Tomorrow is Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the U.S.1 Juneteenth honors freedom, education, and achievements of African Americans across our nation. Earlier this week, the Senate and the House approved a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday and yesterday, President Biden signed Juneteenth into law as an official holiday.2
Last year brought Juneteenth to the forefront with the many disturbing events of racial injustices including the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The protests that took place from these inequalities additionally sparked a declaration of racism as a public health crisis and spotlighted Black Lives Matter, a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against Black people.
It also prompted people to look at ways they could help underserved communities and increase economic opportunity for people of color, including through their investments. Given our longevity in community impact investments, CCM launched its Minority Community Advancement Racial Empowerment Strategy (Minority CARES) on Juneteenth 2020, creating bespoke portfolios focusing on advancing racial equality.
Minority CARES is a blend of eight of CCM’s 18 existing impact themes that allows investors the ability to target and positively impact empowerment for minority individuals, businesses, and communities. Its goal is to invest $2 billion over the next five years in market-rate bonds that align with the values of social justice.
We are proud to share that as of 03/31/21, CCM has invested $578 million in our Minority CARES initiative on behalf of clients. This includes:3
- $387 million invested in 675 unique majority-minority census tracts
- $117 million invested in 135 unique racially/ethnically concentrated areas of poverty (R/ECAP)
- 752 loans to minority borrowers
- 362 loans to minority women borrowers
- 60,220 affordable rental units
In recognition of Juneteenth and the one-year anniversary of Minority CARES, CCM encourages its employees, clients, and friends to honor the holiday with community involvement and education towards social justice and racial equality.
2 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/17/juneteenth-federal-holiday-biden-signs-bill.html
3 Data from launch of the initiative on 6/19/20 to 3/31/21.