I’m thrilled to announce that Community Vision has received a $15 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and her organization, Yield Giving. This is the second gift Community Vision has received from Ms. Scott and will grow our impact in California’s communities of color and low-income communities.
We are incredibly humbled by this gift in support of our vision of a California where all communities—regardless of race or income—equitably control real estate as a path to agency, self determination, and power.
Because discrimination in land ownership and control has played a central role in racial and economic equity, Community Vision has worked for almost 40 years to advance community ownership of community assets. Since our founding, we have invested over $608 million, leveraging over $3 billion, and provided consulting and advisory services to almost 800 organizations across Northern and Central California.
We provide more than just the capital community-rooted organizations need to own social-purpose real estate. Our real estate and financial consultants partner deeply with many clients long before they take on a real estate project, ensuring they have the knowledge, resources, and support they need to successfully purchase and own assets in their communities.
This important investment in organization leaders and the real estate capacity of community ecosystems is time and cost intensive, and often challenging to fund. Ms. Scott’s funding provides us an opportunity to build a sustainable consulting model so we have both the loan capital and the support our clients need to bring community real estate projects to fruition.
Ms. Scott’s first gift to Community Vision allowed us to invest in organizational efficiency, new programs, and our loan fund. In the three years since, we have grown our loan portfolio by 50%, with the majority of these funds supporting BIPOC-led organizations and projects from Fresno to Humboldt County.
We also launched and sustained innovative new programs such as CalCORE and the Community Owned Shared Space Accelerator. These initiatives have grown the connection, capacity, and confidence of California’s community development ecosystem and resulted in dozens of new real estate projects owned by grassroots organizations. This investment in Community Vision was an investment in community wealth and community change.
Ms. Scott’s new gift will allow us to expand our impact further, guided by our Theory of Change and recently adopted strategic plan. This will include:
- Leveraging much of the gift with new investments to grow our loan fund, increasing the amount of flexible, affordable capital we can lend in support of community ownership of community assets, advancing community stability and permanency, and building power in and for marginalized communities
- Investing in our Catalyst Fund that provides no-cost, forgivable loans for pre-development expenses, which are often a barrier to nonprofit organizations considering real estate projects
- Expanding our unique real estate advisory services, while building a business model for this work that ensures longevity and self-sufficiency as we continue serving organizations that do not have funding to pay for deep, time-intensive consulting
- Creating new lending products that meet “of the moment” needs, such as financing the purchase of commercial real estate in communities where changes in the commercial real estate market have created unprecedented affordability for nonprofit organizations
- Growing our climate-related work focused on financing net-zero emissions buildings and resilience hubs that play an important role for communities on a daily basis and during times of crisis
- Broadening our reach to California communities currently underserved by both traditional financial institutions and CDFIs
As a locally founded, California-based CDFI serving primarily BIPOC-led organizations and those working in low-income communities, Community Vision has a nearly 40-year track record of deep partnership with local nonprofits and leaders, offering the capital and tools these organizations need to bring their community priorities to life. We’re grateful for the opportunity Ms. Scott’s gift provides to increase our investment in California communities.
