The East Baltimore Revitalization Initiative has been underway since 2001 and is working to revitalize an area of the city that was hard hit by disinvestment and social problems.
Casey used its resources in multiple ways, ranging from grants and social investments to support for resident engagement, funding for workforce development and economic inclusion efforts for minority-owned businesses and technical assistance.
Casey made several innovative investments in the initiative, which led to significant additional investment.
This report provides a concise summary of the East Baltimore Revitalization Initiative, with a focus on how the Annie E. Casey Foundation used innovative financing techniques to support the project. The report provides background on the initiative, which is working to transform an 88-acre area near the Johns Hopkins medical campus that has been hard hit by disinvestment and social problems. The report details transactions that helped finance the initiative and highlights the critical role innovative financing can play in complex redevelopment efforts. The report also offers lessons from these transactions for the philanthropic community, local officials, developers and lenders involved in community development.
Philanthropy can use innovative financing to support community development
The Foundation has used a series of innovative financing techniques to support a major community revitalization effort in East Baltimore. Along with direct grant making, the Foundation used its resources in new ways to generate working capital and other funding for the East Baltimore Revitalization Initiative. The Casey Foundation’s investment of more than $100 million in loans, guarantees and bond purchases leveraged more than $300 million in additional funding — $200 million from public sources, $90 million in other philanthropic support and $40 million in new markets tax credits. The Foundation’s involvement in this project has generated lessons that will help other foundations make innovative investments in similar community development efforts.
Findings & Stats
Using New Markets Tax Credits
In three new-markets-tax-credit transactions totaling more than $50 million, Casey and East Baltimore Development Inc. (EBDI) used Foundation assets to secure funding streams that resulted in the infusion of more than $13 million in equity into EBDI.
Funding Community Development
The proceeds of one financing backed by the Foundation were used to pay for property acquisition, demolition, site preparation, property maintenance and associated staff and interest service expenses in the initiative’s 31-acre core area.
Financing School Construction
The proceeds of a 2009 financing backed by the Casey Foundation were used to partially finance the construction of a new elementary school and early childhood center in the neighborhood.
Statements & Quotations
The Annie E. Casey Foundation in particular has played a major role as a financing partner in the initiative, bringing significant grant funding, executive leadership and creative debt and equity financing. A key component of the project was Casey’s commitment of a $20 million grant, portions of which were used to leverage additional funds through the individual and sometimes collective use of new markets tax credits, tax increment bond financing and innovative philanthropic financing.
The institutional partnership highlighted in this report has been responsible for generating more than $400 million in capital for the initiative, which is fueling the redevelopment and revitalization of the East Baltimore area.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our data, reports and news in your inbox.