Even with the best intentions, disinvested communities–most especially communities of color–may be harmed by commonplace procedures established by institutions like banks and municipalities. Often, this is because these procedures are created to benefit institutions and not the communities that need assistance.

By Devin Culbertson and Sondra Ford In 2019 the SPARCC initiative was making plans for a second phase, but capital deployment was slower than we had hoped for. More importantly, our local partners were frustrated by our inability to lend to projects in their communities—which was the initial promise of SPARCC: changing the way we […]

Over the last 5 years, we’ve been working closely with our site partners to fund projects that center communities–from transit stop adjacent soccer fields to community owned housing, how we allocate money has evolved. As part of that evolution, we work closely with community leaders in identifying opportunities, helping develop them further, and structuring flexible […]