Linking inner city businesses to strong regional clusters. Engaging anchor institutions to create shared value. Connecting inner city companies to appropriate growth capital and contracting opportunities. Supporting management education and strengthening business networks. At ICIC, we talk at length about these drivers of inner city economic development as strategies crucial for ... Read More

Watch ICIC’s CEO, Steve Grossman, explain how a new partnership with The Catholic University of America is changing the way urban business schools think about their role in the community. Read More

In April the MacArthur Foundation, Chicago Community Trust (CCT), and the Calvert Foundation announced Benefit Chicago, an innovative collaboration that aims to mobilize $100 million in impact investments for nonprofits and social enterprises in Chicago. Read More

Last month Northeastern University announced it was committing $2.5 million in seed funding for a newly created “Impact Lending” program, offered in conjunction with LISC Boston. The seed money will capitalize a $6.5 million revolving loan fund (RLF), and the RLF will enable LISC to provide $1,000 to $1 million loans to women- and minority-owned small businesses located in or around Northeastern University. Read More

This case study highlights how an anchor institution’s initial efforts around neighborhood revitalization had a snowball effect that ultimately leveraged hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment. The redevelopment and construction of new housing served as the linchpin to a broad-based community effort to stabilize one of Columbus, Ohio’s most distressed inner city communities. Read More