by Chris Winters, YES! Magazine Traditionally, support for small businesses comes from organizations like Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, which have long been seen as a way to invest in historically excluded communities. But CDFIs, many of which are federally chartered, are still part of the mainstream banking economy, which means they need to meet…
Read MoreThe U.S. has long operated without being an inclusive economy. It’s a fact of American life that’s most apparent in data on racial wealth gaps. In 2019, the median net worth of a white family in the U.S. was about $188,200 compared to $24,100 for Black families, according to the Survey of Consumer Finances. Two broad…
Read MoreJessica launched The Runway Project with Self-Help Credit Union and enlisted leaders in the Common Future network to support. As a result, the Runway Project has grown into a thriving project in Oakland, California. It demonstrated something Jessica has always known: that the underlying problem is not so much related to the entrepreneurs as it…
Read MoreToday, the Boston Ujima Project is one of the best-known examples of democratizing control of capital in the United States. Ujima has created an impact investing fund where the community has decision-making power over investments to uplift local, people of color owned enterprises and grow community wealth. The fund is governed by voting members, all…
Read MoreSeed Commons is a national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds that brings the power of big finance under community control. Seed Commons takes in investment as a single fund, then shares that capital for local deployment into cooperative enterprises by and for communities, lowering risk while increasing impact. Since their first national convening in…
Read MoreIn 2018, fund managers deployed $502 billion dollars towards socially impactful causes in impact investing funds. That same year, individuals and institutions donated $427.71 billion to U.S. charitable organizations. Together, we collectively diverted $1 trillion dollars to support impactful organizations or other beneficiaries. And yet, the wealth gap between the ultra rich and everyone else in the United States continues to…
Read MoreIt’s been three years since Darren Walker confronted the origins of modern philanthropy in his well-known essay: “Toward a new gospel of wealth.” In questioning the inherent tensions “between philanthropic efforts to address inequality and the structural economic realities that make it possible for foundations to exist at all,” Walker’s essay sent shock waves throughout…
Read MoreWe’ve said it before: capitalism is broken, especially for people of color. The systemic barriers that exacerbate wealth inequality, such as shareholder primacy and racialized lending practices, continue to maintain a harmful power imbalance. Despite a growing economy, wealth inequality continues to increase. We live in a time of deep questioning. With Larry Kramer, President of…
Read MoreA common refrain in the impact world is “those who are closest to the problem are closest to the solution.” At BALLE, we remind ourselves that those most directly impacted by injustice have the greatest insight into opportunities for change. The leaders who we’ve been privileged to work with through the BALLE Fellowship live in and…
Read More