Starting a business is hard work. But Cassandria Campbell and her business partner Jackson Renshaw were determined to make it happen. Their goal was to bring fresh, locally-grown food to neighborhoods in Boston where healthy and affordable food can be hard to find. They created Fresh Food Generation, a farm-to-plate food truck and catering business that would source ingredients from the greater Boston area.

Cassandria and Jackson needed help to get off the ground, and they found it in Dorchester. Years ago, Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation saw the old, vacant Bornstein and Pearl Meats factory as a potential resource for growth in their community. They partnered with Crop Circle Kitchen to revitalize this former community landmark into a state-of-the-art culinary incubator. Dorchester Bay EDC spearheaded the $14 million project, and Crop Circle Kitchen shared their expertise in what food businesses need to get started and keep growing.

This collaboration produced the Bornstein and Pearl Food Production Center, a 36,000 square foot facility specially outfitted for food trucks and small enterprises. The Center provides businesses with commercial kitchen equipment and space to operate, as well as specialized technical assistance and access to capital.  By the end of 2014, there were 17 businesses and 71 people working there. And these businesses are growing.

Fresh Food Generation now employs five people and serves roughly 3,000 customers each month. For Cassandria and Jackson, it has been “the ideal kitchen space for us to start and build our company…Crop Circle has whole-heartedly supported our mission and has helped us work towards achieving our goals. The staff helped us streamline our operations so we were more efficient in the kitchen and helped us connect to funding and catering opportunities.”

Small businesses like Fresh Food Generation play a critical role in increasing access to healthy, local food in underserved communities. But they can’t do it all on their own. In the Pearl Food Production Center, the ingredients are all there for these businesses to grow.

Check out the MACDC GOALs report.

It’s rare that a pilot program can generate $45 million in new contracts in less than two years. But that’s just what happened when MACDC and the Massachusetts Minority Contractors Association (MMCA) came together to create the Boston Pilot Program. For John Cruz, winning one of those contracts was “like coming out of the drought” after the great recession. Cruz Construction won the $7.5 million contract to build the Walnut Avenue Apartments, a 31-unit project developed by Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation. As a result, John Cruz has been able to build wealth in the community by hiring local residents. “Being from the community and also being a black-owned company, we have a commitment – and should have a commitment – to give more back to the community in which we reside.”

Minority-owned businesses like Cruz Construction often have a hard time getting contracts for Boston-area development projects. Women-owned businesses face a similar challenge. This means that they miss out on lucrative contracts and on the chance to grow their businesses and reach new markets. 

To address this problem, MACDC partnered with the Massachusetts Minority Contractors Association (MMCA) to launch the Boston Pilot Program in 2013. Six CDCs, including JPNDC, came together and pledged to boost the participation of minority- and women-owned businesses in their projects. 

While the City of Boston has targets for local, minority and women workers for city-funded projects under the Boston Resident Jobs Policy, there are no such requirements for projects to contract to businesses owned by women and/or people of color. The Boston Pilot Program is addressing this gap.   

By the end of 2014, the twelve participating projects had generated more than $45 million in business for minority- and women-owned firms. The projects exceeded the goal of having 30% of hard and soft costs awarded to minority-owned businesses, at 37%. Women-owned businesses received 9% of these costs, just shy of the program’s goal of 10%. This translates into real opportunity for businesses that are often overlooked or sidelined. 

As these twelve projects come to completion, the six CDCs, MMCA, and MACDC are planning the program’s next phase with a goal of sustaining and deepening the program’s impact. That’s good news for quality businesses like Cruz Construction that stand to find new opportunities for growth.

Check out the MACDC GOALs report.

Quarterly Reports Update:
As of the end of June 2015, $50 million in new contracts generated for MBE and WBE businesses.

Viet-AID announced yesterday that Hue Pham was their new Executive Director.  MACDC's board and staff looks forward to working with Ms. Pham as she builds upon Viet-AID's 21 year legacy of successfully helping lead the revitalization of the Field's Corner neighborhood in Dorchester.

Since the CITC program started last year, there has understandably been much discussion about how CDCs across Massachusetts are raising new funds and diversifying their overall funding base (CITC: By the Fundraising Numbers). But what’s of even greater importance is how these organizations are actually using these funds to deepen their impact on people and places. Even though 2014 was the first year of the Community Investment Tax Credit, and the majority of donations arrived during the final quarter of the year, we are already beginning to see the impact of this program.

MACDC and DHCD surveyed all 36 CDCs that participated in the CITC program in 2014 and found that 64% of them expanded their organization’s goals and 89% deepened their community engagement. Check out the table (PDF) to see all of the results from our survey.

A core goal of the CITC Program is to encourage and support CDCs to meaningfully engage local residents in leadership roles. So we were pleased to see that 89% of the CDCs reported that the program helped them expand their community engagement work, 67% said it resulted in more board engagement, and 58% said it helped generate more volunteers. A second goal of the CITC program was to help CDCs offer a more comprehensive array of programs to their community that combines real estate development with business development, family asset building and community programing. Many CDCs are using their new CITC funds to do just that with CDCs also using it boost their small business work (25%), their workforce development activities (22%), their family asset building programs (33%) and their programs for youth & seniors (25%).

CITC funds are typically unrestricted, which means that they can also be used to build internal capacity. Therefore, we were not surprised to learn that 83% reported that they increased their operational capacity, with 33% of CDCs using CITC to expand their communications capacity; 28% to expand fundraising capacity; and 28% to improve information systems critical to measuring impact. This was indeed part of what we hoped to accomplish with the program since these capacities are key attributes of successful, 21^st century CDCs. Equally exciting, 89% of the CDCs said the program would help them increase their organizational budget and 75% said it would help them leverage non-CITC funding.

The CITC program is just getting started.  The early results suggest that the program is both growing resources for the field and enabling CDCs to strengthen and deepen their efforts. At the same time, we have room for growth and room for improvement. MACDC looks forward to working with our members and partners to ensure that CITC program reaches its full potential to help the people and places of Massachusetts thrive.

MACDC set out earlier this year to learn more about what our members are doing to participate within and grow the creative economy here in Massachusetts. We knew our members were involved in a wide variety of activities, but what we learned surprised even us!

According to our newly released report, Creative Community Development in Massachusetts,  22 CDCs are actively engaged in fostering the creative economy, while 17 are involved in creative placemaking and 14 use arts and culture in their community organizing work (a total of 29 groups responded to our survey).  Clearly, CDCs across Massachusetts are investing significant time, energy and resources to stimulate and draw upon creative enterprises and expression to further their organization’s mission and goals.

Some of MACDC’s members have been engaged in these efforts for decades, while others are new to exploring methods where an emphasis on creative engagement through arts, literature and music, can further transform their work. Their activities may add renewed vitality to their communities and further transform neighborhoods and towns across Massachusetts. An emphasis on local culture and geography is a way for people to celebrate their communities, connect with a transcendent history – through art, music and storytelling – and reimagine a vibrant future view of a community that connects seamlessly with its past.  And the trend line is clear – more and more groups are incorporating the arts into their work in exciting and creative ways.

Learn more about what CDCs are doing to develop and support the creative economy in their regions through our report:  “Creative Community Development in Massachusetts.”

Members of MACDC met with leaders from Boston 2024 on July 24 to learn more about the proposed Olympic bid and to discuss how the games will ensure an equitable legacy in terms of housing, displacement, jobs, parks and transportation. The meeting was in response to an earlier letter that MACDC had sent back in February. Boston 2024 outlined impressive plans for 8,000 new housing units, new roads and infrastructure and expanded green space and parks. At the same time, MACDC urged Boston 2024 to increase the proposed amount of affordable housing at Midtown and Columbia Point and to develop a strategy for minimizing displacement during the summer of 2024 when millions of out of visitors could displace low income tenants. MACDC members also raised concerns about the loss of local jobs and the need to make sure that business and employment opportunities generated by the Olympics are shared broadly and fairly across the City.

Last year, the Commonwealth’s Small Business Technical Assistance program helped create 299 businesses, and created or preserved 1,584 jobs in the Massachusetts.  Thanks to the Massachusetts’ Legislature, small businesses will continue to turn to CDCs, and other recipients of this funding, to receive the assistance they need to develop, grow and sustain their operations.  This program, administered by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, has been a top priority for MACDC since 2006, and FY 2016 marks the second consecutive year that the program has received $2 million.

MACDC was also excited to see the Legislature provide an additional $2 million for the Baker Administration’s Urban Economic Agenda program, which will work with urban entrepreneurs, promote small businesses, and create new jobs. MACDC is thrilled that the Massachusetts Legislature and the Baker Administration are allocating significant financial resources to further drive and stimulate the Commonwealth’s local economies.

“Small businesses across Massachusetts are central to our economy’s strength and vitality.  Every business, no matter how large it may be today, started with just a few people, an idea and an abundance of passion,” Joe Kriesberg, MACDC’s President, noted.  “What a small business needs is the knowledge, networks and capital to mature and develop into a sustainable business. The Small Business Technical Assistance program ensures that these services reach underserved markets, lower-income communities, immigrants, women and other people of color.”

The bill now sits on Governor Baker’s desk and he has until Saturday, July 18, to review, sign, or veto the whole bill or discreet line items, after which time, the legislature could act to override any such vetoes.  MACDC fully expects both of these programs to be signed into law by the Governor. 

The numbers are counted, tabulated and recorded:  In its first year, the Community Investment Tax Credit (CITC) is a clear financial success for CDCs, the Commonwealth and, most importantly, Massachusetts residents.  As individuals, families, businesses and nonprofits from the outer beaches of the Cape to the rolling hills of the Berkshires learned about this new program, CDCs began to use the tax credit not simply to invite their historical supporters to increase their giving, but also welcomed hundreds of new donors to support their work. The Community Investment Tax Credit gathered speed through the second half of 2014, and concluded by generating $2.7 million from new donors. Overall, $4,709,998 was raised last year through the program. Critically, for every taxpayer dollar allocated toward the program, the Commonwealth realized $2.00 in community-directed donations, including $1.43 in totally new funding not previously available. While these are perhaps the biggest fundraising successes recorded for the first year of the CITC program, the details yield even more positive results worth sharing.

At first, MACDC staff were most concerned that CDCs with rural service areas would be the hardest pressed to execute effective fundraising strategies. After all, if the towns in which you work have no large corporations or foundations and just a few thousand people, it can be hard to raise money. But we were thrilled to be wrong. Hilltown CDC, for example, which has a service area sandwiched between the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires had several donors step up to make contributions of $1,000 or more whereas in the past they had only donated a few hundred dollars. CDCs on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard found incredible success too by reaching out to members of their community, even seasonal residents. This is not to overshadow the incredible fundraising efforts from CDCs in Boston and the Gateway cities, but the expectation, at first, was that urban communities, given the greater density of individuals, families and businesses, would find it easier to roll out a new fundraising initiative.

Patterns of how CDCs issued their credits are hard to identify as individuals, families, banks, businesses and nonprofits all participated. While one CDC had one donor consume all their credits and another had a handful of foundations use the tax credit to increase their grants, most CDCs found a balanced mix of individuals, financial institutions and local businesses, as 65% of all funds raised came from these two taxpayer categories. Sixty-seven percent of all new donations came from individuals and families, which raised 47% of all new revenue generated through the program in 2014. The average donation from individuals and families was $3,189.37. Of the 1,014 donations made last year, 610 were from individuals and families.  With this fundraising success, the CITC is achieving one of its fundamental goals of measurably diversifying the overall funding base of CDCs.

Additional highlights of the CITC program’s first year include the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley raising 23% of the total raised in 2014 or close to $1.1 million. We also estimate $250,000 came during the last week in December and that most donors made their donation in the 4^th quarter of the year. This isn’t unusual, but it’s new to CDCs who are accustomed to budgeting their fundraising activities upon a grant and service contract schedule.

Notwithstanding all of this success, there is room for improvement. Not surprisingly, as a new program, the CITC got off to a slow start during the first half of 2014 and most donations did not arrive until the final quarter. A total of 79% of the credits available in 2014 were consumed. While these credits carry over to 2015, it means that CDCs will need to increase their collective fundraising by more than 200% in 2015.

If we were to draw a conclusion from the fundraising numbers for the first year, it would be that the tax credit is working and CDCs are stepping up to the opportunity that it brings. The public/private partnership model inherent in the CITC is poised to lift up new opportunities for neighborhoods and families across the Commonwealth.

In 2014, MACDC Members helped over 72,000 families statewide obtain housing and job training, start or grow a small business, or receive a variety of services. Equally impressive, MACDC Members collectively generated investment of over $615 million in their communities in 2014. 

These are just two of the findings from the 2015 MACDC GOALs Survey.  These results are now available online in two publications: the first is our GOALs Report, which provides aggregated data on the work of our members and highlights stories from six CDCs that illustrate the impact our members have. Second, our 300+ page GOALs Appendix details the accomplishments of each individual MACDC Member in a wide range of activities and includes information on every real estate project completed in 2014 or in the pipeline as of December 31, 2014.  The Appendix includes a convenient table of contents to enable readers to quickly find the information that they need.

Since 2003, MACDC and its Members have collaborated on a collective effort to revitalize and stabilize communities across the state. The MACDC GOALs Initiative – Growing Opportunities, Assets, and Leaders across the Commonwealth – measures our annual progress in six areas of community development. Each year, we conduct a detailed online survey of our members to learn precisely what they have accomplished.  Over the twelve years of the GOALs Initiative, our members have helped to create or preserve over 15,000 homes and almost 33,000 jobs, and generated over $3.7 billion in economic investment in our communities.

This report highlights the terrific progress that MACDC Members have made over the past year. 

During 2014:

• 2,569 volunteer community leaders were engaged in CDC activities;
• 1,459 homes were built or preserved;
• 6,161 job opportunities were created or preserved;
• 1,304 locally-owned businesses received technical and financial support;
• 72,046 families received housing, jobs, training or other services; and
• $615 million in private and public funding was invested in our communities.

CITC & GOALs:

In this year’s GOALS Survey, for the first time, we ask CDCs who received Community Investment Tax Credit (CITC) to report on the program's impact; detailed results are included in the Goals Appendix, starting on page 139.  CITC is designed to enable local residents and stakeholders to work with and through CDCs to partner with nonprofit, public, and private entities to improve economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income households and other residents in urban, rural, and suburban communities across the Commonwealth. CDCs accomplish this through adoption of community investment plans to undertake community development programs and activities.

Of the 36 CDCs who received a CITC award, 30 reported an increase in operational capacity, and 29 expanded their activities as a result of the award.  Additionally, 32 of these CDCs increased their level of community engagement through increased use of volunteers, more intensive engagement from their Boards of Directors, and increasing resident participation in organizational events.

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For more information on the results of the MACDC GOALs Survey, contact Don Bianchi at donb@macdc.org.

America’s long standing effort to end housing discrimination and reduce racial segregation has been back in the news lately.  The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding Disparate Impact Claims was a partial victory for Fair Housing Advocates.  However, the language in Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Opinion puts so many limitations on these claims that they may be hard to win in future cases, as described in this Article in Atlantic Magazine.  Fair Housing Advocates generally applauded the decision and community developers like Enterprise Communities and Bart Mitchell from the Community Builders saw the court trying to balance the need to both expand opportunities in upper income communities while also investing to revitalize lower income neighborhoods.  The Supreme Court seems to indicate that finding this balance is the job of local and state government – not the courts. Time will tell if that interpretation is correct.

A few days later, HUD issued its long awaited new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule that seeks to break down long standing patterns of segregation and fully implement the law’s mandate for local and state government to take pro-active steps to promote integration.  One key benefit of the new rule is that it will compel local jurisdictions to think pro-actively about how to advance fair housing and to engage the larger community in that discussion and planning.  And the Opportunity Agenda has published a useful guidebook to help them do it.   At the same time, as this article in the Huffington Post makes clear, simply having the discussion and creating a plan is unlikely to end the debate over the future of our neighborhoods.  While most fair housing and community development practitioners would strongly agree on the need to break down barriers for families and people of color in upper income communities, the implications for lower income communities, gentrifying neighborhoods and rural areas are not nearly as clear cut.  Moreover, the tension between investing dollars in building affordable housing in upper income communities and building it in lower income communities will continue so long as there is such a large mismatch between the need for affordable housing and the financial resources available to build it.

You’ll have a chance to learn more and discuss these important developments at the upcoming Fair Housing Forum to be hosted by CHAPA and the Mel King Institute on August 6 at Boston Private Bank.