How Baltimore’s Philanthropists are Collaborating to Grow Small Business

This article in Barron's discusses how Baltimore’s philanthropists were able to collaborate in support of bringing much needed capital to entrepreneurs of color. The article spotlights Annie E. Casey Foundation's Entrepreneurs of Color Fund and notes the various partnerships coming together to build local financial infrastructure and support CDFIs to effectively deploy capital into the community, as explained by James Wahls, the foundation's Senior Investment Analyst. Another example cited in the article is Benefit Chicago, with its own ecosystem design and impact investing products.

 

The article also covers the three practitioner briefs discussing place-based impact investing collaborations recently published by MIE and Urban Institute, and funded by the MacArthur Foundation. MIE Senior VP Melanie Audette is quoted in the article on why MIE and Urban Institute produced these briefs: “Foundations are looking for ways to work in a revolutionary way… They are looking at how to make those grants and impact investments in their community on their own, but to do it in a way where they can scale their efforts because they are bringing in others with similar or the same purposes to make that change in the community.”

 

Click here for more information on the practitioner briefs. MIE and Urban Institute are organizing two webinars this summer to continue the discussion on building collaborations for place based impact investing. See below for a link to the first webinar.