The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has announced investments totaling $122 million in support of Black-owned banks and businesses across the country.

Investments were awarded through LISC's Black Economic Development Fund (BEDF), a $250 million fund designed to respond to unique financing challenges facing Black enterprises. Funded projects include a loan of nearly $1.7 million to help complete the conversion of two Victorian-style homes and a carriage house into 19 studio and one-bedroom apartments in Cleveland; a $2.5 million mezzanine loan to help preserve and improve a 141-unit affordable housing development in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood; and a $5.75 million construction loan to enable the development of for-sale affordable housing in the historically Black community of West Lakes in Orlando. In addition, BEDF made a $3 million deposit in Unity National Bank in Houston, the only Black-owned bank in Texas, and a $5 million deposit in Carver Federal Savings Bank in New York.

BEDF, which expects to close on the remainder of its investments by year-end, includes investments from Netflix, Paypal, Square, HubSpot, Aflac, Costco, Dicks Sporting Goods, ThermoFisher Scientific, Wayfair, McKinsey & Company, and DuPont.

“Over the last two years, there has been a lot of public debate about how best to support the advancement of racial equity,” said George Ashton, president of LISC Fund Management, which manages BEDF. “This fund is a powerful model for social investing that helps corporations leverage their treasury dollars to fuel revenue and employment growth for Black-owned businesses, so they can deepen their impact on the communities in which they operate.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Lumi Nola)