A Message From Capital Impact’s President and CEO and Board Chair
Looking back at our journey through 2018, both as an organization and as a country, it is no surprise to us that Merriam-Webster’s “word of the year” was justice. The meaning and implications of justice were central to important conversations taking place in communities across the United States.
While we are pleased to see attention brought to this critical topic, justice – or the lack thereof – is an issue that we have wrestled with for decades. Indeed, we reflected on this very issue when comparing 1968 and 2018.
That is why justice – racial, social, economic – is core to our own mission and is a critical conversation that we seek to drive every day through our work.
For many years, we sought to advance justice by supporting projects and facilities that created access to a wide range of social services. Despite surpassing $2.7 billion in investments throughout our history, we continued to witness an increasing gap between need and progress. In addressing that gap, we saw an opportunity to expand our focus and invest in efforts that help amplify the ability for individuals and communities to access long-denied resources and break down systemic barriers to determine success for themselves.
This meant thinking differently about the meaning of the word “assets:” not just financing and property, but the strong assets that each community brings to bear when given the opportunity.
