February always feels too short to me, erratic weather aside. There’s a renewed urgency leading up to spring, especially poignant with Lunar New Year and Black History Month.
I was honored to join The Brookings Institution for a panel discussion on the state of Black businesses in America in partnership with the Path to 15|55 initiative. The panel amplified a new Brookings report taking a regional lens on Black business ecosystems. Catch the recap here.
Though our team continues to expand across the country, we are still passionate about our home base of San Diego and our flagship fund Advance. We recently launched the Advance Advisory Committee with 10 regional business owners and community leaders. They are enthusiastic about helping us flow capital to underserved and overlooked communities and create more inclusive economic opportunity. Meet them here!
Also rooted in place, we’re thrilled to share Child Care Next Door, a short video that we produced with support from the National Children’s Facilities Network about the importance of family child care homes. The dire lack of available child care in this country requires all the tools in the proverbial toolbox. Check out our innovative, inclusive approach of investing in homes, and let us know what you think!
Lastly, this little month of February brought a big change as our founding Chief Financial Officer Nancy A. O’Leary rides off into her well-deserved retirement. We are so fortunate that Nancy helped us build an incredible back office—and trained 3+ teammates to follow in her footsteps. Unlike many CFO stereotypes, Nancy embodied our core value of humor, and I’m infinitely grateful for it and for her.
Stay well and take care of one another,
Lauren Grattan
Co-founder & Chief Community Officer
