Five Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) led organizations were recently awarded $50,000 each in grants from the New Orleans Community Development Organization (CDO) Fund. The five nonprofits join eight local black-led organizations awarded $750,000 in critical operating support when the CDO Fund program launched in June.
As anchors of their neighborhoods, these groups will use the funding to enhance their work and support their communities throughout the recovery from Covid-19 and Hurricane Ida. The CDO Fund is part of our Equitable Path Forward initiative to dismantle the deeply-rooted legacy of systemic racism in housing and community development.
The New Orleans CDO Fund is supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, Kresge Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the WK Kellogg Foundation. Modeled after a similar fund in Detroit that launched in 2020, the fund provides flexible operating support and technical assistance.
“BIPOC-led community organizations have always been essential in New Orleans, and they proved invaluable over the past year as our neighborhoods weathered the economic and health impacts of Covid-19,” said Michelle Whetten, vice president and Gulf Coast market leader, Enterprise. “We are thrilled to bring this funding model to New Orleans after seeing its success in Detroit, particularly as we work toward the goals of our Equitable Path Forward Initiative. We are thankful for our like-minded funders—Ford, Kresge, GNOF, JPMorgan Chase and now Kellogg—for making this resource possible.”
As Enterprise’s CDO Fund model continues to expand across the country, first in Detroit and now into New Orleans, grantees participate in virtual gatherings where they can share information and experience that will help them to best support their communities. The New Orleans and Detroit executive directors met together virtually in November to connect and share best practices.
The five New Orleans community organizations receiving support through the expansion of the CDO Fund are:
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MQVN CDC
“Since the founding of our organization, Enterprise has been on a journey with us to provide not just technical support, but much needed guidance in learning and growing as practitioners in service to the community and truly advance racial equity. Period. As we continue to grow, we’re using our full organizational selves to use finance and technical know-how as tools to innovate our senior housing project in ways that leverage diversity, equity and inclusion to spark innovation,” said MQVN CDC Interim Director James Bui.