How a Regional Economic Development Strategy Can Benefit Baltimore

MIE members Patti Chandler of Baltimore Community Foundation and Catherine Banat of RBC Global Asset Management teamed up to pen an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun where they called upon the city’s various stakeholders to come together and devise a unified strategy for the region’s economic development. They argue that foundations, academic-led alliances, local philanthropic organizations and impact investing programs need to work together to create sustainable transformation in Baltimore. A regional economic development strategy — one that connects neighborhood resources to regional growth, acknowledges a history of discriminatory economic policies and aligns operational capacity and technical assistancesuch agreement will attract national capital to help the city build a robust small business community and develop capacity for its community development financial institutions (CDFIs), so that ultimately more low-income, low-wealth and other disadvantaged people are better able to join the economic mainstream.