Thank you to all of our sponsors, speakers, panelists and attendees in making our second annual Financial Equity Summit a huge success.

This year’s Summit featured Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, Connecticut State Treasurer Erick Russell, Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, Jillian White, CEO of Appraisal Insights and Leah Rothstein, co-author of Just Action.  We closed the Summit with an in-person reception at the state’s first Latino brewery, Roundhead Brewing in Hyde Park.

A few numbers from the Summit that caught people’s attention – RI Housing’s First Gen program is reaching 86% people of color; MAHA’s STASH program 97%; and FHLB of Boston’s Lift Up homeownership program 100%. In the small business arena, Boston Impact Initiative’s portfolio consists of 68% business owners of color and 78% of clients at Ascendus are entrepreneurs of color. Our own organizational spend on the Summit was 63% to businesses of color and 51% to woman-owned businesses.

No Summit recap is complete without thanking Karl Renney of Eastern Bank for the unbelievable number of hours he has invested in our organization in the years he has been on the board and especially the last 4 years that he has been chair. We are so indebted to his leadership and his dedication. He’s not going anywhere and remains a valued board member but, for now, thank you Karl for guiding us to be a relevant and impactful organization.