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Mission investors-faith based and foundations-look at New Orleans

The recent ICCR conference in New Orleans began with a tour of the city conducted by the Isaiah Funds, a set of place-based investments developed by a consortium of faith-based investors that is specifically focused on post-Katrina regeneration in New Orleans, and generally hopes to serve as a potential model for post-disaster mission investing. The Isaiah Funds are predicated on the idea that strong community ties and presence can be tools for investors to identify where they can make the most positive impact and best leverage the investment of others. It’s a model – with multiple investors pooling money, with its place-based focus, with its emphasis on real estate (re)development, and so on – that looks a lot like the sorts of things many foundations are considering as they explore mission investing.

The Isaiah Funds is concentrating its first investments in Central City, and the tour took us on and around O.C. Haley Boulevard, a historically important retail strip for the New Orleans African-American and Jewish communities. Gulf Coast Housing Partnership laid out an impressive vision for sustainable smart growth development in the area, and Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative spoke to affordable housing. Christy Wallace from the More for Mission Campaign member foundation, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Fund spoke about the potential for investment to revitalize the boulevard, and Lynnette Colin, of the O. C. Haley Boulevard Merchants & Business Association, offered up the very intriguing idea of a commercial land trust to help ensure that the mission is built permanently into retail redevelopment.

 

posted 5:30PM 06/15/2009 by David Wood

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