Greenlining Institute

Date: 2020

Asset Class: Grant

Description:  The Greenlining Institute (meant to address historical redlining issues) advances economic opportunity and empowerment for people of color through advocacy, community and coalition building, research, and leadership development. Driving everything they do is a vision of equity in which opportunity is truly within reach of all. Greenlining’s approach connects community leaders with policymakers, researchers, and private sector leaders to design and support policies designed to open doors to opportunity. America’s racial wealth gap was created by deliberate policy choices and it will take deliberate, race-conscious choices to end it. They don’t see these interactions as a zero-sum game in which one side must win and the other must lose. Instead, they reach for win-win solutions that expand opportunity for all Americans.

Why We Invest: Since its founding in 1993, the Greenlining Institute has passed policies and negotiated with banks and other corporations to direct over $339 billion in investments into communities of color. Their focus on systemic change through policy working with public and private parties at different levels has brought real, practical benefits to underserved communities, from jobs in clean energy industries to protection for low-income Californians against unfair utility shut-offs. Their Leadership Academy trains the leaders of the future to be effective advocates for justice and fairness. Their 1,000 graduates spread values of diversity, empowerment and racial equity throughout the corporate and nonprofit worlds, city councils, school boards and even the California Supreme Court.