Armeni and Lyon describe GCEI [Grassroots Community Engaged Investing] as a “power-building approach to investment.” By this they mean that investment is made in service of a broader community-building agenda. This approach, they contend, connects social justice movements to capital, builds community knowledge regarding local economic ecosystems, and funds projects that are “supported by and reciprocally support existing movements in the community.”
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Armeni and Lyon build their case by drawing on 16 organizations. Eight of the profiled groups are loan funds—three locally based, two regionally based, and three national funds. Of the national funds, both the Olamina Fund and Seed Commons support local lenders, which in turn lend to BIPOC-owned businesses (or, for Seed Commons, specifically worker cooperatives). ROC USA, by contrast, provides loans to finance resident purchases of manufactured housing communities (mobile home parks). A list of the eight funds is below:
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