Amongst our 104 Field Catalyst and Fulcrum Fellowship participants and alumni, no two leaders are pursuing system-level change in the same way. Rather, this growing network of leaders is committed to identifying the priorities that are essential for their neighbors to live in thriving places and finding creative solutions to finance pipelines of deals that will achieve these priorities while building ways for each set of deals to be easier than the last.
A system, as defined by Donella Meadows, “is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time.” We believe that cultivating a cohort of leaders who are committed to ensuring that investment meets resident visions to address the long-term effects of racism will create a system that moves resources more equitably. As we look at how systems-level change work has developed over CCI’s seven years in the field, we are inspired by the ways that these interconnected individuals envision new futures.
In a new series of interviews with some of our alumni, we will take a moment to look closely at what this work can look like, and how it’s playing out on the ground.
Today, we are excited to introduce Damon Burns, a member of our inaugural cohort of Fulcrum Fellows over seven years ago and executive director of Finance New Orleans. Last month, Finance New Orleans and Elemental Accelerator held The Resilient New Orleans Innovation Challenge Showcase, a competition whose winners will be partners in building new, affordable, climate resilient housing in New Orleans.
Watch this event recap and then hear from Damon about what this project means to him.
Helping New Orleans Reach its Full Potential: An Interview with Damon Burns, CEO of Finance New Orleans
What makes New Orleans special to you?
This is home for me. What I love about New Orleans is that it’s a very spiritual place. It’s a place that has geographical challenges and climate challenges, but it also has a lot to offer the world. Part of what drives me to do the work we’ve been doing at Finance New Orleans is to see New Orleans reach its full potential.
You all recently held the Resilient New Orleans Innovation Challenge Showcase. Can you tell me about it?
We’re seeking to identify companies that we can start using in projects we’re sponsoring. We have a homebuilding project that we’re sponsoring: we’re going to use land that we own to build innovative homes, and sell them to families using our green mortgage program. There are other projects too, like multifamily and other single-family projects, and we’re also looking at infrastructure projects: community solar, transportation, clean manufacturing, urban agriculture. The tech companies are very critical to the sustainability label. The showcase helped us identify companies that make sense for New Orleans, so that we can start figuring out ways to deploy those technologies in public sector projects.
Did the event go as you’d hoped?
It went better than I’d imagined. People were there soon as the doors opened. Individuals have started coming to us with ideas and opportunities because we had that event; they didn’t know we were doing these things before. It planted a lot of seeds and opened a lot of opportunity for us to home in on over the next 12 months. It feels like we have entered into a different space as an organization.
Where did the idea come from?
The seeds of it came from our experience with [Hurricane] Katrina. Finance New Orleans has been around since 1978 and we had a pretty sizable balance sheet, but that evaporated almost overnight [after Katrina]. The previous staff and board went through the recovery process, trying to figure out, “What do we do next?” We wanted to produce more innovative housing that could withstand climate change and could also contribute to a new economy in New Orleans, contribute to the equity that we’re looking for. So this has been a plan that’s been in the works for some time. My application for the Fulcrum Fellowship was based on some version of the Challenge.
Helping the people on the ground who need it the most—is that a main priority for you and Finance New Orleans?
Yes. That is our top objective. You have a lot of communities that fall behind strictly because they don’t have access to capital. So our job is to go out, access the capital markets, access public capital, private capital , philanthropic capital, package that, and deliver it to our community as loans, grants, equity investments—whatever the project calls for. There’s a long way to go, but I feel good about where we are. It is starting to happen.
What are some of the challenges you face?
The biggest challenge is coming up with the vision to transition this organization into something that is sustainable and feasible for the city. There was a very, very brief moment early on where I wasn’t sure we would get to this point. [But] I was able to stick through it and grew as a leader over time.
Also, this role is very demanding. I try to meet with every corner of the city; I don’t limit myself to just people I know or who I think are supporters. I try to meet everybody, to make sure that we are addressing all the city’s needs. That stretches me quite a bit.
If you met a young person interested in doing this kind of work, what would you tell them?
I’ll share some words of wisdom that one of my mentors delivers. He tells people that it is not hard work, it is heart work. That’s exactly what it is. You have to figure out ways every day to not make it about yourself. It’s true community service. You’ve been hired to create a vision. Sometimes you’re going to feel like you’re right and the community’s wrong, but they still want you to hear them and they still want you to deliver.
You said earlier that New Orleans is a deeply spiritual place. Does that contribute to your ability to do this job?
Absolutely. It’s the only way I can do it. The moments where it seemed like it was not going to work—those are the moments where the spiritual side kicks in and you’ve got to have a deep, true belief that what we’re doing is the right thing and something that’s going to benefit us as a people. That is my foundation.
