MESSAGE FROM LEADERSHIP
///////// COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IS NOT EASY. Groundwork is laid over months, years, and even decades. Relationships are formed and nurtured. Community input is sought. Plans are written. Adjustments are made as the unforeseen happens. The work moves forward at the speed of trust.
LISC works holistically across sectors to address the interconnected factors that drive inequality of opportunity. We know that creating communities where every person and unique neighborhood thrives will require many people, institutions, and systems working together. We are proud to be the connective tissue between them. When we give neighborhood residents, business owners, and community leaders a clear voice in their future and the resources they need to realize it, entire communities thrive.
Throughout 2022, this simple truth was elevated across the breadth of our work at LISC Indianapolis. From the powerful collective vision for the Equitable Food Access Initiative in the city’s Northeast Corridor to creating responsive, impactful economic development programs like the Real Estate Assistance Fund for Black-owned Businesses, our strategy of working with, rather than for, communities is achieving great impact.
From a national standpoint, LISC saw a record level of investment totaling more than $2.8B last year to fuel economic opportunity, racial equity, and growth in urban and rural communities. In Indianapolis, LISC invested more than $14.2M in local neighborhoods, leveraging more than $30M in total. We provided nearly $1M in loan financing, $3.5M in program grants, and $118,000 in small business grants. LISC Indianapolis staff assisted 40 community-based organizations in a combined effort to build and transform 225,608 square feet of commercial space.
Join me in celebrating our accomplishments reflected in the 2022 Annual Report.
Dr. David Hampton Executive Director, LISC Indianapolis
///////// LISC INDIANAPOLIS CELEBRATED ITS 30TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2022. Since our founding in the 1990s, we have been guided by what neighbors want for themselves, their families and the places they call home. We tackle ongoing needs in every corner of community life. We are proud of the work we do and know its impact to be positive and long-lasting. But it is far from done. We must continue to invest intensively so that our neighborhoods are more just, resilient, and competitive in the future.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Fostering Equitable, Flourishing Local Economies
Small Business Façade and Property Improvement Program provides grants to property and small business owners to improve the exterior of their buildings and storefronts to attract new customers and beautify the area.
- 2022 Impact: 29 project grants; 90% of recipients were minority/women-owned enterprises and 80% of investment went into minority-majority neighborhoods.
Real Estate Assistance Fund for Black-Owned Businesses offers grants up to $40,000 for loan closing costs for Black businesses in Indianapolis that are seeking to purchase commercial property or retain their commercial property through capital improvements.
- 2022 Impact: Two Black businesses closed on a loan to purchase property and received a total of $42,500 in down payment grants
Latino Business Support Network promotes growth in the Latino business ecosystem by fostering collaboration among partners, mapping existing resources, and providing marketing support for Latino nonprofit Business Development Organizations (BDOs) working in this space.
- 2022 Impact: LISC convened partners and planned for the official launch of the initiative in 2023.
Indianapolis CDFI Collaborative is a partnership of community development financial institutions that focus on commercial or small business lending to minority, female, veteran, and reentry-owned businesses.
- 2022 Impact: Published a program impact report; coordinated two learning exchanges in Chicago and Los Angeles; launched new flexible loan products with funding from the City of Indianapolis and Cummins; and added two partners to collaborative.
Verizon Small Business Digital Ready is an online curriculum designed to give small businesses the personalized tools to succeed in today's digital world, including learning modules, expert coaching, peer networking, grant opportunities and more.
- 2022 Impact: In Indianapolis, 600+ unique platform users; 500+ minority small businesses registered for platform; and increased partnerships with local BDOs.
The Microenterprise Navigator Program provides technical assistance and training to business owners who are at or below 80% of the Area Median Income. These services specifically prioritize communities and microenterprises that have historically faced barriers to resources and business services.
- 2022 Impact: LISC partnered with La Plaza and Kheprw Institute to serve 106 microenterprises by providing coaching and technical assistance services.
The LISC Indianapolis Capacity Building Program provides support to local nonprofits with a focus on executive coaching; digital transformation training; organizational development; and marketing and technology.
- 2022 Impact: LISC Indianapolis supported five local nonprofits, granting more than $212K.
Creating Healthy, Active and Beautiful Places
Equitable Food Access Initiative is a community-based planning and implementation process that convenes residents, community leaders, subject matter experts, and civic organizations to develop a vision of equitable food access for Indianapolis with a goal of addressing longstanding challenges related to food access, economic mobility, and health equity.
- 2022 Impact: Dispersed $225,000 in total grants to five organizations focusing on food economy, workforce development, and production/processing/distribution; published a Market Analysis Report; and hosted a food planning summit that convened more than 100 residents and community leaders to identify strategies for physical developments, programmatic partnerships, and investment.
Diabetes Impact Project (DIP-IN) is an initiative designed to build resources and connections within communities of Indianapolis with the goal of preventing diabetes or better managing it so that people can live long and healthy lives.
- 2022 Impact: LISC-funded community health workers continued to establish relationships with residents, local food enterprises, and community organizations within invested communities.
The NFL Foundation Grassroots Program provides non-profit, neighborhood-based organizations with financial and technical assistance to improve the quality, safety and accessibility of local football fields.
- 2022 Impact: In partnership with the NFL Foundation and Indianapolis Colts, LISC awarded its 11th NFL Grassroots grant to Phalen Leadership Academies to install new natural grass to provide a safe, accessible place for Far Eastside students and families to play.
Closing the Upward Mobility Gap
Bridges to Career Opportunities is a LISC model that helps adults who are unemployed and underemployed train for, land, and advance in jobs in local growth industries by helping them overcome the roadblocks to success.
- 2022 Impact: Nearly 100 industry-recognized credentials earned across the Network; $16.21/hour average wage for those placed in jobs; three additional sites added to Network (Flanner House, La Plaza and Mosaic Center for Work, Life + Learning); increased training activities for Bridges staff, and launched the Bridges Employer Partner Network, connecting high-quality, local employers with neighborhood-based community organizations leading workforce development programming.
Healthy Bridges to Careers in Tech integrates behavioral health supports with technology-oriented training and career pathways for the Black community by providing wraparound services for Bridges participants in tech-focused career pathways.
- 2022 Impact: LISC received a three-year $250,000 grant from the Indianapolis African American Quality-of-Life Initiative to pilot this program with implementation to begin in 2023.
Addressing Insufficient Affordable Housing
The Black Developer Growth Initiative is a public-private collaboration created to expand opportunity for Black developers through the creation of new affordable housing on Indianapolis’ vacant lot inventory, using a combination of missing middle housing concepts, coordinated subsidy, design/zoning supports and financing.
- 2022 Impact: LISC convened an implementation cohort of seven emerging and established Black developers and crafted a strategy to address key market disincentives and position Black developers to build their balance sheets, compete in the affordable housing sphere, and create more affordable housing supply in Indianapolis neighborhoods.
Connecting Communities with Resources
LISC remains committed to place-based community development, with a belief, congruent with our mission, that for community development to be equitable it must be informed and driven by local actors in tune with their neighborhood. Accordingly, LISC continues to prioritize investments in neighborhoods where engaged stakeholders help shape the agenda and fuel the implementation.
- 2022 Impact: LISC is planning for the next phase of placemaking efforts with a framework that advances activities within four pillars: investment, community of practice, organizational development, and operating support.
BY THE NUMBERS 2022
$14.2M
invested
affordable homes & apartments
$30M
leveraged
square feet of commercial space
LENDING 2022
$5.5M
new originations & active loans
project initiation financing
PREDEVELOPMENT AND/OR CONSTRUCTION:
units of housing
sq. ft. commercial/industrial spaces
OUR FUNDERS 2022
2022 Private Sector Support
Anonymous
Bank of America
Andrew Barr
The Clowes Fund
Commerce Bank
Cummins Foundation Inc.
Elevance Health Foundation
EmployIndy
Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis
Fifth Third Foundation
Brian Henning
The Huntington Foundation
Huntington National Bank
Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership
JPMorgan Chase Foundation
Angela Carr Klitzsch
Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
Lumina Foundation
Merchants Bank of Indiana
Milestone Ventures
National Bank of Indianapolis
National Urban League
PNC
State Farm
Verizon
2022 Public Sector Support
City of Indianapolis
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
OUR LOCAL ADVISORY BOARD
Gary Hobbs BWI, Inc – Board Chair
Ramon Morrison Meticulous Design & Architecture – Board Chair Elect
Doug Anderson Regions Bank
Jim Aucremanne Huntington National Bank
Alan Bacon Gang Gang
Anthony Bridgeman PNC Bank
Angela Carr Klitzsch EmployIndy
Kiamesha Colom Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
Robert Cook JP Morgan Chase
Catherine Esselman CAT Consulting LLC
Ashley Gurvitz Alliance for Northeast Unification/United Northeast Community Dev. Corporation
Brian Henning Old National Bank
Denise Herd Herd Strategies
Gloria Jimenez Indiana Latino Expo
Stacia Murphy Indy Chamber
Andrew Perry Browning
Courtney N. Roberts Ivy Tech Foundation
Jamal Smith Indiana University Health
Shannon Stahley Citizen’s Energy Group
OUR STAFF
Dr. David Hampton Executive Director
Megan Bulla Senior Program Officer
Aaron Laramore Senior Program Officer
Kelsi Linville Senior Program Officer
Natalia Rodriguez-Hilt Senior Program Officer
Brandon Taylor Senior Program Officer
Claudia Mendez-Perkins Program Officer
Carlie Turner Program Officer
Pam Aitken Assistant Program Officer
Alex Oleson Assistant Program Officer
Ephraim Palmero Assistant Program Officer
Shawn Thomas Assistant Program Officer
Arisa Miyakozawa Graduate Assistant
Learn more at lisc.org/indianapolis