Words by Smiley Team
The US's largest community development organization is launching a $1 billion fundraising and investment effort to dismantle racial disparities across the country.
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has announced Project 10X, a decade-long initiative to bridge racial gaps in health, wealth and opportunity and build a more broadly shared American prosperity.
Through Project 10X, LISC will invest in businesses, community organizations, developers and projects that catalyze gains for people of color and contribute to growth in the communities where they live.
The initiative’s name reflects its chief purpose: to directly address the estimated tenfold difference in wealth between Black and White residents in the U.S., which has been worsening in recent years. That wealth gap is indicative of more pervasive challenges as well, from poorer health and shorter lifespans to increased risks of eviction and incarceration among people of color.
“This is the American story,” said Maurice A. Jones, LISC president and CEO. “Since the beginning of this country, we have been grappling with the issue of extending full humanity to all our people, regardless of race or place.
“We see it in the pandemic as well,” he continued. “The people on the front lines—our communities of color and our low-wealth communities—are absolutely vital right now, and yet they are also really vulnerable,” he said.
It will deploy capital based on four key priorities. These include generating lasting equity and wealth through homeownership and small business ownership, building credit, savings & strengthening financial institutions led by Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). Furthermore, LISC will invest in community health, digital access, arts and justice as well as supporting quality jobs with good wages and benefits.
Jones noted that LISC has worked in many of these areas for decades but through Project 10X will invest with a clear racial lens and an eye toward scale—moving beyond incremental change to achieve exponential impact.
“Never in my lifetime have I seen the sense of urgency…the fierce urgency of now…to do something about these challenges,” Jones said. “That’s why we are launching Project 10X. We need this level of scale to do the comprehensive, long-term, deep work that is required.”
He also noted that progress will require a range of impact investments that are flexible and creative, with new financial products that specifically respond to the legacy of racial discrimination and community-based solutions that can be tested, replicated and expanded to meet local needs.
“This is about being bold, ambitious and faithful,” Jones said. “We are talking to partners willing to join us in '10X' thinking, willing to stay in this for at least 10 years and willing to think about investing in multiples of 10. It is our biggest, boldest effort to eliminate racial gaps that represent America’s most pressing challenges.”
To find out more about Project 10X, visit www.lisc.org/10X.
