Community Lift: A Public-Private Partnership for Revitalization

Community Lift is a non-profit organization that is looking to help foster community development and revitalization in the City of Memphis. It is a newly formed organization headed by Eric Robertson who formerly for the Center City Commission and the Lemoyne-Owen College Community Development Corporation. It has a 12-person board that is constantly conducting meetings with potential investors to help sustain and growth the fund. The non-profit wants to raise money in order to loan it out for community building efforts. The efforts include: education, affordable housing, business, and social infrastructure. They will loan the money out and would get a return from interest which will go into a fund for future projects.

There are other non-profit organizations in the country like Community Lift. They include national organizations like Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI). These are two major types of community development non-profit organizations. They assist cities by allocating money for projects to the local branch of each entity. CDFI’s operate like bank but lend out for community development, affordable housing and urban revitalization. LISC does similar work as CDFI’s. They lend money out for community development and revitalization as well. These two non-profit privately backed organizations have national pull and are very well respected. They have a long track record of positive development from years of distributing money for revitalization.

How do these two national organization stack up against the newly formed Community Lift? LISC was formed in late 1979 with a 10 million donation from various philanthropic organizations, and corporate businesses. LISC organizes corporate business, government and philanthropic support to provide local community development organizations with the capital in order to fund local revitalization efforts. It has the backing of local, state, and national governments in policy support. LISC is preparing for its 25 anniversary.

The CDFI Fund was formed in 1994 under the Reigle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994 and is directed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It was created in order to provide funds to various CDFI’s throughout the nation. The CDFI Fund invests in local CDFI’s and trains them in lending and gives them technical support. It gives out New Market Tax Credits, and it also provides incentives to banks to invest in local CDFI’s through its Bank Enterprise Award Program.

Community Lift was formally introduced in 2011 but has been working behind the scenes raising money for almost 3 years. It has raised money from various sources including the City of Memphis, the Community Fund, the Assisi Foundation, and Bank of America. It also plans to help fund local community development corporations in the Memphis area. There are so many CDC’s in the area and they are struggling with raising adequate funding in order to carry out necessary projects in their respective communities. Community Lift could loan money for certain projects to a CDC in order to help revitalize communities or assist in sustaining there viability.

Community Lift with the help of some other entities mentioned above have put together a comprehensive plan called “The Greater Memphis Neighborhood Plan: A Blueprint for Revitalization.” The plan was passed by The Memphis City Council on January 4th 2011. The plan had many contributors including: City of Memphis, Assisi Foundation, Community Foundation, Consilience Group LLC, Coalition for Livable Communities, and The Community Development Council of Greater Memphis. Community lift has been working diligently with the city, foundations, private companies and community development corporations (CDC’s).

Why did Memphis choose to form Community Lift instead of calling upon LISC or forming a CDFI? Community Lift is starting from scratch when they could have tried to join the CDFI Fund so they could start up easier. It sounds like Community Lift has strong ties with the City of Memphis, Foundations and corporations in Memphis. The intermediary may have found it easier to form Community Lift than to have worked with the Federal Government forming a local branch of LISC or a CDFI which is overseen by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Once we see projects start coming online, it may show some promise in the Memphis area.

How long will it take for Community Lift to start really making headway in the Memphis community? Is it a problem that this entity is not backed and provided assistance from national organizations that have successful model and track record? How long will it be before we start to the revitalization efforts of Community Lift come to fruition? Remember, it is a very young
organization and has a long way to go.