July 2021

This Croatan Conversation is the first discussion in the new Racial Equity, Economics, Finance, and Sustainability (REEFS) webinar series, Redirecting Capital to Accelerate Racial Equity. For impact and conscientious investors, this series identifies opportunities across asset classes to tackle racial inequities. The act of redirecting capital requires investors to acknowledge that decades of affirmative actions mainly benefiting White Americans — investments in education, homeownership, and job access — have created disparate income and wealth outcomes for communities of color.

In this first session focusing on cash allocations, community development practitioners:

1. shared how examples of how cash placed with credit unions and other CDFIs support racial equity outcomes;
2. highlighted challenges and opportunities in taking on large cash inflows in moments of “social awakening;” and
3. identified opportunities for investors to use non-financial resources to support an enabling environment to optimize their impact for equity and justice.