The fund, which aims to create a self-sustaining, nationwide secondary market for CDFI microloans, has made progress, but it remains far short of its goal, its managing director said.
Economic Opportunities Program Newsletter, February 2021
At the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, and for our many colleagues and partners, the ongoing and intertwined health, economic, and racial justice crises bring new urgency to our work to improve access to quality jobs, options to participate in business ownership, and the freedom to pursue economic opportunity. Below we share our monthly newsletter with highlights of recent work. As always, we welcome your feedback, thoughts, and partnership in advancing inclusive opportunity and an economy in which we all can thrive. Click here to subscribe.
A New Chapter for the Future of Work
“The future of work is not a distant point decades from now we must try to predict. Instead, what work looks like tomorrow depends on how we address historical injustices that shape opportunities today.” In a new blog post, Future of Work Initiative Director Shelly Steward describes the integration between the Economic Opportunitie
The Aspen Institute and the Microfinance Impact Collaborative recently announced the creation of the Entrepreneur Backed Assets (EBA) Fund, which will strengthen the capacity of community-based financial institutions to lend to small businesses in low-income communities and those owned by people of color. The fund, which will create a secondary market for loans originated by community-based microlenders, has been launched with initial grant funding from the Citi Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Microsoft Corporation and Woodforest National Bank are making the first capital investments in the Fund.
I spoke with Joyce Klein, Director of the Business Ownership Initiative at the Aspen Institute, and Janie Barrera, President and CEO of LiftFund, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit microlenders, about this work.
Economic Opportunities Program Newsletter, January 2021
At the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, and for our many colleagues and partners, the ongoing and intertwined health, economic, and racial justice crises bring new urgency to our work to improve access to quality jobs, options to participate in business ownership, and the freedom to pursue economic opportunity. Below we share our monthly newsletter with highlights of recent work. As always, we welcome your feedback, thoughts, and partnership in advancing inclusive opportunity and an economy in which we all can thrive. Click here to subscribe.
Joining Forces on the Future of Work
We are pleased to announce that the Institute’s Future of Work Initiative (FOWI) has merged with EOP. FOWI was established in late 2015 to develop bipartisan policy recommendations to address the challenges American workers face in a changing economy. FOWI’s emphasis on policy development complements EOP’s decades of research on o