///////// An annual report is a funny thing to write in community development. We celebrate what finished, what opened (or closed in the case of loans), but none of this work fits neatly in a year. Groundwork is laid over months, years, 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. While we pause here to celebrate the high points of 2022, I first want to take a moment to celebrate the behind-the-scenes inputs.

Our LISC Phoenix team kicked a** last year. And that’s no accident. We’ve built a team that collectively has strong community understanding, systems thinking, compassion and a desire to keep learning. We’ve layered in the expertise of consultants and trainers that keep us on that path, most notably the racial equity and racial justice training our whole team has delved into over the last three years and applied in real time to our decision making. Our team may not set ourselves up for accolades, but the quiet work has folks from all sectors coming to us to make their vision a reality.

In affordable housing, the steady success of the Pre-development Loan Fund, a partnership with Arizona Community Foundation, and recent impact of the Home Matters Arizona Fund led the Arizona Housing Fund to approach us to manage the application process for their permanent supportive housing fund. Together we designed a streamlined application process that allows known grantees a shortcut to funding and newer grantees the chance to prequalify before their projects need funding. On top of that, the Arizona Department of Housing kicked in a one-time infusion of $2.25 million for the Home Matters Arizona Fund, PNC Bank came forward with a $5 million EQ2 investment for a pre-construction loan fund and UMB Bank stepped up with an additional $250,000 of support. Taken all together, these partnerships are creating a continuum of funding for all stages of affordable housing development.

The Arizona Community Reinvestment Collaborative, which we have been managing since 2018, launched a more equitable competitive grant process this year designed by our team to ease barriers for applicants, compensate finalists for their time, and spark relationships between applicants and prospective funders. This opportunity to experiment with grantmaking is just one way the Collaborative is helping its CRA-eligible members grow professionally.

You’ll see even more examples or our team’s deliberate work below in our anti-displacement strategy, our economic development programs, the growth of our Financial Opportunity Center network and our new child care initiative. The thought process our team brings to these new projects is built on our learnings in recent years, a desire to continuously do better, and a willingness to keep pushing the boundaries to align the responsibility we have to both our funders and to our communities.

I couldn’t be prouder of the work we’ve done.

Sincerely, Terry Benelli Executive Director, LISC Phoenix