Stories

Gar Kelley gives the Father of the Bride speech at his daughter's wedding.
By Jennie Blizzard
Gar Kelley uses faith and experience to influence economic potential in underserved communities.
Deonne Luacaw
By Gabriella Chiarenza
Losing public assistance benefits when their income goes up incentivizes some workers to stay in low-paying jobs. It discourages others who are willing to work from joining the workforce. Explore the issue and what's being done.
Pete Upton speaking on a panel
By Kierra Karemani
“Native Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) know the needs of the communities they serve. Placing the funds in the hands of those CDFIs produces better results,” says Pete Upton, Executive Director for the Native360 Loan Fund and interim CEO for the Native CDFI Network (NCN).
Grand Opening, Frogtown Square, 2011
By Jennifer Wilding
Experience Investment Connection—from pitch to impact—with small business owners, community organizers, and bankers, and the Federal Reserve community development experts bringing them together.
Paul Woodruff
By Jennifer Wilding
“Banks and nonprofits need mutually beneficial relationships,” says Paul Woodruff. Investment Connection encourages organizations to highlight what both the nonprofits and the banks have to gain.
Otis Zanders, executive director of Ujamaa Place; Atum Azzahir, executive director of Cultural Wellness Center; and Mihailo Temali, CEO of the Neighborhood Development Center.
By Jennifer Wilding
The loan purchase program was a pilot, a new model that Dan Fagan hoped more banks could adopt. “We just decided that we were going to plow forward."
Business Launch Boot Camp Retrospective
By Jennifer Wilding
In 2011, Ariel Cisneros from the Kansas City Fed invited Rob Smith to pitch at Investment Connection. In the three years following the event, Smith raised about $300,000. The funding came at a pivotal moment.
Cheryl Thomas, founder of C's Daycare
By Kierra Karemani
Banks partner with a community non-profit to help a small business owner upgrade and expand her child care facility.
Alex Fuentes
By Ellen Simon
The American Voices Project began as a way to study US poverty. It has grown into a trove of personal narrative and oral history of how people across the US experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shonterria Charleston
By Ellen Simon
For Housing Assistance Council, rural development issues include broadband access and helping veterans fund home improvement projects.