Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Mission-Driven Lenders Already Providing Assistance to Vulnerable Businesses During COVID-19

    The Business Center for New Americans, a nonprofit that offers loans with a focus on immigrant-run businesses, is going above and beyond to make sure its lenders get through the COVID-19 economic crisis. They are offering tailored support on how to apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, sharing other grant and loan opportunities, and using its status part of the SBA’s Microloan Program to offer new loans.

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  • What a Public Bank Can Do for Real People

    Public banking has allowed the state of North Dakota to flourish economically in a way that private banking there would not have enabled. From hospitals, to childcare centers, business development programs, and student loans, the state-owned Bank of North Dakota has subsidized local resources that give residents a better quality of life and access to more opportunities.

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  • Poor credit is a barrier to affordable housing. Lending circles are a tool for those in poverty

    Lift to Rise, a Coachella Valley nonprofit that pushes for housing and poverty policy change, launched a local lending circle program aimed at serving minority residents break the cycle of poverty. Partnered with San Francisco-based Mission Asset Fund, the lending circle helps those with poor credit or no credit at all to build up a spending history, have access to loans, create a savings account, improve their score, and more. Since 2008, Mission Asset Fund has partnered with more than 50 organizations across the U.S. to provide lending circles to more than 9,000 clients.

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  • This Bank Hired a Community Organizer and Here's What Happened Next

    Reducing inequality in the financial sector requires creating connections to underserved communities of color. In Boston, Berkshire Bank has begun an initiative to reach those who are “underbanked.” The bank’s new Reevex Labs facilities use coworking and event spaces to facilitate connections between communities and financial institutions. At Reevex locations, community members can connect to organizations like The Runway Project, which facilitates low-interest loans to entrepreneurs of color.

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  • Banks Don't Know What to Do With Their Branches

    With more users than ever use digital resources to access their bank accounts, banking companies with brick-and-mortar locations get creative with how to balance the digital and physical requests from their consumers. Some companies, like Capital One, have steered away from the traditional teller environment and have instead opened cafes and hosted community workshops to help people feel more comfortable in a bank setting.

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  • California Just Legalized Public Banks. Will the Rest of the Nation Follow Suit?

    In California, Governor Newsom recently signed into law a regulatory framework for public banking in the state. Public banking, a concept not without its detractors, has been established successfully in North Dakota and California hopes to follow suit to tamp down on frustrations that big banking institutions put profits over social good. Supporters of public banks see them as a tool to create positive community change and support historically marginalized groups.

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  • There Is Power in a Debtors' Union

    Debtors’ unions can use collective nonpayment of debts to fight against unfair lending practices. Amid the United States’ student loan financial crisis, debtor organizations like the Debt Collective leverage organization and collective action to seek financial justice. Prior to forming the Debt Collective, activists in the group Rolling Jubilee purchased and cancelled student debt portfolios from Corinthian Colleges Inc.

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  • The green bank for kids - set up by a child

    José Adolfo Quisocala is no ordinary 14 year old. He started a bank to teach local children to save money, and he is able to help them make money through a recycling program that rewards those who contribute paper and plastic. So far he works with 2,000 children and seven schools, with more demand on the way.

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  • Can Community Investment Trusts Help Slow Down Gentrification?

    In East Portland, Oregon, a new Community Investment Trust is working to ensure that low-income residents have the opportunity to build equity by investing in their real estate. The program is limited to four zip codes with a maximum contribution of $100 to ensure that the investments stay open only to the members of the community it's intended to serve. More than 95% of investors have kept their money in the trust, but the model might be difficult to scale nationally without effective partnerships.

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  • This Bias Training Changes How Angel Investors Think

    A membership organization called Pipeline Angels helps women and nonbinary femme entrepreneurs find investors and start their own businesses. Pipeline Angels addresses the investment disparities between businesses owned by men and women.

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