Giving Compass' Take:

• Calvin Holmes works for the Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF), a nonprofit lender serving primarily disadvantaged communities. 

• Are you shifting your charitable giving toward communities facing racism? How is your philanthropy focused on justice? 

• Learn about creating opportunities for communities of color through entrepreneurship.

Calvin Holmes has commuted to work by bicycle since the late 1980s, when he was an undergraduate African American Studies major at Northwestern University in Chicago. Under non-pandemic conditions, after a long day at the office full of meetings with city officials, investors and clients, he rides out about a mile to the Lake Michigan waterfront. Turning left would take Holmes toward the wealthier, predominantly white, North Side of Chicago.

“I ride past people smiling, some people playing drums, other people on skateboards, other people walking to and from the beach, joggers, people playing basketball, playing soccer,” Holmes says. “At the 31st Street Beach in the summers, a couple times a month there’s a house music series. A bunch of people my age trying to be hip and cool. It’s just beautiful.”

Holmes doesn’t ignore the challenges of the South Side of Chicago. They are a big part of why, 25 years ago, he came to work at Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF), where he still works today. CCLF is a nonprofit lender serving primarily disinvested communities around the Chicago area. It’s one of around 1,200 loan funds, banks, credit unions and venture funds around the country that carry federal certification as a community development financial institution, or CDFI, meaning it’s required to make at least 60 percent of its loans to borrowers in low- and moderate-income census tracts.

Read the full article about investing in solutions against racism by Oscar Perry Abello at Shareable.