Contact

ACI Team
aci@lincolninst.edu

Accelerating Community Investment (ACI) improves public finance by creating opportunities for public development, housing, and infrastructure finance agencies to engage with philanthropies, mission-aligned investors, and the broader capital markets. These partnerships help create new, community-led investments in underserved places and people.

ACI seeks to increase the availability of capital in the right places, at the right times, and for the right purposes. The initiative comprises field research, a national community of practice, and technical assistance and support for participants to develop and deploy impactful mission-aligned investment opportunities. These opportunities create a more fertile environment for investment in community and economic development, housing, and more, benefiting residents and communities. ACI also works with public finance agencies, community capital conduits, and impact-aligned investors to further develop the community investment ecosystem.

About ACI

Through research and a community of practice, ACI explores the intersection of public finance, capital providers, impact investors, and community—enabling those actors to more deeply  influence the profound multilevel systems change needed to achieve greater opportunity for people in place by:

  • Strengthening the connection of impact investors to public economic development, housing finance, and/or community development finance
  • Optimizing impact investing portfolios for various asset holder types
  • Boosting positive impact of capital on people in place across the national community investment ecosystem

Watch this panel discussion on the origins and goals of ACI featuring Lincoln Institute CEO and President George W. “Mac” McCarthy, Lincoln Institute Senior Fellow and ACI Director Robert J. “R.J.” McGrail, and former FB Heron Foundation President Dana Bezerra.

Our Work

National Community of Practice

We connect participants in local community investment ecosystems to each other and to their peers elsewhere through a community of practice that includes 100 agencies and institutions from 18 states. The group meets both virtually and in person to build partnerships, identify new investment opportunities, and share experiences and advice. Learn about the latest convening.

Training, Coaching, and Technical Assistance

ACI has provided significant virtual and in-person coaching, education, and learning beyond the community of practice, exposing participants to new knowledge and tools that increase their effectiveness and impact.

Local Investor Challenges

ACI hosts local investor challenges to spotlight community investment opportunities and enable participants to develop and share new, community-driven opportunities to impact investors and catalytic capital holders. Four initial sessions—held in Atlanta, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Austin—have allowed participants to pitch investment-ready projects to local investors and receive direct feedback from potential investors.

Community of Practice

At the heart of this is a national community of practice of community and institutional leaders, who will build partnerships, receive training and technical assistance, and identify new investment opportunities. Current participants are listed below.