You can see it through our programmatic, research, policy, and communications work, but it doesn’t end there. As an organization, we have the privilege to strategically invest our endowment in ways that offer another type of positive change. This is an area that we continue to grow into, most recently by hiring our first Executive Vice President of Impact Investing, Jill Nowak. And in February of 2023, we announced a new type of financial partnership with a $10 million deposit in St. Louis Community Credit Union (SLCCU).
Our investment in SLCCU’s Community Impact Deposit program fits perfectly into our work to address social determinants of health, in this case by helping break down a long-standing racial wealth divide. Basic banking and loan services are a key element to social mobility in the U.S., and lack of access is yet another way that Black and Latino Americans have been held back from building wealth for themselves and their descendants. The funds will be used to enable a range of consumer loans, payday-loan alternatives, and home loans, as well as a wide variety of business loans from $10,000 to $5 million. We joined an impressive list of partners in this program, with groups like BJC and Edward Jones already contributing.
“We envision an investment portfolio with several interdependent components – each of which expresses the Foundation’s mission and values. Our invested resources will not only sustain the Foundation’s annual awards and operating budgets but will also move us closer to our vision of health equity in our region. Investing in Missouri projects, people, and partners for both social and financial gain is an important component of our mission and an essential component of our investment portfolio.”
“The reality is, your financial health is deeply tied to your physical health, in both visible and invisible ways. This investment represents a new and different approach for us to foster systems change and a more equitable region.”
“For more than 80 years, [SLCCU] has worked to build and maintain trust with families and communities that have been excluded from mainstream banking. We realize there are many communities, particularly communities of color, which have lost out on the opportunity to build and accumulate generational wealth because of barriers created in our economy. It takes strategic partnerships with anchor institutions like Missouri Foundation for Health to ensure that we have adequate lending capital to meet community needs.”
St. Louis Community Credit Union has served the St. Louis region for more than eight decades as one of the few Black-owned minority depository institutions in the Midwest and is one of the largest Black-owned credit unions in the country. As a not-for-profit financial cooperative, the institution is committed to building the financial capacity and capability of all its members, focusing special attention on financially underserved communities.
Like any depository institution, SLCCU depends on the savings of its account holders to be able to lend and sustain its operations. The organization’s ability to grow depends on the economic well-being of its average deposit account holder. At SLCCU, the average member has 33% of the savings of members at peer institutions, which are predominantly made up of white households. This disparity in personal savings means that, despite its relatively large membership base, SLCCU is hundreds of millions of dollars smaller in total assets than its peers. This is a manifestation of the racial wealth divide.
Access to banking is not guaranteed in the U.S., and yet it is a gateway to financial tools that facilitate one’s ability to receive a paycheck, pay bills, establish credit, purchase a car, and build wealth through the accumulation of equity and income by borrowing for a home or business.
Visit stlouiscommunity.com to learn more about or join SLCCU. Click here to explore the impact of SLCCU’s work, including its Community Impact Deposit program.
© 2023 Missouri Foundation for Health
