Reinvestment Fund Spring Newsletter
Reinforcing Our Commitment as We Look to the Next 40 Years
As Reinvestment Fund marks our 40th anniversary, we are proud to continue to focus on our mission and the community. Our recently launched “Why” Campaign, a year-long, multi-media campaign, proudly reinforces our commitment to building equitable, thriving communities through research, reinvestment, and rebuilding for lasting impact.
“Reinvestment Fund has had the opportunity to work and serve our community for 40 years, an accomplishment we are deeply proud of. During those 40 years, we’ve seen that change doesn’t happen overnight—it happens one investment, one policy, one community at a time,” said Patricia Smith, co-founding chair of Reinvestment Fund’s Board of Directors.
Smith joined Eva Gladstein and Joyce Wilkerson for the 7th Annual Jeremy Nowak Memorial Lecture to share insights into the founding of Reinvestment Fund and to reflect on the powerful relationships, social movements, and vision that laid its foundation.
“We are grounded in our mission of creating opportunity for underserved people and places as we continue to expand our work to reach more communities and connect with more partners who share our commitment to an equitable future,” said Don Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO at Reinvestment Fund. “As we look forward to the next 40 years of service, our team and partners are ready to take on new and bigger challenges in the coming weeks, months, and years with one investment, one community, one neighborhood, and one dream at a time.”
During this milestone anniversary year, Reinvestment Fund will focus on three key pillars: research, reinvestment, and rebuilding for change. These focus areas speak to our unwavering dedication to fostering economic opportunity, advancing community resilience, and ensuring lasting social progress.
Mother’s Day Matters: Shaping Futures with Investments in Early Childhood Education
For many moms, Mother’s Day is an annual opportunity to be pampered by our children. Despite these celebrations of love and gratitude for moms, there remains a stark reminder of the support that mothers still need: access to high-quality early childhood education (ECE).
“For working parents ECE is a necessary piece of community infrastructure that requires sustained, thoughtful public investment to function and grow.”
Balancing work and caregiving is not only a daily struggle for millions of mothers and their families but also a billion dollar cost to our communities. Three of Reinvestment Fund’s leaders – Emily Dowdall, Christina Szczepanski and Sara Vernon Sterman share how their own personal and professional experiences reinforced how crucial reliable, quality childcare is to a family’s well-being, a child’s long-term success and a community’s economic health.
Expanding Opportunity for Children and Families in Central Florida
Reinvestment Fund is proud to support United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Central Florida to create a transformative new home for its Osceola campus. Located in downtown Kissimmee, the more than $30 million project will significantly expand access to high-quality education and pediatric therapy services for children, particularly those with disabilities and developmental delays from predominantly low-income and Latinx families.
The new 38,000-square-foot facility will house an inclusive K–5 charter school, an outpatient therapy clinic, an early childhood education program, and an inclusive before- and after-school care. Once completed, the campus will increase UCP’s enrollment capacity by 30%, helping meet a critical need for inclusive services and fostering an environment where every child can thrive in Osceola County.
“UCP of Central Florida’s new campus represents exactly the kind of transformative community investment that Reinvestment Fund is committed to advancing,” said Donna Leuchten Nuccio, Senior Director of Lending at Reinvestment Fund.
With strong community support and sustainable design features, this project represents a major step toward building a healthier, more equitable future. Reinvestment Fund is honored to provide financing through a $12 million leverage source loan and $9 million of New Market Tax Credits to help bring this vision to life.
Read the full story to learn more about how this investment will create a lasting impact for children and families across Central Florida.
News & Resources
- Welcome to new staff Grace Chang, Ramon Estevez, and Yeanny Pena.
- The Seventh Annual Jeremy Nowak Memorial Lecture, “Founding Visions: A Journey of Collaboration and Impact,” was hosted by Reinvestment Fund and the Penn Institute for Urban Research. The recording is available now.
- Southeast Food Forward is a new grant opportunity that offers funding for community-driven food enterprises increasing healthy food access in underserved communities across the Southeastern United States. Applications are due May 13, 2025.
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities have long been pillars of excellence, resilience, and opportunity. Forbes highlighted Reinvestment Fund’s HBCU Brilliance Initiative, which aims to increase the impact of HBCUs through grants, technical assistance, and strategic support.
- Wide Angle Youth Media’s new creative hub in Baltimore is officially open. Reinvestment Fund is proud to support this transformative vision and celebrate its lasting impact on the community.
- Reinvestment Fund’s report “Evidence of Racial Bias in Home Appraisals in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area” uses public data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) to analyze home appraisals in the Baltimore metropolitan area from 2013-2022.
- The Montgomery County Government commissioned Reinvestment Fund to study the early childhood education landscape across Montgomery County, Maryland. The analysis shows how childcare costs drive many family decisions around childcare, and found a particular shortage of infant and toddler care across the county.
- According to Reinvestment Fund’s recently released report, “Estimating Changes in the Supply of and Demand for Child Care in Philadelphia,” more than 3,000 new high-quality childcare seats were added between 2023 and 2024—the second largest year-over-year increase since 2014.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer referenced findings from Reinvestment Fund’s report Mortgage Lending Activity in the Philadelphia Metro Area. It includes 2023 data released through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).