Square, Inc. Invests $25M in LISC Black Economic Development Fund

The mobile payment company Square Inc. is the latest firm to invest in LISC’s innovative Black Economic Development Fund, which is supporting Black-led lenders, institutions and businesses across the country. “With its impact investment and committed partnership, Square is helping us fight the racial wealth gap and drive lasting gains for American families and communities,” said Maurice A. Jones, LISC president and CEO. Square joins Netflix and Costco as the earliest investors in the fund.

This Year, Back-to-School Is Not What It Used to Be

This fall, all schools are struggling to devise ways to safely educate students in the midst of the pandemic. The charter schools whose facilities LISC has helped fund and guide are no different. Yvonne Nolan, who directs LISC’s charter schools financing work, checks in with some of our partner schools, who are taking cues from their communities to forge a new kind of education, and points out the ways CDFIs can help with this difficult process.

There’s No Time to Wait to End the Legacy of Redlining

In a powerful, truth-telling op-ed, LISC San Diego executive director Ricardo Flores shows how his city must take intentional action to throw off the Jim Crow-era legacy of redlining that still prevents economic mobility for many San Diegans. That local example, and Flores’ arguments, are applicable to cities and towns all across the country. It’s imperative and high time that all municipalities heed the message.