In July 2017, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Foundation invested $3.06 million investment into the Community Loan Fund. This was the UNH Foundation’s first impact investment, and its first investment directly into a New Hampshire organization or business. This total investment was one of the largest investments ever in the Community Loan Fund, and the UNH Foundation has since grown that commitment to $4.3 million. The Foundation’s Treasurer, Erik Gross, said the convergence of several factors made it happen. UNH has a proud history in the field of sustainability, which includes its Sustainability Institute, several related majors, renowned work on climate research, a student-led trash-to-treasure program, and a University-wide commitment to earn the Platinum-level STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) rating achieved later in 2017. At the same time, students encouraged UNH to divest its investments from fossil fuel companies and one student suggested making an investment in the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. The Foundation’s investment advisor analyzed the Community Loan Fund and approved it as an impact investment, not only for UNH, but for many of its clients. “It’s a natural fit,” says Erik. “New Hampshire is part and parcel of what UNH is,” he says. “The fact that (the investment) fits within our portfolio as a prudent investment is very important, but after that, it’s a great way to be able to help the people of New Hampshire.”
Case Study
The University of Alabama at Birmingham offers assistance to full-time, benefits-eligible faculty and staff who buy or renovate a home in designated areas in the nearby neighborhoods of Five Points, Glen Iris and North and South Titusville. These five year conditional grants may be used for the purchase, down payment and/or closing costs for a new home or for renovations on an existing home in the incentive zone. UAB will provide up to 10 grants per fiscal year for amounts of up to $8,000. According to the university, “Through this program, UAB will strengthen its connections to adjacent neighborhoods, contribute to community development, attract and retain valuable employees, promote sustainable practices and model leadership in providing employer-assisted housing benefits among Alabama employers.”
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
As soon as it became clear that Stillman would be located in a Opportunity Zone, the school’s president seized the opportunity to enlist the support of potential private equity partners, the City of Tuscaloosa, and consultants to develop investment projects for the school’s vacant and unused property holdings. As a result, Stillman College has developed plans to build three projects: 100 units of workforce housing for its faculty, administration, staff; redevelopment of an existing, vacant student dormitory for senior student housing; and a hotel (which has been postponed for COVID-19 reasons).
Stillman College signed a memorandum of understanding with partners in a project to build a 125-room hotel on the college campus to serve as a teaching center for the school’s hospitality management program. Also a part of the project is mixed-use residential and commercial space, including market-rate housing for faculty, graduate students and the surrounding community. The plan is for the project to be sold back to Stillman College for its long-term use at the end of a 10-year holding period, with the cash flowing back to the college. The primary investor is the Renaissance HBCU Opportunity Fund, an Opportunity Fund, that provides assistance and financing to historically black colleges and universities.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
Opportunity Zone equity was paired with Historic Tax Credits to support the transformation of an underutilized 125-year-old building on Lehigh University’s campus into 30 apartments and new retail space in South Bethlehem. Reinventing this space is part of Lehigh’s strategy to demonstrate their commitment to community, revitalize South Bethlehem, and continue campus expansion as the university grows. Opportunity Zone incentives, coupled with a committed developer and community development focused financing, funded this project.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
The university serves as an anchor in The Dayton Arcade project which restored a 9-building complex in downtown Dayton. The project includes affordable and market-rate units, University of Dayton and the Entrepreneurs Center’s Arcade Innovation Hub, leasable office and retail space, and event space. The Arcade is part of a larger plan by the City of Dayton to bring residents, jobs, and visitors back to the downtown. Across the street from the Arcade is the new Levitt Pavilion – an outdoor live music venue that offers 50 free concerts each year. The Levitt is at the center of “The Nine”, a nine-block redevelopment strategy led by the city that builds on existing underutilized assets to build a premiere downtown urban neighborhood centered around a central park.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
NPU-T (Neighborhood Planning Unit-T), Ashview Community Development Association, West End Neighborhood Development Association, Westview Community Organization, West End Merchant Coalition, Booker T. Washington Homeowners Association are working together under the Morehouse College Community Revitalization Initiative (MCCRI) . The initiative was started as programming to develop a relationship with the college’s surrounding community, greater West End Atlanta. This initiative is the home base of the college’s Adams/Conner Scholars, student interns who serve as the liaisons between Morehouse and the community. The initiative has three objectives around supporting revitalization in this area of Atlanta: preparing a neighborhood revitalization plan that emphasizes community-articulated preferences for development and preservation, establishing community-based momentum for driving neighborhood revitalization, and promoting and strengthening meaningful linkages between the community and Morehouse College.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
Western Colorado University’s ICELab is a “community organization with a keen interest in mountain town sustainability and economic diversity in rural Western Colorado.” The lab provides startups and growing businesses affordable coworking/office space as well as an Incubator Program.
In addition to serving as a space for community engagement and business incubation, ICELab is a nonprofit intermediary in applying for and deploying Opportunity Zone Mini Grants from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). Recently, OEDIT awarded ICELab with two grants on behalf of two private companies using Opportunity Zones for their community-oriented projects. One project is a sustainable hotel and the other a workforce housing development called Gunnison Rising sponsored by Williford LLC in the land use and affordable housing space.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
To encourage home ownership and help support stabilization and revitalization in and around the South Campus, the University at Buffalo offers the UB H.O.M.E. (Home Ownership Made Easy) program to full-time and part-time faculty and staff. This program is being funded by the University at Buffalo Foundation (UBF) in partnership with West Side Neighborhood Housing Services (West Side NHS), Inc., a NeighborWorks America Chartered Member with a proven track record of housing and community revitalization. Qualified buyers will be eligible for a combination of interest–free deferred and forgivable loans of up to $5,000, which can be used to help cover down payments and closing costs or for interest rate reduction. Up to $7,500 is available for homes in the target area.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
Between 1996 and 2003, the University of Pennsylvania tripled the dollar amount of goods and services purchased from West Philadelphia businesses through their Economic Inclusion Initiative. They continue to focus on local purchasing and aim to award 20 percent of all construction contracts to minority or women-owned businesses. The University has also made great investments in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods by adding 3,800 new street trees and 850 new pedestrian street lights to residential and commercial streets. Penn supports public education by contributing over $800,000 to the neighboring Sadie Alexander Mossell Elementary School and providing landscaping services and security & expertise from Penn’s Graduate School of Education. Penn supports a variety of programs towards preparing Philadelphia’s future workforce, including training minorities to apprentice with local building trade unions and investing in the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative to align unemployed West Philadelphians with opportunities in local anchor institutions. The University funds forgivable loans enabling 1,000 participants to homes in the neighborhood near the school. By investing $150 million in retail development, Penn attracted approximately $1 billion in private investment from the real estate sector. This investment has established vibrant, pedestrian-friendly retail corridors consisting of 450,000 square feet of large and small businesses and created connections between the campus and neighborhood.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
Marquette University is one of the 5 anchor institutions funding the Near West Side Partners nonprofit organization. The organization’s mission is to revitalize and sustain the Near West Side as a thriving business and residential corridor, through collaborative efforts to promote economic development, improved housing, unified neighborhood identity and branding, and greater safety for residents and businesses. Their first major program – the Promoting Assets & Reducing Crime (PARC) Initiative – was “a three-year, $1.5+ million initiative that leverages law enforcement resources to improve safety – largely by addressing negative impact properties, while working with business and other stakeholders to change the perception of this neighborhood and attract economic development opportunities.”