Hope Community Capital (HCC) supports sustainable, equitable and vibrant communities by connecting community development initiatives with financing and investors with opportunities to make an impact in economically emerging communities. HCC is an expert with the intricate process of identifying, accessing, and structuring the financial support to enable successful, asset-based community development initiatives. HCC has extensive experience garnering support and connecting communities with diverse sources of funding that catalyzes community-driven dreams into vibrant reality. Areas of expertise:>Identifying and securing innovative sources of capital (debt, equity, philanthropy)>Structuring complex financing (particularly tax credit equity for real estate)>Bringing diverse funding partners together>Financial planning for long term organizational sustainability (particularly for nonprofit, community-based organizations)>Developing project budgets>Building multi-year operating projections >Working with stakeholders at all levels of government, business, foundations, nonprofits and community leadership to advance sustainable projects>Advising on all CDFI Fund awards and CDFI certification

My 2020/2021 courses: Designing Regenerative Communities (Fall 2020) and Social Entrepreneurship (Fall 2020), Innovation for Social and Economic Well-being (Spring 2021). The Social Innovation & Sustainability Leadership Graduate Program is a collaborative innovation center where faculty, students and global sustainability experts explore emerging ideas and apply them to student-led, system-level social innovation projects. Together, we are part of the leadership required for a transition from our current social, economic, and environmental moment to a world that offers wellbeing for all while honoring planetary boundaries. Edgewood College’s Social Innovation & Sustainability Leadership Graduate Program is the first in the United States to offer a Master of Arts degree in Social Innovation & Sustainability Leadership.

As Director for Community Engagement and Impact at Edgewood College I am charged with developing and launching the Center for Social Innovation and Community Impact. I lead short- and long-range planning for community engagement and impact that enhances Edgewood College's strategic plan and priorities. The goal is to enact outcome-driven, long-term initiatives between the College and the community to address community-identified needs and concerns in socially innovative and entrepreneurial ways.

Our vision for community and economic development is to engage in comprehensive efforts that result in new investment in the neighborhoods in which we work and encourage and support entrepreneurship that builds personal and community wealth in Dane County’s African American community.For Nehemiah, successful community and economic development looks like:>Affordable housing development filling gaps in housing in the community;>A loan fund providing low-cost capital and advice to African American entrepreneurs;>Access to quality, living wage jobs in the communities we serve;>Job training opportunities for youth and adults that create a pathway to careers with family-supporting wages; and,>Commercial development to support businesses run by and for the African American community.

Forward Community Investments (FCI) is an investor, connector, and advisor for organizations and initiatives that reduce social, racial, and economic disparities across Wisconsin.