It is difficult to believe 2024 is about to come to a close. I am finishing my second full year at NeighborWorks Capital and am excited about how we are positioning the organization to serve you in the future.
This month, we will be approving our 2025-7 Strategic Plan, and once it is approved, you will have access to detailed information about our direction. Our WHY statement reads:
Our WHY
We believe the NeighborWorks America network is a powerful catalyst for locally driven community advancement. We support their equitable and inclusive work by connecting human, financial, and intellectual capital.
We are raving fans of your work! We appreciate your unwavering commitment to serving your community. We appreciate the fact that you value the perspectives of residents and incorporate them in your work. We appreciate that you are active in every state, plus DC and Puerto Rico. We appreciate that you are part of this community of accountability that is the NeighborWorks network.
The work you do is difficult, but worth the effort and sacrifice. It requires resources- financial capital and other types of capital.
We view our role as connecting you with various types of capital, including financial capital with preferred terms, but not limited to our traditional loan capital.
There are two significant barriers to fully realizing the potential to connect you with the capital you need. First, investors and other funders do not adequately understand what you do. The most common perception is that NeighborWorks members are engaged in homeownership counseling, training, and general community development work. While that is an important component, it does not come close to capturing the full value of this network! Second, even if investors fully understood your value and impact, they do not have efficient avenues to bring capital to all of your organizations. Their teams are simply too small to engage with all members.
We have begun the process of solving both of those barriers. Over the last two years, we have engaged in hundreds of conversations with investors to educate them on your work, value, and impact. The more they learn, the more excited they become about supporting your work. We are methodically raising the visibility of NeighborWorks America and its members in the capital marketplace. This will yield many benefits in the years ahead.
We also developed and began implementing our Equitable Capital Initiative, a multifaceted effort to solve the second challenge… providing efficient ways to link you with new capital sources. Here are just a few of the results of this initiative, which is in its infancy.
NeighborWorks Capital Green is a partner in Climate United and has access to Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund resources because we effectively articulated the value of this network, and it resonated with the Climate United team. Collectively, we provide the most effective pathway to bring GGRF resources to low-income and disadvantaged communities (LIDAC) nationwide. Jay Wilson joined our team to lead this work.
This partnership with National Equity Fund (NEF) provides you with low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) terms that are typically reserved for only the largest developers. NeighborWorks Capital and NEF plan to build your advantage with each successive fund to the point where NeighborWorks members have a compelling advantage.
We established our consulting company last year and hired a proven leader to lead this work, Nancy Wagner-Hislip. Nancy has a variety of consulting engagements underway and is helping us build out NeighborWorks Capital Green as well.
NeighborWorks Capital and NeighborWorks America have entered into a partnership through which we plan to continually raise your profile with investors and bring a variety of types of preferred capital to fund your work. We have pitched this effort to funders and received strong support, including a large grant to help cover the cost of standing this up. Personally, I believe this particular component will drive transformational change for the network. It will take time and persistent effort. Ebony Perkins joined our team to lead this work.
Over the last two years, we have worked hard to transform NeighborWorks Capital into a fundamentally different organization. We are methodically building a team of leaders who bring deep experience to our work, and we are building out our operational capabilities.
We look forward to closing out a strong 2024 and working with you to create a transformational 2025. Please feel free to reach out with any thoughts or suggestions.
Jim
