The Public Finance Initiative (PFI), a fiscally sponsored project of Third Sector New England, has announced the launch of a technical assistance and grant program to support bond issuers and market stakeholders interested in leveraging municipal bond markets as a catalyst for racial equity in their communities.

The launch of the Bond Markets and Racial Equity program at the National League of Cities's (NLC) Congressional City Conference in Washington D.C., follows a year-long evaluation process in partnership with the NLC, PFM Group, and the Milken Institute’s Equity and Excellence in Public Finance program, among others. The program will provide free technical assistance to municipalities, state authorities, and other bond issuers and borrowers seeking to center racial equity in the issuance of municipal bonds.

The Government Alliance on Race and Equity—a project partner—will offer customized data workshops for program participants to measure their community’s racial equity indicators. In addition, PFI will provide grants—funded with support from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others—to bond issuers for a range of qualified uses, including the strengthening, testing, or piloting of novel racial equity strategies in bond issuance.

“As the United States has reckoned with systemic racism in its cities, our goal is to support investors and issuers who want to actively center racial equity through meaningful interventions when they access the capital markets to sell bonds,” said Public Finance Initiative executive director Lourdes Germán. “We built a program that responds to resounding feedback from issuers regarding the guidance they need to leverage the bond issuance process toward material improvements for communities most negatively impacted by historic or present racial inequities—and to mitigate material risks to their jurisdiction.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Nirian)