The investment fund residents govern
Community finance changes direction when residents help decide which businesses and projects receive capital.
Why does this matter? Investment decisions shape which services survive and whose priorities get funded. People living with those consequences often have little influence over the choices.
What changes? The Boston Ujima Project combines community priority-setting with financial review. Members help identify businesses worth supporting, while an investment committee examines proposals before member votes.
Who is working on this now? Ujima’s members, community partners and fund team work to finance businesses, property and infrastructure serving Boston’s working-class Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.
What are the results and consequences? The documented change is decision-making power: members can approve or reject proposed investments. That does not establish that every recipient thrives or every investment earns a return. Community governance still needs careful underwriting, transparent reporting and a way to address conflicts of interest.
What you can do where you are now. Start by asking a local community lender how residents influence lending priorities. Propose a public discussion about one unmet neighborhood need, then ask what decision-making authority residents could hold and how financial and community outcomes would be reported.
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