment Fund, please contact impact@ncrc.org.
