Advancing Inclusive Ecosystems for Native Communities
An excerpt from the ImpactAssets 2023 Impact Report highlighting our approach to advancing racial equity.
Closing the $10 trillion racial wealth gap requires an acknowledgement that decision-making power over communities of color has historically been concentrated among groups disconnected from the ultimate impacts of those decisions. Consider, for example, that 86% of Indigenous lands with energy or mineral potential remain undeveloped because of controls preventing Indigenous communities from fully capitalizing on their natural resources if they so choose.
Whether the decision-making power concerns investment choices, philanthropic strategies, or other types of resource allocation and approaches, ImpactAssets believes that power must reside in the communities most affected. This is the
advancement of inclusive ecosystems: placing a focus not only on increasing diverse representation in leadership, but also on scaling alternative business ownership models and elevating underrepresented voices in myriad other ways.
This is why, together with our clients, ImpactAssets invests in organizations like Oweesta, the longest-running Native CDFI (community development financial institution) intermediary offering financial products and development services exclusively to Native CDFIs and Native communities. By providing training, technical assistance, investments, research, and policy advocacy, Oweesta helps Native people assert greater control over their own economic futures.
This impact story originally appeared in our 2023 Impact Report.
Photos courtesy of OWEESTA, an ImpactAssets racial equity portfolio investment.
