Letter from Phil Kirk

An Organization That Builds Better Communities

Recently I read a report on the North Carolina Community Development Initiative Inc., and I was most impressed with this organization and its successes in only seven years.

Founded in 1994 by Abdul Sm Rasheed, president and CEO, the initiative provides funding and technical assistance to community development corporations (CDCs) in North Carolina’s low resource communities.

Initial funding was provided by Wachovia Corp., the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Ford Foundation and taxpayers. Since 1994, more than $39 million has been raised, and that has been used to leverage $140 million in residential and commercial real estate.

Goals of the program include building durable CDCs in order to strengthen community economic development, developing more innovative ways of facilitating and funding projects, creating a pool of community economic development professionals and increasing the lending capacity of North Carolina Community Development Capital Inc.

To put it another way, the institute’s mission is to encourage community-based organizations to develop their organizational capacity and productivity in the following areas: affordable housing, commercial real estate development, business and enterprise development and capital formation. 

One of the most interesting activities is the work it is doing to increase the number of talented economic developers in our state. A generation of seasoned developers is beginning to retire and there must be new talent recruited and trained.

With a grant from the National Congress for Community Economic Development, the initiative is working with Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh on this unique project. Pathways to Professional Excellence permits people to continue working at their regular full-time jobs while receiving training via Internet and weekend classes. 

Some of the results of partnerships in the past seven years include $2.3 million in new real estate taxes; 1,203 single family homes built or renovated; $75.4 million of new single family mortgages; 4,906 full-time jobs created; and 318,373 square feet of commercial real estate developed, including offices, shopping centers and industrial facilities.

The initiative is nationally recognized as a model public-private community economic development intermediary dedicated to increasing assets and creating wealth in the poorest areas of North Carolina. Major financial institutions are increasingly working with the organization in an efficient and effective way to get resources into struggling communities. The staff was very active in Hurricane Floyd relief efforts.  

In order to help sustain the initiative and its beneficiaries during the next five years, a development campaign is under way with a lead gift of $4 million from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Leaders in the campaign are co-chairs Bud Baker, chairman of the new Wachovia, and Erskine Bowles, Charlotte businessman. Ron Leeper, corporate and civic leader from Charlotte, chairs the board of directors.

Among the other NCCBI members involved as board members of the initiative are: Brian Coyle, BB&T; Joe Crocker, Wachovia; Mary Gordon, Philip Morris; Gov. Jim Holshouser, Sanford Holshouser Law Firm; Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue; Becky Anderson, Canfur Inc.; and Dr. Altan Thompson, North Carolina AT&T.

Additional information may be obtained by calling 919-828-5655 or by accessing www.ncinitiative.org.

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