LOS ANGELES (Dec. 16, 2021) – Enterprise Community Partners in Southern California (Enterprise) was selected by Citi Foundation as a recipient of the Community Progress Makers initiative, which supports visionary organizations across the U.S. that are working to connect low-income communities and communities of color to greater social and economic opportunity. As a Community Progress Maker, Enterprise will receive a multi-year, unrestricted grant of $500,000 and access to technical assistance and a supportive learning community from 2022 – 2023.
Through Citi Foundation’s support, Enterprise will elevate and invest in Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) leaders, organizations and developers to diversify the local affordable housing and commercial real estate sectors to equalize power, investment and profit within community development.
“The flexibility of the grant, the technical assistance and the learning community will be a great enhancement to our work of providing the tools, training and capital to support BIPOC-led and other historically marginalized organizations seeking to increase their development capacities to better serve our local community,” said Jimar Wilson, VP and Southern California market leader, Enterprise.
The newest cohort of Community Progress Makers includes 50 leading nonprofit organizations selected through a competitive Request for Proposals process, with a strong track record of supporting underserved communities across six U.S. cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C. The Citi Foundation will provide a supportive learning community through which grantees can connect to share best practices and strengthen their work as social change agents. Technical assistance will also be provided by the Urban Institute to help measure the cohort’s impact and progress.
“Six years ago, the Citi Foundation launched Community Progress Makers with a vision of empowering community leaders to grow their transformative impact through unrestricted, trust-based funding,” said Brandee McHale, Head of Community Investing and Development and President of the Citi Foundation. “This kind of approach and support is more important than ever as the U.S. continues to address the root causes and impacts of income and wealth inequality. Through the Community Progress Makers initiative, these social innovators and advocates can continue to look for new ways of addressing long-standing societal challenges at scale.”
From 2015 to 2019, the Citi Foundation has provided $40 million in multi-year, unrestricted funding to 72 Community Progress Makers, helping to place over 45,000 people in affordable housing, train over 33,000 people for employment, save over $10 million in energy costs, and expand over 12,000 small businesses.
Other Los Angeles-based Community Progress Makers are:
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Central City Neighborhood Partners
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CHIRLA
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Clifford Beers Housing
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Little Tokyo Service Center
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PARS Equality Center Los Angeles
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Puente Learning Center
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Vermont Slauson Local Development Corporation
For more information about Community Progress Makers and a complete list of the cohort, please visit www.citifoundation.com/cpm.
About the Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant communities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit Citi Foundation.
Media Contact
Karen Whitaker
kwhitaker@enterprisecommunity.org
213.787.8236