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Racial Equity
Where conventional financial systems perpetuate structural racism, community investment has the potential to play a powerful role in advancing racial equity in and across communities—but only if we actively work to center equity in all aspects of the system.

How We Got Here
Centuries of structural racism have shaped financial systems and markets to channel resources to communities that already have them and further disinvest communities that don’t. To overcome that legacy, community residents and their aspirations must drive local community investment systems, and community investment practitioners must incorporate racial equity lenses and attend to the racial equity implications in every choice we make.

Making Change Happen
Recent events—COVID-19’s racial disparities, ongoing police violence, surging white nationalism—signal the urgency of uprooting racism across American society. By tackling the biases baked into the community investment system and reshaping it to prioritize racial equity, practitioners can transform communities and the lives of their residents.

Racial Equity Resources
We offer tools, research, and ideas to help those working for racial justice in systems, organizations, and communities.
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Advancing the Social Determinants of Health as the Pathway to Recovery for Black People
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Thoughts on Centering Blackness and Employment Equity in Detroit
Climate
Seeding Climate Resilience Through Equitable Investment
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2021: Changing the Perspective from Need to Opportunity
Community and Economic Development
COVID-19, Structural Racism, and Community Investment: Notes Toward a Just Recovery
Transformational Change
Helping emerging community leaders develop key management and leadership skills.
Past Programs

The Fulcrum Fellowship equips rising executives in the philanthropic, nonprofit, public, and private sectors to lead transformational change.
Field Leaders
Meet some of the people working to advance racial equity through community and economic development.
Baltimore Department of Planning
Assistant Director for Equity, Engagement, and Communications
Baltimore, Maryland
Wells Fargo Foundation
Head of Housing Access and Affordability Philanthropy
Kensington, Maryland
National Fair Housing Alliance
Vice President of Housing and Community Development
Washington, District of Columbia
The Latest from CCI
News, stories about our work, and more. For general press inquiries, please contact [email protected].
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Elevating the Voices of People of Color on the Frontlines of Change
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Thoughts on Centering Blackness and Employment Equity in Detroit
It is only fitting that our new administration should be launching its work as Black History Month begins. If there has ever been a time that this country needs to
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