Turning Investment Assets into Local Housing: Community Foundation Approaches to Housing Impact Investing

A safe and affordable home is crucial to advancing personal wellbeing for families, and an affordable housing market is vital to thriving communities. 

However, many communities across the country are experiencing a housing crisis. It’s becoming a problem for residents who need to keep their cost of living down, residents who hope to grow wealth through homeownership, and communities that want to maintain and grow their populations. 

While the construction of new housing is beyond the grant budgets of nearly all place-focused foundations, some community foundations are finding innovative ways to use their investment portfolios—already composed of sizable real estate investments—to partner with local developers and increase local housing stock. 

This Zoom meeting is held in conjunction with the Community Investment Project. 

Coralie Pledger, Austin Community Foundation, and Sean White, Director of Strategy for Civic Partnerships at Michigan Central, will kick off the discussion by sharing how they have developed programs to increase local housing and use investments in creative ways to accomplish their mission. There will be plenty of time for questions, discussions, and additional stories from other event participants.

We want you to join the discussion! People interested in sharing or learning about doing economic development differently will enrich this conversation. Please think about a success story or experience you’d like to share. 

The gathering will be hosted by Bonita Robertson-Hardy, Aspen CSG’s Co-Executive Director, and moderated by Travis Green, Community Investment Project's Project Director. You don’t have to share your voice to participate in the event; we encourage you to send insights in the chat or listen. All are welcome.