Community Capital Management Launches Minority Community Advancement Racial Empowerment Strategy (Minority CARES)

Minority CARES anticipates investing over $2 billion over the next five years in market-rate bonds that align with the values of social justice, improvement in the lives of those in historically marginalized communities, and increased economic opportunity for people of color.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL, June 19, 2020: Community Capital Management, Inc. (CCM), a leading fixed income impact investing manager founded in 1999 to help banks direct investments into low-income neighborhoods, announced today the launch of its new initiative, Minority CARES. The strategy  allows institutional and retail investors the opportunity to  direct their fixed income capital to advance racial equality, tackle social disparities, and help build an economy that provides opportunities for everyone from affordable housing to access to capital – the basic building blocks of income equality.

“Launching Minority CARES on Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, seemed appropriate given the recent instances of racial injustice,” said Alyssa Greenspan, CFA, president and COO of CCM. “CCM was actually started as a result of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), where racial discrimination is identified as the first of several social and economic factors that led to the enactment of the CRA.”

Minority CARES utilizes CCM’s investment-grade fixed income impact strategy already available on major platforms and in various impact investing models. It looks to invest in market-rate and well-researched bonds that have direct and measurable positive societal impacts to minority individuals, families, and communities and includes investments made in minority census tracts (greater than 50 percent) along with eight of CCM’s 18 existing impact themes.

“The challenges posed by economic injustice and society’s failure to extend the American Dream to all citizens requires solutions from multiple sources and participants and goes beyond charitable giving, said David Sand, CCM’s chief impact strategist. “Many of the underpinnings of the practices and tools of our sector of the industry can be traced directly to the injustice of redlining in major American cities. Impact investors can do their part to meet the extraordinary demands of our times by finding a place in their portfolios for investments supporting underserved minority communities and minority empowerment.”

As with all CCM investments, those made in Minority CARES will be subject to a strict use of proceeds analysis and tracked within CCM’s proprietary impact database for reporting and transparency. Clients invested in Minority CARES will receive quarterly impact reports on the overall strategy including granular level detail on the ways that minority individuals, businesses, and communities are benefitting from their investment dollars. The impact reports will include spotlights on recent investments along with aggregate impact data.

Greenspan added: “Over the last 20 years, CCM has invested approximately $10 billion in environmental and social outcomes within our 18 themes on behalf of banks, institutional, and retail investors. We anticipate that through Minority CARES, we will be able to invest an additional $2 billion over the next five years on behalf of our clients.”

To learn more, join CCM for a webinar on Thursday, June 25 at 4pm ET. Registration is free and is available here. You can also learn more by downloading a copy of the firm’s two-page overview of Minority CARES here.

Community Capital Management, Inc.

Community Capital Management, Inc. (CCM) is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale with employees in Boston, Charlotte, the New York City area, and Southern California, CCM was founded in 1998 and manages approximately $2.8 billion in assets. The firm believes a fully integrated portfolio – one that includes environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors – can deliver strong financial performance while simultaneously having positive long-term economic and sustainable impact. For more information, please visit: www.ccminvests.com.    

Community Capital Management, Inc. (“CCM”) is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The verbal and written communications of an investment adviser provide you with information you need to determine whether to hire or retain the adviser. Past performance is not indicative of future results. CCM has distinct investment processes and procedures relating to the management of investment portfolios for institutional clients. The firm’s strategies are customized, rather than model-based, and utilize an innovative approach to fixed income and equity by combining the positive outcomes of impact and environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) investing with rigorous financial analysis, an inherent focus on risk management, and transparent research. Bonds are subject to interest rate risk and will decline in value as interest rates rise. Stocks will fluctuate in response to factors that may affect a single company, industry, sector, or the market as a whole and may perform worse than the market. A sustainable investment strategy which incorporates ESG criteria may result in lower or higher returns than an investment strategy that does not include such criteria. A full list of regulatory disclosures for Community Capital Management, Inc. are available by visiting: https://www.ccminvests.com/regulatory-disclosures/.