The opportunity to own an asset that grows in value is the most proven pathway to build wealth. For too long, families of color have seen this pathway blocked. We’re now actively partnering with our community to build an ownership movement capable of closing our racial wealth gap in new, bold and innovative ways. Join us.
More than ever, the tremendous wealth generated by the richest country in the world is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. When you consider persistent gaps in household wealth across different communities, we’re facing a serious challenge with wide-reaching consequences—one that affects economic stability, social cohesion, and the strength of our country as a whole.
We see an opportunity to build a different path.
Despite efforts to ensure greater opportunity, there are countless examples, through history and into current times, where policies have prevented some communities from owning assets both directly and indirectly. Attempts to rectify those policies — redlining, predatory lending, discriminatory housing practices like devaluing homes in Black neighborhoods — have been slow at best and ineffective at worst.
The philanthropic sector, impact investors, and policymakers have an opportunity to drive meaningful change through a simple strategy—expanding access to asset ownership and wealth-building opportunities for those historically excluded from them.
Doing so can help narrow persistent wealth gaps and strengthen economic mobility for all.
(Chart Source: Bell Policy Center)
Foundations and philanthropic institutions including the likes of Gary Community Ventures and national partners likeWorld Education Services (WES) are at the forefront of supporting innovative capital tools. We have developed a framework that can serve as a compass for other foundations and investors to invest with an ownership lens.
The underlying theses behind this ownership strategy are as follows:
With these premises in mind, our framework describes a range of models and innovative approaches to build pathways for ownership, wealth creation, and power- building for underinvested in and overlooked households and communities.
The ownership pyramid can be further unpacked to lay out specific strategies and examples that we’ve invested in under each category:
Aisha T. Weeks is leading the The Dearfield Fund,a concessionary private equity fund which provides up to $40,000 in down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers to help build generational wealth. The down-payment assistance is like a loan, but homeowners don’t make monthly payments and pay no interest. Instead, when homeowners sell or refinance they repay the down-payment amount plus 5% of their home’s appreciation, which allows the Dearfield Fund to serve more homeowners.
Partner Phillip Reeves is helping implement Apis & Heritage’s Employee-led Buyout (ELBO©) approach, which provides:
The Savings Collaborative provides tools to help families start saving and creating the future they want in just 2 minutes with only $5. This nonprofit provides easy-to-use digital savings tools, personalized savings coaching as well as safe and low-cost microloans for emergencies to help users save money and build a lifetime habit of savings. They lean into a high-tech, high-touch approach that aims to utilize:
Savings groups are an alternative to credit and gives you flexibility to access and build credit on your own terms
Kensington leverages a neighborhood trust model to maintain local control of property use & values
CHAI’s tenant equity vehicle is a path-breaking model that has never been attempted at this scale
Bumped’s technology gives consumers the power to turn their everyday spending into free stock ownership
CEO is designed to offer modest loans — primarily to low-income refugee and immigrant borrowers — at affordable rates from trusted locations
Blackstar Stability provides investors with risk-adjusted returns while generating significant benefits for low- and moderate-income families through restructured distressed mortgages and land sale contracts
Dearfield provides up to $40K in down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers in communities that have historically been denied access to open up new paths to wealth.
A&H combines the speed, scale and expertise of private equity with the proven productivity and wealth building power of employee ownership
Enterprise supports community development organizations, makes housing-based impact investments, advances housing policy while building and managing communities themselves
Have a solution or learning we should add to this movement? Email us at communications@garycommunity.org
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Together, we will create the change our community wants to see. Whether you want to discover more about our ventures, or connect with a member of our team, we want to hear from you.