Capital, Coaching, Community Partnership: ICIC & Regions Bank

By ICIC | December 16, 2025

For more than 10 years, Regions Bank has been a key community partner supporting ICIC’s Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) program—helping keep it tuition-free, expanding its reach, and helping growth-minded entrepreneurs convert ideas into jobs and investment.

A Decade-Plus of Collaboration—and a Broad Footprint

With Regions’ support, ICCC has reached entrepreneurs from South Florida to St. Louis, and from major Southern cities like Atlanta, Nashville, and Birmingham, then out west toward Houston, up to Indianapolis, and more.

In each of these markets, Regions has a community engagement strategy focused on helping more people and businesses succeed. And the ICCC program directly complements this goal through practical education, business coaching, and insights about the prudent use of capital – all designed to help boost the trajectory of individual firms and neighborhoods.

How We Work Together

To focus on real outcomes for business owners, ICIC and Regions Bank deliver a consistent set of supports across each cohort:

• Executive education, at no cost: A 40-hour, “mini-MBA” experience covering strategy, finance, marketing, and technology.
• Targeted coaching: One-on-one and small-group guidance from ICCC experts and Regions Bank associates help owners turn learning into action on pricing, cash flow, sales, and digital adoption.
• Access to capital and networks: Connections to lenders, mentors, and capital coaches that accelerate growth long after the seminar ends.
• Innovation emphasis: Recent programming highlights practical AI use cases that help small businesses compete—paired with the same community and capital focus ICCC is known for.

Voices from the Collaboration

“This collaboration works because it’s built on what small-business owners actually need: capital, coaching, and community. Regions Bank helps us bring ICCC to entrepreneurs where they are—and stay with them as they scale.”
— Diego Portillo Mazal, ICCC Program Director, ICIC

“Regions Bank and ICIC are working strategically to help open doors — so local businesses can grow, hire, and reinvest in their neighborhoods. We see real results for hard-working entrepreneurs, their employees, and their communities – and that’s what community impact is all about.”
— Brett Shaffer, Head of Community Relations, Regions Bank

Impact in Action

Stories from across the collaboration spotlight how ICCC helps business owners turn learning into action.

In Indianapolis, Tamika Catchings, owner of Tea’s Me Café and former WNBA player, shared how the experience strengthened her business connections:

“Being able to meet and see people in your own field was really beneficial… a chance to discuss the same things I’m going through. Having someone to bounce ideas off has been so valuable.”

In Miami, the latest cohort emphasized the intersection of AI, capital, and community. As Diego Portillo Mazal of ICIC noted, “We’re helping small-business owners access capital, market their companies, and apply AI in practical, accessible ways. With community partners like Regions Bank, we’re making those tools available to everyone.”

Regions Bank leaders also see the results firsthand. Tammi Calvo-Sanchez, Market Executive and Commercial Banking Executive for Regions Bank in Miami, shared,

And for ICCC alumni like Keisha Mabry Haymore, founder of heyFRIEND, the program delivers more than business fundamentals—it builds confidence: “I came away from my ICCC experience with the five Cs: community, creativity, clarity, courage, and confidence.”

Why it Matters

ICIC exists to help under-resourced small businesses thrive—because when they do, communities thrive, too. Our long-standing community partnership with Regions Bank removes cost barriers, delivers expert coaching, and builds durable ecosystems of capital and know-how across the Regions footprint. With five active cohorts this year and momentum building for 2026, capital, coaching, and community aren’t just themes—they’re the throughline of a community partnership that’s delivering results, year after year.

Read more stories about small-business success at Regions’ Doing More Today website.