Community & Economic Development

Rapoza Associates represents some of the country’s leading community development corporations (CDCs), community development financial institutions (CDFIs), and national nonprofit community development organizations committed to building strong and sustainable communities. The firm manages community development-minded coalitions, including the CDFI Coalition the NMTC Coalition, and a national network of CDCs, in addition to working with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAPs). The foundation for these organizations, many of which began as an outgrowth of the war on poverty, is the notion that local communities should launch their own revitalization efforts and that a modest public investment is often all that is needed to attract private-sector capital to communities—if it’s done right.

Getting community investment back on track.

Over the years, federal investments in community development have fallen to the wayside, and many communities are having a difficult time. In fact, there has been a 75 percent reduction in federal investments for community development programs over the last 30 years, as measured as a share of GDP. To combat this trend, the Rapoza team coordinates industry-wide initiatives to increase the availability of capital, credit and financial services to low-income communities across the nation.

A record of achievement.

In 1993, the firm developed the pilot program that led to the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC), which would become the largest new community development program in a generation. Then in 1998, Rapoza Associates worked with the Clinton Administration and its community development clients to establish and support bipartisan legislation, led in Congress by Speaker Hastert, which authorized the tax credit. In 2009, the firm engineered a number of increases for housing and community development programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The firm is also credited with developing and sustaining federal community development funds at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.

See our community development publications