Low Income Investment Fund Announces Ten-Year $5 Billion Goal to Drive Investments in Racial Equity

On Tuesday, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) announced a commitment to drive $5 billion in investments to advance racial equity.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2020
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  • On Tuesday, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) announced a commitment to drive $5 billion in investments to advance racial equity.
  • This bold goal will guide the national nonprofits work for the next ten years as the organization seeks to create communities of opportunity, equity and well-being.
  • The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) is a national nonprofit community development financial institution with $900 million in assets under management.
  • LIIFs mission is to mobilize capital and partners to achieve opportunity, equity and well-being for people and communities.


On Tuesday, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) announced a commitment to drive $5 billion in investments to advance racial equity. This bold goal will guide the national nonprofit’s work for the next ten years as the organization seeks to create communities of opportunity, equity and well-being.

To launch its efforts toward this goal, LIIF—one of the nation’s leading nonprofit community development financial institutions (CDFIs)—has developed a strategic plan—Mobilizing Capital to Build Communities of Opportunity, Equity and Well-Being—which charts a course for its strategic focus through 2024. The plan establishes a foundation for how LIIF will transform its work and approach to address the deep inequities that have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining strategies that address the immediate needs of communities facing crises and long-term responses to build a more equitable future.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the disproportionate health and economic impacts on communities of color,” said Daniel A. Nissenbaum, LIIF’s CEO, “For too long, our work has been driven as much by the financial system in which we participate as our deep understanding of and experience in what is needed to create communities of opportunity, equity and well-being. LIIF’s new strategic plan acknowledges the extent to which the traditional capital markets have long been rooted in White supremacy, by limiting the ability for people of color to reap the rewards of their work, building wealth and reaching their potential.”

Among the plan’s key priorities are:

● Impact-led lending: As a CDFI, lending is the primary engine of impact LIIF uses to build communities of opportunity, equity and well-being. Since inception, LIIF has deployed $2.7 billion, and its new plan will guide the organization toward establishing measurable, equitable outcomes for people of color and identifying strategies that put power, community decision and capital closer to where it belongs — in communities.

● Affordable housing: Long-standing racial disparities continue to create barriers to quality affordable housing for communities of color. LIIF’s focus in the affordable housing sector is centered on offering capital products, seeking out mission-aligned partnerships and filling funding gaps to increase the supply of affordable homes where communities are at risk of displacement, particularly communities of color.

● Early care and education: Equitable access to early care and education (ECE) is fundamental to holistic community development and a critical social determinant of health. LIIF’s plan outlines a commitment to double the number of children and ECE professionals we serve by 2024 to expand and preserve access to high quality early care and education.

Earlier this summer, after learning of the strategic plan, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott provided a major philanthropic contribution to LIIF to help the organization achieve its goal of racial equity. LIIF utilizes funding from investors and philanthropists like Scott to make sound investments in affordable housing and early care and education and increase the assets that accelerate communities of opportunity, equity and well-being.

The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) is a national nonprofit community development financial institution with $900 million in assets under management. LIIF’s mission is to mobilize capital and partners to achieve opportunity, equity and well-being for people and communities. Since 1984, LIIF has deployed $2.7 billion to serve more than two million people in communities across the country from its five offices. An S&P-rated organization, LIIF innovates financial solutions that create more equitable outcomes for all by building affordable homes, quality educational opportunities from early childhood through higher education, health clinics, healthy food retail and community facilities. Learn more at www.liifund.org.

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